My sister Polly Simpkins was just born inspiring. Even as a small child people were drawn to her generosity of spirit and gentle way. Everything she does causes the people around her to be lifted up and do better things. So when Polly offered to throw one of her beading parties for my two daughters for their October birthdays we knew it would be an experience, but I was reluctant to tear myself away from my writing shed. I had characters to develop. Arcs and scenes to plot.
“You’ll be surprised where it takes you with your writing,” Polly said. “It’s time well spent.”
When we arrived at her house Polly started our session by telling us how she started her beading journey. She’d met a man on a European rail trip who told her about the Indian custom of making a bead necklace to symbolize a lifetime of experiences and relationships.
Each bead represents a different person or event that is important in that life. When she returned to the states she strung her own necklace, heavy with a fascinating collection of the people in her life, and has helped hundreds of others to do the same.
According to Polly, exploring our relationships and our life story is central to our writing overall. “I tend to journal a lot and the beads are a tangible way of focusing on and illustrating different people’s significance in our own life journey. By taking the time to meditate and immerse myself in different memories, stories and path taken helps me develop characters and articulate the voice inside, which to me is the ultimate purpose of putting pen to paper.”
Donald Maass had similar advice in his wonderful Writing 21st Century Fiction, in which he suggests using plot layers to add depth to literary scenes. “They can be life issues, inter-personal puzzles, family conflicts, looming decisions, or any nasty nugget that’s not easily resolved or overcome.” Since Polly encourages her beaders to include both the good and bad people in our lives I hoped it would it be a good way to revisit some helpful life issues and nasty nuggets in my life. Prime plot layering material.
Maass also writes: “If your raw material is a mess, you can ask yourself which parts of the story get to you. The stuff that stirs you up emotionally is the important stuff. The strongest responses for which we’re wired are the ones with gut emotional appeal. An act of betrayal, forgiveness, surrender of love, the death of a child…we could go on. The point is to find that gut-grabbing material and find a way for it to become primary to your story…gut-grabbing story ideas can arise from family history, obscure news stories, or intriguing footnotes discovered during research.”
I was ready to be stirred up emotionally. To mine my family history.
The beading process starts with a cleansing ceremony and a quiet reflection time to think of the people, places and events that have impacted your life, in good and bad ways, and write them down.
A cleansing with sage sticks starts off the beading journey.
Once we developed our lists, we sifted through Polly’s gorgeous collection of beads, searching for the perfect one to represent each person and place on our lists.
I chose a pink rhinestoned globe to represent Polly.
Three celestial orbs to represent my children.
I put four of my book’s characters on my necklace, since, though they’re fictional, they’ve become important people to me.
Once strung, each necklace is a lovely summary of a life, with the people and major events side-by-side. We were struck by how our new necklaces were unique to each of us and how cathartic the process was. The simple act of choosing a bead for a lost loved one brings a whole range of emotions and memories to the surface.
Katherine tells us who each bead represents
By the end of our beading journey with Polly we were not only high on the joy of appreciating those in our lives (and the amazing cupcakes) but I realized how helpful the process had been writing-wise.
Examining the people and relationships I’ve had really did help me mine my life for emotional book material. It dredged up several once-forgotten gut-grabbing stories and some perfect “nasty nuggets” I’m eager to use in book scenes, especially helpful during the incubation phase of bringing a book to life.
Plus, just sifting through Polly’s beautiful boxes of beads was a lesson in all things tactile. Using every sense to study the beads so closely, to notice the details in order to choose the perfect shape and texture to represent a person, gave me a whole new take on writing descriptions of characters, settings, every kind of object (something I’m always up for working on.) After focusing so long on the qualities of each bead, color, heft and texture, I started looking at everything with extra focus.
I found stringing the beads together is like assembling a cast of characters in a novel, each one unique, and arranging them to tell a story. I’m outlining a new book now and it really helps to consider what kind of a bead would best represent each new character.
So if you want to work on your descriptions, mine your own experience for book scenes, want help fleshing out specific characters or just want to improve your tactile sense, try beading. You may be surprised where it takes your writing.
