Tag: deadlines

Thursday Thought: Inspiration Inclination

Posted on by Joy Held

Look around. Is your work…well, is it ‘work’ and not one exciting, innovative creation after another? Could your material be so predictable that you are in what dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp calls “a false start?” Tharp defines a “false start,” or a creative rut as different from being blocked and most definitely different from being in a good groove. “A rut is the part of the journey where you’re spinning your wheels, spitting out mud behind you, splattering other people, and not going anywhere. You know you’re in a rut when you annoy other people, bore your collaborators and supporters, fail to challenge yourself, and get the feeling that the world is moving on while you’re standing still. You may also feel that you’ve been here before; déjà vu, with some flop sweat on the side, is a sure sign of a rut. Perhaps the surest sign is a feeling of frustration and relief when you’re done (“Boy, I’m glad that’s over!”) rather than anticipatory pleasure (“I can’t wait to get back here tomorrow.”) Call it consistency, following a syllabus, or teaching a “graded system,” you know when your work is dry and uninspired. It happens to everyone. Don’t worry. There are some simple ideas to help refresh your artistry and renew the feeling of, “I love being me!” that every creative person knows.

If the inspiration inclination has temporarily slipped away and writing another page feels like pulling teeth (your own,) it could be a simple matter of needing to “fill the well” as writer Julia Cameron refers to in her book “The Artist’s Way.” Cameron says that the artist’s brain relies on images and that creativity is sometimes blocked or stymied by a lack of artistic brain food. Cameron recommends regular “artist dates” with yourself to “restock the pond” of artful ideas you seem to be lacking. For an artist date, you simply schedule yourself to attend a thought provoking artistic event like a gallery opening or orchestra concert and ingest the sensations all around to help replenish your own source of creative energy. Cameron suggests a habitual practice of artist dates until you understand the ebb and flow of your creativity and how to use the work of other inspired creators to support your own creations.

When I first tried the regular artist date, it annoyed me because I felt like I was being taken away from my own work. Cameron and Tharp both claim that resistance is a sure sign that a respite is most assuredly the best medicine. After a year of consistently attending art shows, poetry readings, and independent film showings, I noticed a rush of recurrent creativity to the point where I can hardly keep up with myself today! I heard a lecture by children’s author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor recently who summed up how I feel. Someone asked her what she did for writer’s block. “I don’t have writer’s block,” she said. “I have so many ideas floating around in my head all the time that I have writer’s diarrhea!” I now have a habit of enjoying the work of other artists and I’m positive it contributes to my never-ending flow of creativity and ideas.

 Inspiration is always available to the artist who understands that creativity is a process dependent on many details. Here are some ideas to consider.

Low budget

1) Read books and magazines on creativity.

2) Start a journal. You will be amazed at the creative freedom you can experience from a regular habit of journaling.

3) Find an online community of artists and communicate.

4) Attend free art events like gallery showings, outdoor concerts, and crafts fairs.

 

Medium budget

1) Take classes from another local teacher. Learning rejuvenates the creative spirit.

2) Analyze the work of other artists. Take pencil and paper and write down what you see or read in videos and books and dissect the creativity of others. Explain to yourself why they did what they did, and then how you would have done it differently and why.

3) Attend poetry readings, art shows, etc. at the local gallery or coffee shop.

4) Cruise through a history museum or see a local theatre production.

 

High budget

1) Travel to an artist’s retreat or big city where art is revered and the process is respected. Take part in performances, conferences, workshops, and activities that allow you to deeply experience the art.

2) Take college courses at home or far away that will expand your appreciation of creativity.

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.)

 

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.

 

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

 

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

 

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

 

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

 

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

 Be well, write well.

Tuesday Tickle: Creativity Cannot Be Timed

Posted on by Joy Held

 

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,) ournaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

It was a fascinating lesson in journalism class one day when our professor gave us the definition of “deadline.” Being public school zombies, we understood the message of turning things in on time, but Ms. Phipps continued with our lesson and enlightened us to the derivation and still prominent use of said “deadline”.

