Writing Metamorphosis: Purple Butterflies Dance to Jazz
I love writing –metamorphosis is my life. I’m the writer who pours her heart into words to tell stories readers will relate to and connect with while reading them.
These poems and short stories came to life during my undergrad years between 2002 and 2005. They were tucked away deep within the shallow depths of my soul and “chrysalis.”
I did not know these words existed in my mind until my college professors challenged me. Hence, their push-backs began my metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis & Butterflies
At first glance, my experience strictly aligns with the meaning of metamorphosis.
I underwent a (mental) process by which my thinking and writing developed through a new “birth” or “hatching,” involving a “conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in its structure through growth and differentiation.”
While trapped in the chrysalis, “the old body parts of a caterpillar transforming,” I could feel convictions for writing from an authentic place in my heart.
Interestingly, I didn’t have these convictions in my parent’s home. My parents invested and enrolled me in the proper schools to nurture my creative gifts.
They noticed my gifts to sing, play instruments, dance, and write poems.
Moreover, these jewel’s put me in front of reputable teachers and mentors to grow and cultivate my abilities.
However, as I grew older and learned things from the traditional church, specific convictions constrained me to change my lifestyle. I feared not living a “godly” life. Therefore, I hid all of my gifts.
Mental Metamorphosis & All That Jazz
While attending mandatory, creative writing classes in college, confusion about what to write and how to write it became my worst enemy.
My writings were the only ones in class to talk about God, reference the bible and church.
My classmates would write alluring poems and short stories from authentic connections to their experiences.
They weren’t afraid to write about sex, alcohol, parties, and mere life enjoyments.
I remember barely scratching the surface of the blank canvas.
Feeling limited and restricted due to religious practices and training from the church.
Sex-talk, questioning, living, and writing “secularly” was a no-no. It’s taboo and hushed with a holy seal.
Convictions gripped my heart, fears flooded my soul, and inner-being because of too many constraints.
Something had to give. I had to allow this writing metamorphosis.
So, I decided to take the leap and shift my thinking with the help of my college professors and other notable writers. I put my trust in their guidance, lectures, and teachings.
My writing comes from the chrysalis to the page due to a liberating experience in my Intermediate Creative Writing and Advanced poetry classes while in undergrad.
Both Paul Genega and Patrick Rosal played intricate roles in my freedom.
Sometimes the right people enter your life to challenge you and your writings enough to pull out the best in you.
These perfect teachers prepared me for the world of writing. Thus, they instilled the best motivation for daily writing.
Both classes were eclectic with challenges and dared potential writers to take many risks to be transparent. It taught me how to write prose and verse freely.
Writing from the heart requires freedom.
Being liberated to write from the heart is righteous. The prolific writer, Alice Walker, once said,
The most healthy thing is to be true to your own self, quoting—who was it, Hamlet?—but also, that you have a right to express what you see and what you feel and what you think. To be bold. To be as bold with your vision as you can possibly be.
She’s right.
I have every right to say and include in my writings anything I want. Writing from a real place in the heart allows people to connect with you better.
People can feel authenticity and realness, just like you and me. And, when you’re walking and writing from a place of freedom, nothing means more than this.
Allow me to explain what this means for my heart and life.
I feel freedom. I’m free from fears and the constraints of religious chains and dogmas that tell you not to think like the “world.”
Guess this means they have the power to take my “salvation” according to their definition, standards, and terms of the agreement.
I now have new sanity and salvation on the sexiest blank canvases every morning. We have a continuous intimacy of love creating–creations of real tongue-talking climaxes.
I love every drip and drop of being fluid-like silky velvet. So, I’ve destroyed what some believe would cause me to go astray.
Writing from the heart didn’t prevent me from becoming an incredible writer of nonfiction and fiction.
Here’s the beauty of it all.
Writing, coupled with its genres are alluring. I now understand how many writers use their gifts. And only feel gripped with anxieties and lack of motivation when they can’t write or express themselves however they choose.
When I finally let go of the boundaries, as I released the brakes of religion, I began to read, critique, and model the works of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Patrick Rosal, Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, plus many more.
I began to write on an elevated level, which involves applying many crafting techniques.
After looking at other works of fiction from such incredible writers, I learned how to apply similar styles to my craft. My eyes are keen and able to recognize literary techniques.
The mechanics of fiction has enabled me to efficiently develop characters, foreshadowing, point of view, theme, tone, atmosphere, etc.
Verse, on the other hand, taught how to use metaphors, similes, rhyme, enjambment, wordplay, alliteration, stanza breaks, rhythm, and more. These techniques continue to perfect my writing.
I feel secure. I have a beautifully adorned blanket over my heart-writings for safety. I am ready for the world of writers, as I have developed my style and feel confident.
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