Thursday, May 03, 2012

Dreaming, Creating, Writing

I've loved Madeline L'Engle since I've been a little girl. Actually, I first loved her novel, A Wrinkle in Time. Now I love her non-fiction. She speaks to me as a dear, old friend whose wise counsel is calming.

This year A Wrinkle in Time is celebrating it's 50th anniversary. I may have read it as a new release. (!) The cover is familiar to me, and I still remember how I was transformed to another world while reading it -- bliss.

These days I'm enjoying her non-fiction book, Walking on Water, Reflections on Faith and Art. 

Today's reading discussed dreaming, creating, and writing. "In the creative act we can experience the same freedom we know in dreams. This happens as I write a story. I am bound by neither time nor space. . . When we are writing or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colours are brighter, sounds clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize."

I totally get what she's saying. Sometimes while writing, the fictional world becomes more real to me than actual reality. Once I was writing a winter scene, and when I looked out my window at a white flowerbed, I actually saw it as snow on the ground. Of course in the blink of an eye the snow disappeared, and summer's white flowers came into focus.

Madeline's book has a place of honor on my bookshelf. Perhaps I've started reading it again  because I'm also writing a time travel novel. Her book gives me courage to create something otherworldly, and I like that.

What about you? Does the creative act free you to enter into a new dimension? And also, did you read A Wrinkle in Time as a child too?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Megan, I've never read A Wrinkle in Time, but you've piqued my curiosity! Now it's on my TBR list. I agree wholeheartedly with what she said. Writing frees me to create, dream, ponder, and sound much better than I talk. :)

Megan DiMaria said...

I hope you enjoy it, Donna. It's probably been close to 50 years since I've read it. :)

Danica Favorite said...

She's my favorite writer, and I love Walking on Water. Her nonfiction is even better than her fiction.

Megan DiMaria said...

Thanks for joining the conversation, Danica. I get such a feeling of comfort when I read her non-fiction. She's someone I'd love to have been able to share a meal with.

Beth K. Vogt said...

Confession: I have never read A Wrinkle in Time. I bought a copy a year or so ago and it's in my TBR pile. I am now putting it on my summer reading list. Check with me,please?

Megan DiMaria said...

I'm thinking of re-reading it, Beth. All I know is about 50 years ago I loved it.

Paula said...

She's one of my heroes, too, Megan. I didn't read the book until I was a college graduate, though. I tried it as a teenager and it freaked me out. I was WAY in a box back them. When I read it my first year as a public school teacher, I was deeply affected, wrote her, and received a wonderful, personal reply.