Lectio Divina on Our Typos
Three prompts for a playful writing practice from Pádraig Ó Tuama's In the Shelter
Welcome to Slant Letter’s spring seasonal intensive! Become a paid subscriber to join our full close reading of Pádraig Ó Tuama’s In the Shelter for an editor’s annotated insights on an extraordinary meditation on the stories that shape us. These will be exclusive letters sent straight to you running from the end of March through May.
What we’ve covered and where we’re going:
1. “The stories that shelter us”—on introducing your extended metaphor or title concept
2. Finding the courage to name “here”—on locating yourself and your reader within the story
3. I, we, you—on changing tense as art form
4. Lectio Divina on our typos—prompts for a playful writing practice
5. Stories that read us—on creative reciprocity
6. Greeting the day—on commissioning your reader
The most resonant writing will always be a braid of I, we, and you, because ultimately we are all in this human experience together. But how do you know when to use which voice? Discerning when to change your narrative tense is an art form.
I’m an annotative reader—I mark up my margins, usually with hearts and exclamation points, or a “hmm” if I’m not sure. Every so often, a graph will elicit a “haha!” and that’s what got me on page 100 of my edition of In the Shelter, because clearly
was bold enough to share his creative mistakes with us and let us in on the joke of his own mishaps.Today we’re drawing from a miscellany of writing techniques as showcased in Pádraig’s work, offering us three prompts for our own creative practice.
Prompt #1: Sacred Listening to Your Creative “Mistakes”
Prompt #2: “In Other Words”
Prompt #3 Snapshot that tells the whole
Let’s take a closer look: