For many writers, November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. The goal is to finish a 50,000 word first draft of a novel by the end of the month. I am not writing a novel, but I am taking advantage of the collective energy to do a modified NaNoWriMo for my memoir.

I don’t expect that I can keep up with writing 1667 words a day for 30 days. In fact, I’m already behind, but I am writing more than I normally would, and I’m finally feeling the pull toward daily writing. In the most recent pages I sent to my book coach, I included a snippet of one of my poems that illustrates the Taoist concept of empty space.

            a reed raft, a reed flute
            both useful in their hollowness.

She googled the words of my poem, “Surrender,” and she was able to find it published on Hospital Drive. Her interest made me revisit the poem. I had forgotten that it was an ars poetica. Here’s the final stanza:

            Craft & current carry me.
            The less I struggle,
            The more the river takes me
            where I want to go. 

With these most recent pages, my coach thinks I may be writing a spiritual memoir. Last January, at a Murphy Writing workshop led by Judith Lindbergh, I first heard that my memoir excerpt could be part of a spiritual memoir. Today I did some research on what this means.

I found a website by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew. In Ms. Andrew’s discussion of the spiritual memoir, she initially makes a distinction between literary and spiritual memoir, saying that spiritual memoir is about uncovering what is sacred within a life story.

She also notes that writing itself becomes a means for spiritual growth. She ends by saying though, that without solid writing tools, without revision to strengthen the narrative, the writer won’t succeed in sharing with the reader what’s been learned from examining life in this way.

Callings

So, maybe I am writing a spiritual memoir. My coach has gotten to know me through the pages I have sent her. She points out that I’ve responded to several callings in my life.

I answered calls to go into the military, to become a physician, to go into Infectious Diseases during a time when there was no effective treatment for HIV. To sustain myself as a physician, I became a poet, and now a prose writer. My coach is helping me to find the moments in my life that are sacred and true.

Question: Which relationship to writing appeals to you more? Are you up to the marathon challenge of NaNoWriMo (or 30 poems in 30 days) or do you prefer a contemplative approach? Or can you embrace both paths? Leave a comment below and let me know.