Time to write

“I only write when I am

inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.” -William Faulkner

There once was a time when I thought I could only write when I was depressed. This did not bode well for my writing career–or maybe for my future mental health. Thankfully, I have since found I can indeed write in any kind of mood. It is a matter of sitting down and doing it. Granted, sometimes it turns out better than others, sometimes I end out deleting everything the following day, but even that is a sort of priming the pump. As John Cleese mentioned in his speech about creativity, sometimes in order to know what an elephant is, you have to chisel away the non-elephant parts.

For the most part, I have found that inspiration comes AFTER I’ve sat down and started writing. It is the act of writing–or painting or drawing or whatever–that brings about the desired inspiration. As  Michael Michalko says in his post, Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creativity,

3.      You must go through the motions of being creative. When you are producing ideas, you are replenishing neurotransmitters linked to genes that are being turned on and off in response to what your brain is doing, which in turn is responding to challenges. When you go through the motions of trying to come up with new ideas, you are energizing your brain by increasing the number of contacts between neurons. The more times you try to get ideas, the more active your brain becomes and the more creative you become. If you want to become an artist and all you did was paint a picture every day, you will become an artist. You may not become another Vincent Van Gogh, but you will become more of an artist than someone who has never tried.

How many times do we put limitations on ourselves and our creativity? We can only paint if we are happy, we can only compose if we are “in the mood”, we can only write at night, or in the morning, or when we are drunk. The list goes on. Yup, there is no magic formula on when or how to be creative, but the more we try it, the more chance we have at discovering the elephant and not just the “not-elephant.”

Your World

Number 10 in Michael Michalko‘s post is “You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are.” I love this point even though it can be both good and bad. Take the idea that I can only write when I am depressed. This is not true, but if I see it that way and only sit down to write when I am depressed, bingo! Self-fulfilling prophecy. On the flip side, this is what makes each of us creative. I can write a novel about–oh, let’s say a dystopia since that is particularly big right–and yet still make it unique. So go ahead and write, draw, paint, compose the piece that only YOU can create.

Be inspired.

See on Scoop.it – Feed the Writer

Aspects of creative thinking that are not usually taught.

See on www.creativitypost.com

Creativity

Creativity. Taking something enormously strange and somehow making it strangely familiar.

– from Jim Henson’s Doodle Dreams: Inspiration for Living Life Outside the Lines.

 

My daughter came to me today and announced that she had to write a historical fiction short story. “I hate writing historical fiction,” she said. “It’s all been done before.” No matter what era I suggested, she declared it “boring” — although she did note that if it involved violence it would then be more interesting to the class.

I found her comments interesting because the previous night I had been paging through the small book, Jim Henson’s Doodle Dreams, and came across the quote written above. It seems that maybe creativity is not only the ability to make the strange familiar, but to also make the familiar new and fresh.

When I sat down to write a post on creativity for today, I was definitely not feeling terribly creative. After all, this subject has been written about in some form or another many, many times. So I did what most writers do when feeling blocked–I went on YouTube. You’re laughing, but you know you do the same thing (although it might be Facebook or Twitter or some other black hole of time.) The funny thing is, I found a fabulous video of John Cleese

John Cleese

talking about creativity — and telling lots of lightbulb jokes too.

The encouraging news (for me) is that creativity is not talent. Nor does it depend on IQ. John Cleese talks about what McKinnon’s research found out about creativity.

1. Play. Creativity needs an open mind and a spirit of play–of curiosity.
2. Space. To foster creativity, one must put aside a time and place to be quiet.
3. Time. McKinnon also found that those who are more creative are also those who are willing to stick with a problem longer. They are willing to put up with the discomfort of not knowing.
4. Confidence. The fear of making a mistake is the biggest killer of creativity. This is the lousy first draft stage–the play stage–nothing is “wrong” stage.
5. Humor. One can be serious without being solemn. Play needs the lightness of humor to thrive. Humor is an essential part of creativity.

John Cleese also reminds us that pondering on a subject will help your brain come up with a creative solution. “Keep your mind resting against the subject gently and you will be rewarded.” This might be why listening to a recording of the chapter I want to edit gives me a new perspective.

The last of John Cleese’s advice: If you don’t know how to begin — start generating random connections and let your intuition tell you whether they might lead somewhere interesting. Maybe I’ll see if my daughter wants to give this a try. Vampires and Abraham Lincoln? Oh wait, that’s been done already.

Happy creating.

In a random, one-link-to-another kind of way, I came across a site called brain pickings.  One of the posts was about how to break through a creative block–which seemed timely since I had just posted about that topic.

How to Break Through Your Creative Block: Strategies from 90 of Today’s Most Exciting Creators

by Maria Popova

Refining the machinery of creativity, or what heartbreak and hydraulics have to do with coaxing the muse.

In this post, Maria Popova reviews the book, Breakthrough!: 90 Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination by Alex Cornell. 

Lots of great information in the post (and, no doubt, in the book) as well as on the rest of the site. Check it out.

