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Creativity rears its ugly head
Work has clarified itself, at least in terms of immediate tasks. I’m guessing this is why my brain has decided to be creative this morning. Not needing brain power in other places, it’s free to do other things. In this case, I’ve pulled out notes for a story that has never quite let go of me. Now that I think of it, the notes have been around for close to five years–way to long to be dormant. I’m surprised it’s kept with me so long. I don’t know how much material I’ll keep. My guess is that I will triage a lot of it. I may not even look at…
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Big Magic
I received Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic when it came out last Tuesday. I had read it through by Thursday. The book was an easy read, similar in style to Eat, Pray, Love in that is was constructed by a series of connected essays. Content wise, there was much in there that I had heard in other forms, bits from her TED talks (thankfully that was not all the material she used), chunks of her personal experience, and comcepts covered by Julia Cameron. However, this is wholly in her own voice and comes together as a cohesive work that lends new insight to the creative life. I found it compelling in a way…
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Beautiful words
I have a secret wish to write beautiful words. I felt it rise up in my consciousness on my walk with the puppy last night. The walk was an impusive flight to get out of the house and capture the early fall before it becomes late fall, and then winter. The day gave way to night in the graceful way it does every day. I typically don’t notice. Yesterday, I heard the cricket chirp and the traffic people faded away. The dark deepened and left me with no distractions to focus on. I could smell dinner from the condos we passed. And I wished I could capture all that I…
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Building creativity
I’m always amazed at how restorative reading is to me. I have a few writers that I turn to regularly or stories that I go back to. Each of these times, I’m looking for their work to recreate a feeling I had the first time I read it. That is easy enough to do for fiction–just get carried away in the story. But there is a selection of non-fiction that I have slowly accumulated that also does this for me. For those works, the experience is more intimate. These works are not self help, but revolve around living an authentic self. Roughly psychological, I identify with aspects and use these…
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Writing itch
I’ve been doing a lot or reading recently. I love to read, but after a while, I feel a bit out of balance because all I do is work and read. I get like that when I am tired, overwhelmed, and need something entertaining that doesn’t add to my task list or tax my capacity. I can always tell when I am working my way out of that environment because I find the itch to write again. I admit, it is also due to better weather and longer days. I feel like I have more time to pursue these things. For a while now, I have been struggling with my…