Yesterday I took my toddler on a date to a bagel bakery for lunch. After I ordered our Tuna Melt on multigrain, the young man behind the counter asked me how many days overdue I am with my baby. When I told him that I still had a few weeks to go his chin literally dropped and he said, "No way." Others have told me that I'll be sure to have my baby early, if my stomach expands anymore in the horizontal direction then it will be the center of my sense of equilibrium. Two days ago someone asked me if I was expecting twins! No, just one baby, but pretty much all of my weight gain with this pregnancy has been in my belly carrying my baby!! At the doctor's office yesterday I saw a woman who was at 40 weeks and my belly looked like a gigantic beach ball compared to her soft round oval. Amazing how every woman's body during pregnancy takes on a different shape, but we all share one thing in common, roundness!
A writer-mama can relate to roundness or the circular shape in more ways than just the expanding belly during pregnancy, the cute round tummy of a toddler, or the curves of our bodies as we get older. Circles are also commonly found in literature. While other shapes aren't described as often, writers and storytellers have used circles for many years.
Here are some of the ways I've come up with for how we use circles in our writing:
- Circle of Life: birth - life - death - rebirth
- Literature Circles: a circle of writers discussing a piece of writing
- Universal Truths: the essential truths of humanity found in all literature
- Circle Plot Structure: ending a story back at the beginning
- Ripples in a Pond: a character/an action and its effects
- A Quartered Circle (in fourths): represents earth, water, air, and fire (the elements)
- Yin Yang (polarity): light/dark, male/female, positive/negative, good/evil
- Revolutions Around a Center: sun, soul, spiritual beliefs
- Encompass/Encircle : the meaning of a surrounding shape as a detail (e.g., a river around a village, fenced in, surrounded by a ring of family and friends, a ring on a finger, etc)
When I am working on writing a story I sometimes get lost in the details of the plot, the dialogue, or the character description, but taking a step back to view the piece as a whole helps me to look at it as a piece of literary writing. What meanings, truths have been central to the writing? What imagery does the writing as a whole bring to mind? Some times I find that I've used the image of a circle effectively and it helps to tie the writing together.
How have you used the image of a circle in your writing? Have you used the idea of trinity behind a triangle in your writing?
5 comments:
Every time I visit you ask such thought provoking good questions! Circles, yes I have used them as a symbol in my books, mostly based upon the wedding ring being the ultimate never-ending circle binding people together (or sometimes breaking them apart too). A child as well being what binds a choice and someone's decisions, coming full circle to responsibility.
I never really thought of it before in those terms of circles of plot, starting at the end being the beginning and circling around. Interesting idea. I like that one.
This is why I am not a writer and only an aspiring writer...because I have a hard time stepping back and looking at the whole story and bringing it to a close!!! :) But I'm really good at writing in the middle!
Sorry I was writing from my other account...
Hi Kimberly! Great to learn about you and your blog on The International Mom's Blog! I gave birth in September and had maybe two months of folks thinking I was overdue before I actually was...As a writer who is accustomed to feeling like the invisible observer, it was a very strange feeling to be so publicly "showing!" I'm curious what your experience is with that!
Thanks ladies for sharing your ideaas with me!
I hadn't really thought about 'what binds a choice and someone's decisions,' but it's so true and a good thing to consider in writing!
It's very easy for me to get lost inside a book I'm writing, so I think it helps that I was first a painter before a writer and my art teachers taught me to continually step away from the canvas. This action in the middle of a bigger action is harder to do with writing for me it seems, so I'm still working on it!
Sage, I'm thrilled you stopped by today as I know you are busy with your blog tour. The International Mom has a great blog, so I was happy to see you on there. Your comment about being an invisible observer getting lots of attention during pregnancy is SO TRUE for me, too! I swear on my wedding day I practically sprinted down the aisle because I was shy of all the eyes on me. Now I have eyes on my belly! It's fun because the focus is on a new life, not me, but it still is a strange feeling to have people staring at me wherever I go! But soon they'll all be staring at a newborn, including me :) Congrats on your newborn's arrival in September!
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