See on Scoop.it – Feed the Writer

See on www.readwritethink.org

See on Scoop.it – Feed the Writer

See on cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com

It’s that time of year again: end of the old, start of the new. Time to look back at what was and look forward to what you want see happen in the new year. Writing and writers are no different. What went well–or not so well. What resolutions do we have for our writing in the year 2013?

Jane at home

This year I resolve to fight more dragons.

You know the kind–those fears that keep you from doing the thing you love, like writing. Whether you call them gremlins, like Tricia McDonald does in her book, Quit Whining, Start Writing,  dinosaurs, like Don Fry in his article, Doing away with Dinosaurs (The Writer, January 2013), or demons as does Craig English (Set Your Writing Free, The Writer, October 2012)–those fears can become so adapt at disguising themselves as mundane things that sometimes we don’t even see them for what they are.

For example, in 2011 I lost my morning writing routine due to a change in the family schedule. For 1 1/2 YEARS I have blamed that as the reason why I was writing less. Dragon.

This past year my job has become a lot more demanding. There is always homework and chores to do and somehow I don’t have time or energy for writing. Dragon.

And I really, really need to exercise more. Everyone knows how important it is to get enough exercise. Dragon.

So the first step in fighting dragons is to recognize them as such. That cleaning your room when you said you were going to write–could it be a dragon in disguise? And what might that dragon be?

Craig English talks about the difference between Original Demons and Intimate Demons.(Set Your Writing Free, pg. 35) Original Demons are those basic human fears. Intimate Demons are more specific to a certain project–or chapter, or scene, or area of writing like dialog or outlining.

Are you avoiding writing in general because you are afraid of failing? Are you hearing a voice in your head saying, You can’t write–you have no talent.? Or Writing is a waste of time, or you’ll never get published because you’re not good enough? Those are Original Demons, or Gremlins –“the self-doubting, pessimistic, obnoxious part of us.” (Quit Whining, Start Writing: A Novelist’s Guide To Writing, pg. 27).

I’m afraid that what I write will not be as good as it is in my head–so I avoid putting it into words because that way, I won’t fail. Small problem–no one can read it in my head. The longer I avoid sitting down and writing, the bigger the dragon gets. Pretty soon, the second I sit down to write (or even think about it) my mind tosses out all sorts of distractions. Facebook, laundry, reading (although it’s really good for writers to read, many times it is a dragon in disguise for me), research, even this website.

Intimate demons for me are revision, outlining, and endings. I’m a big picture person much more than a detail person. Revision and outlining are more detail type activities–and therefore I am no good at them. (Or at least that is what those dragons tell me.) Endings, well, who knows. Maybe it is linked into my reluctance to let anything go. Just look at my office or closet and you’ll see I have a problem with that.

Second step is to acknowledge your dragons. “Invite them in for tea,” Craig English says. “Do something physical to get rid of them,” Tricia McDonald advises. Alcoholics Anonymous has people introduce themselves by admitting out loud that they are an alcoholic. Not that I’m advising you to go around introducing yourself by saying, “Hi, I’m Sarah McElrath and I’m afraid of failing.” But you could if it helped. At least acknowledge it to yourself. Recognize and admit.

Third step is the hardest, of course. Over-rule. Fight the dragons. Tell the demons to shut up. Draw the gremlin and then throw it away. Write.

When Christmas break started, I was all gung-ho to write. I was finally going to finish The Mary Monologue which I had started over a year ago. (Remember? I have a problem with endings.) But somehow, there was never time to write. Parties, shopping for gifts, cleaning the house–I was way too busy. Of course, I had time to watch movies and sleep in and read. Oh-oh. Dragon.

It wasn’t until I read about The Personal Scum Line in Laurence Gonzales’s book, Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience, that I finally managed to MAKE myself sit down and write. My youngest daughter was more than happy to duct tape me to my chair. It helped me resist getting up for that third cup of coffee, or popping up because I had to check on the cat. He might be hungry, you know. Laurence Gonzales describes The Personal Scum Line as that “level below which we must not sink, or else we lose all respect for ourselves. We become, in our own eyes, scum.” For me, it is saying I’m a writer–and then not writing for more than 2 weeks. I did NOT want to be that kind of writer.

Cheerleaders and Accountability. One thing that helps set my personal scum line is my writing group. This group functions both as cheerleaders in my battles against the dragon, and as accountability. Our fabulous writing group meets every two weeks. We are each expected to bring a piece of writing to be workshopped. Of course, there is no penalty for not bringing something. But I HATE to be the kind of writer that belongs to a writing group but then doesn’t bring any new writing. (Personal Scum Line set here.) The other thing the group does is inspire me. It is much easier to face the tough battles when you know that others are doing so as well–and when they applaud you for fighting.

So consider joining a writing group in 2013. Or if you already are a part of one, ask your writing group if they would be willing to meet more often. And always bring a piece of new writing. Accountability helps with exercise–and with writing.

There are, of course, no magic wands here. But do know that if you keep fighting your dragons, if you keep sitting your butt in your chair and putting words on paper, you are going to become a better writer.

Happy New Year and happy writing.

SM