Creativity Slump

August 30, 2008

I have just finished re-reading a good deal of Eric Maisel's Coaching the Artist Within. I would be lying if I did not say that it has re-inspired me as I have been re-inspired by the events of the Democratic National Convention and of McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

I have been experiencing a "creativity slump." I feel that my writing has suffered. I have neither had the desire to write, nor when I have been writing have I been as prolific as I used to be.

I wrote Regon Rising (adult novel) in six weeks. I wrote Julia: Turning 14 (teen novel) in three weeks. My energy was unbounded. I felt driven, or in Maisel's words "obsessed." "Positive obsessions are the fruit of our meaning making efforts. without them, life is dull, dreary, and meaningless." (p79) I have missed that energy and passion and have longed to have them back. I sense I am on the road there just because I chose to pick up and read Coaching the Artist Within.

As I sit here I wonder what made me decide to look at the book. Perhaps I am simply trying to attribute meaning where there is none. But, I had been feeling the absence of meaning in a subtle yet pervasive way for some time. The need for meaning was gaining momentum. As I read the first couple of chapters of Maisel's book, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning came to mind. I have long been an admirer of Frankl's philosophy of the significance of meaning in one's life. And yet recently, I had "forgotten" it.

Now I find I am re-connecting with the pieces of myself which somehow seemed lost to me. And, I am doing it through my writing. It is not only gratifying, but I am grateful that despite the apparent meaninglessness (to me) of what I have been writing in my journal day after day for a while now, that I have continued to write. Writers need to keep writing.

Without writing in my life, there is not enough meaning. If that is true for you, I encourage you to read Eric Maisel's Coaching the Artist Within. I also encourage you to keep writing, no matter what. For more tips you can see Overcome Writer's Block Easily.

Writing and Laziness

August 17, 2008

Yesterday, I was positively impacted to read in Wild Mind what Natalie Goldberg had to say about "laziness." That it is "...the essential ingredient in writing." (p230) She goes on to say that "After you're cleared from lying around, your desire to write will rise up to the surface like a bubble or an old dead fish. Then you can get up for no reason and write a little." (p230)

At the same time, though in different places throughout Wild Mind as well as throughout Writing Down The Bones, Natalie talks about the importance of keeping your hand moving either on paper or on computer. While these two concepts "appear" contradictory, it seems to me that what the author is saying is that we're all human, and that we need to take our humanness into consideration when we write. I know I felt relieved to hear her talk about the "laziness" factor.

Unfortunately, as in life so in writing we can be too hard on ourselves. We can and often (or sometimes) do expect too much of ourselves or of our writing. In Overcome Writer's Block Easily I discuss how to deal with the saboteur, that part of ourselves that can interfere with the movement of our writing work. While it (he/she) may have good intention for us, the tone of voice we often hear in our heads is anything but comforting. And, gentleness is what we need from ourselves in order to genuinely hear our "real voice," and move forward.

Intuition in Writing and Life

August 15, 2008

I didn't know what to blog about today. I was leaning towards talking about Natalie Goldberg. In particular about her book, Wild Mind which I recently received for my birthday. But I don't feel I've read enough of it. And I thought about writing about happiness, or optimism. And yet the topic I gravitated to today seemed to have to do with the fact that there was a period of time recently -- days and days -- that I simply didn't blog. When I reflect upon it I don't really know why. I either didn't make the time, or I was elsewhere occupied.

What is true is that I am happy and relieved as well to do what I very much enjoy... even love... doing. Writing. And, I write today without being critical of what I'm writing because being critical -- self evaluative -- means that I'm not being in my experience of the moment. If I'm not in my experience, my genuine thoughts, that reflect the "real voice," I talked about yesterday in my blog, definitely won't be represented. So, here I am, not writing about Natalie Goldberg who has influenced me a great deal. What I believe is that I need to re-read the entire book that I read so long ago before I know what my real voice wants to say about it.

I'm trusting my intuition. In life as in writing, trusting our intuition is what makes things work out well.

As I've mentioned at other times, other writing strategies... and in fact, a plan for writing... is presented in Overcome Writer's Block Easily .

Our Real Writing Voice

August 14, 2008

I was reading Peter Elbow's Writing with Power last night and was impressed with how he talked about a writer's "real voice." He talked about writing with voice, meaning real voice, as being "... writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying conversation." (p299)

That passage especially made me realize a major reason I encourage people (writers and want-to-be-writers) to simply write whatever comes into their mind. Namely, writing "whatever" is very much like just speaking. And when we're speaking without self consciousness, we are speaking from our real voice.

It doesn't matter what kind of writing we do, for it to be real, it needs to come from deep within us. So, writing "whatever," without thinking about it, and not worrying how good or bad it is, is truly essential.

For more techniques on writing see Overcome Writer's Block Easily.

Appreciate and Seize the Opportunity

August 13, 2008

Today I was thinking about the "tentativeness" of life. In particular the names of famous people who have died at "young" ages over recent months came to mind...Tony Snow, Tim Russet, Bernie Mack, Isaac Hayes. In particular these passings oriented me towards appreciating the life I am leading. And, especially, to not put off till tomorrow what I can do today, even if it means stepping through huge fear to do it.

