When Writing Feels Like Play: The Hermit Crab Essay.
“Sometimes, the more constraints we give ourselves, the more fun we can have . . . the rules give your intellectual mind something to concentrate on, and then your subconscious mind can come out to play. The time limit quiets the inner censor and forces you to keep writing whatever comes out.”
~Brenda Miller~
I first read about hermit crabs in Barbara Kingsolver’s essay collection, High Tide in Tucson. In the title story about a stowaway crustacean, Kingsolver creates a lively lyrical first-person narrative in which the crab becomes a metaphor for how creatures habituate to their environments.
Indeed, the hermit crab makes good metaphor. When you feel cramped, find a new shell to call home. Keep your plump red belly undercover. Adapt.
Turns out the hermit crab is also a trendy form for writing personal narrative. The form was coined by writer Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, authors of Tell it Slant. Miller writes about the hermit crab essay in, “The Shared Space Between Reader and Writer: A Case Study,” in the Brevity on-line journal. By using an existing form, writers are often able to discover a new voice and content. Miller says, “I feel a kind of transformation happening, a new perspective, a moment of forgiveness. It’s odd to feel this in one’s writing, to feel so…