Courtesy of Webster: deadline-1.A time limit, as for payment of a debt or completion of an assignment. (This is the definition we were well acquainted with.) 2. A boundary line in a prison that prisoner’s can cross only at the risk of being shot. (In the back we assumed.)

There is conclusive written evidence of the word “deadline” being used as early as 1864 concerning the boundaries at Union and Confederate prisons such as Andersonville and Camp Oglethorpe in Georgia. The image of being gunned down still haunts me when I set or receive a deadline for an assignment. There are penalties to pay for missing deadlines. This is another example of time gone wrong in the wrong hands. 

Creativity rebels when given a deadline. It’s another contradictory situation to be sitting between a deadline and a blank page. So we have to devise methods to trick our creativity into staying juicy and accessible so whenever we need some we just turn on the tap and out comes the good stuff. “Impossible,” we hear from disgruntled artisans who have been waiting perhaps years for the good sentence or the great painting. Creativity doesn’t respond well to commands either, but it can be cajoled and caressed out of the vessel and onto the page with a few regular habits. 

Here are some tried and true tricks for keeping creativity hot and ready at a moment’s notice.

1.Journal-writing down thoughts, ideas, crap, and general observations is an exercise that creativity responds to happily. Keep it simple and journal habitually. Just a few words a day keeps the writing muscle in shape.

2.Blog-you don’t have to maintain a blog to write in them. Find blogs online with interests similar to yours, read and respond regularly.

3.Read-sounds simple, but keep a pile of a variety of reading materials accessible and where it will remind you to spend fifteen minutes every day reading whatever you want. Variety is the key. 

What do you do to keep your creativity ready at the drop of a hat? 

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. 

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer 

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook 

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb 

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc. 

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

Have you subscribed to this Writer Wellness blog yet? Get email updates when a new post is added. Click “subscribe” and leave your email. That’s it and thanks in advance! 

Be well, write well.

Thursday Thought: Procrastinaor Juror Beware

Posted on by Joy Held

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.)

Three weeks after sitting in a court room for over two weeks as a spectator in a murder trial, I get a jury summons of my own in the mail. I’m being “considered” as a juror for U.S. District Court. Well, okay. I believe in the civic duty of serving on a jury but I have personal and moral issues with being the person who casts judgment on another human being. Granted, there are human beings who have committed deadly sins, as in the case I attended in February, and their problems and actions warrant judgment. I am just not thrilled with the prospect of making decisions about the penalties someone should suffer because of their choices. I believe karma will take care of it for me.

So I had blocked out the questionnaire sent in the mail decreeing that I must answer the questions and return it in the prepaid envelope considerately provided within ten days or suffer my own consequences. The explanation of the penance is I may have to go to the office of the U.S. Circuit Clerk and answer the questions there if I miss the deadline.

As a journalist the word deadline has great meaning to me and always has. The history of the word includes the fact that California prisons in the 19th century didn’t have enough money for fencing and guards were told to shoot fleeing prisoners once they reached “that line of sage brush, that’s the dead line.” Not wanting to be shot in the back, I have always made it my business to meet deadlines in a timely and cheerful manner no matter how much I prefer to procrastinate. That’s right, put it off until tomorrow.

Years of meeting deadlines and making daily to-do lists have empowered my brain to overpower the lazy limbic system where the urge to be easily distracted is created. Yes, our brains are wired to find the easy, comfortable way out of everything and that contributes to why it is so easy to procrastinate. But in my case, years of alternate brain training woke me up at two o’clock in the morning from a dead sleep to remember I hadn’t filled out the damn questionnaire yet.

After searching the house for a bloody number two pencil (I seem to only have disposable mechanical pencils in the house,) I have successfully finished my jury questionnaire in pencil which unnerves me. What if somebody changes my answers? Worry. That’s another blog.

I plan to put the questionnaire in the mail TOMORROW.

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. 

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous. 

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer 

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook 

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc. 

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com Natalie Markey

Be well, write well.