If we focus on the positive outcome, it can help move us through the fear. A writer with whom I was recently working comes to mind. She was having a really hard time believing that it was her natural born right to enjoy the process of writing. "What are you waiting for?" I asked. And she was puzzled. We discussed some fun symbols she could put in her writing space to remind her to have fun.... which is what she really wanted though was terribly fearful to have happen. She put the various objects in her writing space after that. It was no miracle, but it came pretty close.

Seize the day continues to be the message I give myself each day. It is as well a message I impart to my clients.

You can read more about my writing strategies in Overcome Writer's Block Easily

Females in the Blogosphere

July 28, 2008

I read in the Sunday New York Times yesterday that even in the blogosphere, there is a glass ceiling when blogs are used for the purpose of bringing in income. That is, women do NOT do as well as men financially. I do wonder whether there are more men bloggers because I know that women tend to be more verbal than men and therefore they may blog more than men.

The issues involved in writing remain as significant for the blogosphere as in any other writing modality. It is, however, the newest mode of expressing oneself in writing along with other internet writing forms, like articles, newsletters and ebooks.

I believe that the information available in Overcome Writer's Block Easily is important for anyone who is writing in any format for the internet. It has not only helped me, but in addition I have recently been teaching a course on writing easily for the internet, and have found the principles from Overcome Writer's Block Easily to work extremely well, whether you're a guy or a gal. I definitely like that.

Writing "Deprived"

July 26, 2008

Here I am blogging again. Could it be that because my internet service was down for a week, I felt "blog-deprived?" Certainly when there is an activity that we love, and we don't get to do it, we can feel deprived, and feel a need to do the activity a lot once it becomes available to us again. I guess this falls into the category of "going with the flow."

It is frequently recommended that writers have a regular routine -- which I support as well -- and yet, I can as well support the activity of a huge burst of writing after a period of "deprivation." The deprivation can occur because of some external factor(s), or because instead of writing something, anything, no matter what, we just fail to write. In Overcome Writer's Block Easily I don't address reasons that we don't write because for the most part, once we make up our minds to write, we can keep ourselves moving. Still, it is important to note that there will be times (hopefully short) that this does not happen, and we then experience a burst of activity. So why not enjoy the burst?

Forgetting to Write

July 25, 2008

Today I was journaling and realized that it had been three days since I had last journaled. And, I had not noticed it till I sat down to write today. I could not say that I avoided journaling. I simply never remembered to do it. Life happens. And we have to roll with the punches as I said yesterday. So I won't beat up on myself for missing my writing, but I truly was delighted to be hand writing in my journal today. Only with the writing did I experience how much I had missed writing yesterday and the day before.

I have made it clear in Overcome Writer's Block Easily that it's important to keep writing. But that's if you realize that you're going to stop writing, or you're thinking about stopping writing. If you haven't written, it's best to just move along and not look back... unless stopping gets to be a habit. Then the lack of writing will need to be examined so you can move on. But keeping the action going is THE most important thing we can do in writing... and in life.

An Unexpected Turn of Events

July 24, 2008

My internet had been down for almost a whole week. I have missed blogging. I realized that I had come to enjoy it, though it's a new activity for me. So while I was unable to post, I none the less blogged in long hand, just to be able to keep the activity going. This entry was really written a couple of days ago, and I have modified it some. Yet the theme remains important to me and so I wanted to share it.

Life is not orderly and predictable. We need to be flexible whether in life or in writing. I was terribly frustrated being unable to get on and blog, and yet I realized I could generate an alternative plan... write by long hand. Like in the very old days. And I could have blogged a lot though I chose not to. I decided to use the time for other activities that for various reasons I had put on hold. It's good I got many of them done.

It's definitely a positive thing to roll with the punches. It represents emotional well being. Why not when stuck and frustrated reframe the situation as one that inherently offers options? In this case, I chose to hand write, and share my thoughts belatedly. Who says blogging has to appear on the day you blogged? Bending the rules to fit our needs leads to emotional growth... in writing and in life. And emotional growth leads to happiness. And happiness, no matter how we define it, is what we're all after. So, the unexpected turn of events actually was positive after all.

Patience in the Writing Process

July 17, 2008

I just finished writing a novel for young adult girls, called (tentatively at least) JULIA: turning 14. I have also completed a first edit. I have put it aside for a couple of weeks so that I can look at it again with fresh eyes before I see if I think it's ready to give to others to read for feedback. It's been a week so far, and I'm amazed at how difficult it is for me to simply "leave it alone." I want to read it. It feels almost as if I need to read it. Yet, I know I need to look at it with fresh eyes. So I will wait. In the meantime I am letting ideas for my next teen novel percolate. And I have made some notes. And, of course I keep journaling. And I've got other projects (non writing) to keep me busy. But, I'm sure eager to re-read JULIA.

I need to make it clear that this putting off re-reading JULIA is NOT procrastination. It is rather, part of the writing process. This putting aside the manuscript for a while is definitely NOT writer's block (see Overcome Writer's Block Easily) to find out what to do to deal with writer's block.

Patience in the writing process is definitely necessary and pays off. I have followed this process for each book I've written, and in modified form for articles as well. I highly recommend it.