Sue Monk Kidd’s Gorgeous New Memoir
In last Friday’s message, I mentioned I was in the beautiful, delicious throes of the final pages of a really good book. Then, my reading time got away from me this week, as reading time is wont to do (mostly because of a certain guilty pleasure YA series I can’t seem to put down right now ~ no judgment, right?).
Then, yesterday afternoon, after the parade coverage ended, the half-eaten turkeys, hams, casseroles, and pumpkin pies were packed away in the fridge, and everyone had retreated to their rooms for a bit of alone time, I settled down on the couch and finished that really good book, Sue Monk Kidd’s gorgeous new memoir Writing Creativity and Soul ⤵
On the day I found this book on the shelf of my favorite indie bookshop in Portland, I hadn’t really been looking for something new to read, certainly not a memoir. I had plenty of other books I was reading at the time, and memoirs take extra care, attention, and ultimately take longer to read for me. Since I also didn’t have extra attention or time lying around at that moment, I don’t know why I even picked it up.
But the moment I held it in my hands, I felt an old, familiar zing. A knowing. That deep, dear longing sensation telling me that something important was lying within these pages.
Something I need to learn.
Something to help me grow.
That zing was absolutely right, as it always is. Although I dare say the zing may have been righter than it’s ever been before, because this book has so deeply impacted me that I’m having trouble explaining just how deep the impact goes. But I’ll try my best here to explain what I mean in five little things . . .
#1
Writing Creativity and Soul makes creativity feel like a birthright.
The book is organized into four beautiful sections entitled Moorings, Mystery, Method, and Meaning. In each of these sections, Sue Monk Kidd artfully weaves her personal life story and artist journey into every word and somehow makes the reader feel like she’s just been given the secret sauce behind every book Sue Monk Kidd has ever written. She was a nurse who decided she couldn’t not write anymore, so she started writing nonfiction. It helped. But it wasn’t enough. Then, after many starts and stops, The Secret Life of Bees was born. And some would say the rest is history, but it’s not. In Writing Creativity and Soul, the how is explained. The method and madness right there for everyone to learn from. The sausage-making dissected. It’s a thing of beautiful, new possibility for all who have ever wanted (or tried) to write a story but quickly felt at a loss.
#2
Writing Creativity and Soul makes reading feel like exploration.
With every page I read, I wanted another hundred just like it. Around the half-way mark, I found myself having looked up every other title written by Sue Monk Kidd so many times that I could no longer resist buying some. As a result, I’ll be reading The Dance of the Dissident Daughter next (started it this week!) and then When the Heart Waits. Both of which I was able to snag on Thriftbooks for under $10 (links here if you’re interested). Both of which are nonfiction accounts of Sue Monk Kidd’s personal development learnings and reflections. It may take me a year or more to read and fully process them. I would try to tell you how excited that makes me, but I think you already know.
#3
Writing Creativity and Soul makes writing feel like craft.
Since starting to write consistently and publicly six and a half years ago (and thereby starting to feel like a “real” writer more and more, if there is such a thing), I have a small cadre of writing teachers who advise and influence me. These teachers speak to me from the pages of their well-known and well-loved books on writing that I keep handy at all times and revisit when I feel my creativity well running dry. Until now, those have consisted of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, and On Writing by Stephen King. After today, my small cadre of writing teachers includes Sue Monk Kidd, and my small stack of well-known and well-loved books on writing has grown by one to include Writing Creativity and Soul. It will sit at the top for at least a while.
#4
Writing Creativity and Soul prompts deep soul questions.
While reading this book, on more than a few occasions, I found myself copying lines, quotes, questions, and whole passages directly from its pages into my own journals and notecards and then thinking on them for hours, days, and now weeks, at this point. They left me inspired, challenged, activated, pensive.
Although I’ve published and sold two nonfiction books thus far, been paid small stipends to write articles for both physical and online magazines several times, and am grateful to say I’ve published at least one article on my blog nearly every Friday morning since April 4, 2019, (archived here), I’m deeply aware that I haven’t yet written what I’m meant to be writing. I have at least five half-started book proposals saved in my Google Drive, along with at least four half-written nonfiction manuscripts. I also am the not-so-proud owner of six notebooks filled with ideas and first pages of fictional stories I’ve begun and quickly abandoned due to the lack of confidence that I can actually write the type of story anyone would want to spend time reading.
So, of course, Sue Monk Kidd’s telling how she came to be a writer (and stay a writer) left me thinking that if she can do it, then so can I. Now I have some excuse-dismantling to tackle.
#5
Writing Creativity and Soul fits Sue Monk Kidd’s exquisite body of work.
This isn’t the first time Sue Monk Kidd’s work has impacted me deeply. I, of course, read The Secret Life of Bees a couple of decades ago and loved it. I also fell in love with the travel memoir she published with her daughter in 2009, Traveling with Pomegranates, which is currently on my TBRR (to-be-re-read) list.
Then, in the summer of 2022, I ran across an interview Sue Monk Kidd gave with Jonathan Fields on the Good Life Project Podcast, and it impacted me so deeply I wrote an article about it called “A Togetherness Tip from Sue Monk Kidd” (linked here).
Also, Sue Monk Kidd grew up in a small Georgia town less than two hours from the small Georgia town where I grew up. She left a similar Southern Protestant fundamentalism as I did. She embarked on a deep personal development journey and kept her heart open despite the things she uncovered, as I have tried to. She loves Carl Jung ~ someone who keeps popping up wherever I turn these days. And whenever I read her writing voice in her nonfiction work or hear it in an interview snippet of any sort, I feel an inexplicably deep connection to her. A feeling so strong that I’ve often turned away from it in the past, if I’m honest. Something about her reminds me of my mom. I love her for that.
Writing Creativity and Soul feels like a deeply trusted, well-loved family friend has just sat me down for a soul chat, the results of which I’ll be pondering the rest of my days.
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If you, my dear, are someone who has ever thought you might possibly, maybe, potentially, could want to write something, somehow, someday, I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend reading this book. Especially if you’re afraid. Especially if you have no idea how to even get started and your doubt rises up every time you even think about putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Especially if you’d never dream of telling anyone, not even your partner or closest friend, that you want to write.
Trust me.
Read it.
I promise you’ll thank me.
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Also, happy #OptOutside day! 🌲
I couldn’t let today pass us by without mentioning that today I’ll be hitting the trail for some much-needed nature therapy, along with throngs of others who despise shopping so much that we’ve already ordered or made all of our holiday gifts for this year rather than setting foot in any crowded stores and we insist on celebrating such an accomplishment by spending the day after Thanksgiving (aka. Black Friday) outdoors as much as the cold winds allow, calling it #OptOutside day.
If you’re interested in this crunchy holiday tradition, I’ve written about it a few times before (links below). . .
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I hope you find so many beautiful things along your path this weekend. And should you want to share, I’m just an email away. Always.
💛
Celeste
did AI write this? nope, this lady did ⤴ always💛