Tuesday Tickle: Creative Play Date

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

Creative play is the focus of Tuesday Tickle here at Writer Wellness. It’s an intentionally vague topic to allow me lots of juicy wiggle room to explore whatever I want. And that’s exactly what creative play is all about. Exploring whatever we want that pumps up our creative salivary glands and gets us back in the groove of writing.

I call it creative play because I recommend messing around in fun stuff and each one of you gets to define what fun stuff means to you. Creative play is also the primary means of filling the well when it’s feeling dry. That’s of sign of the dreaded writer’s block creeping up behind us. And although the world acknowledges the existence of writer’s block, we don’t have to be hypochondriacal and sit around and wait to catch it. With regular experiences with creative play, writer’s block is completely avoidable, and no prescription drugs are required to bolster our immune systems (sorry.)

Creative play is a simple prescription: do something creative. That’s it. It must be creative and must be enjoyable and it counts as creative play if it is capable of filling your well and keeping you juicy and filled with ideas for writing. And less fear. How’s that? Writer’s block is fear based in my opinion. Expectations, deadlines, pressures, and bills to pay can sure wreak havoc on a writer’s psyche and cause us to feel overwhelmed and incapable of writing. Participating in creative play is a great medicine for alleviating the fear. But most of us need a permission slip to participate in creative play because we have gotten into the nasty habit of thinking that writing is work. It is, but it’s supposed to be work we love. We are one of the few professions that can genuinely claim that we work at something we love. Getting paid is a bonus.

So, here’s your permission slip:

I, Joy Held, give YOU permission to enjoy a regular creative play date to do something fun, crazy, enlightening, and relaxing.

Here are some ideas from my own recent creative play dates:

I attended the local college student art show at the museum. Saw some really great beginning works that reminded me that we all start out the same way: with a crayon. Also discovered a new artist whose work is very powerful and I intend to look into more of her projects.

Woke up on Saturday and decided to paint every wooden clothes pin in the house. Spent a few minutes gathering them up and used assorted colors of spray paint to decorate a hundred clothes pins. Now when I’m hanging laundry or securing a bread bag, my colorful day of painting in the sunshine comes to mind and refreshes me.

I read and write reviews for a lot of young adult books. Just recently I read the latest collection of short stories from fantasy author Tamora Pierce TORTALL AND OTHER LANDS, A COLLECTION OF TALES. The stories included new and old characters and even a tale entitled “Huntress” that I heard Pierce read aloud at a convention in 2005 before it was published. Reading outside the genre I write keeps me honest and respectful of the craft. Here’s the link to the review:

http://teenreads.com/reviews/9780375866760.asp

What do you do to stay healthy and avoid writer’s block?

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.