Trigger Creativity

So you've done your morning journaling, cleared the sludge from your brain and you're ready to get to work. But nothing stirs. Your imagination is stifled. That part of us that wants to dance, sing, or color out of the lines gets told 'no' a lot during the course of a day. Which is fine, because there's a time and a place for such things. It would be pretty frustrating if the cashier at Walmart was too busy dancing to ring up your purchase (although I'd really like to see this).

Sometimes all we need is a way to signal our creative self that it's time to play, to coax it out into the open. I'm sure you've heard of psychological triggers like Pavlov's dog drooling at the sound of a bell. Your imagination can be trained to respond to a trigger the same way. There are lots of different triggers you can use, so experiment until you find one or a combination of several that work for you. The list is endless, but here are a few ideas that have worked for me:

• Light a scented candle on your writing desk. Smell is a great trigger. You can use one particular scent to trigger your writing, or have a variety depending on what you're writing about. I have a coffee-scented candle, pine, Yankee Candle's 'Fireside' (yum!), and I also use juniper or piñon incense, especially when I'm writing outdoor scenes that feature campfires.


• Particular music. You might listen to the same instrumental background music, or maybe loud rock. I often listen to music with headphones on to drown out the sound of the kids and the tv and the phone ringing. I also listen to a variety of styles of music, depending on what I'm writing. I think of it as my soundtrack and to this day when I put on Jon Bon Jovi's 'Blaze of Glory' I am immediately transported to one particular story.


• Make a cup of hot tea. I rarely drink hot tea at any other time, but when I sit down to write, especially after a few days away from the keyboard, I fix myself a cup of triple ginseng tea.


• Solitaire. Use this one with caution and careful discipline. Allow yourself to sit down and play exactly three games of solitaire. Or freecell, or spider, or minesweeper. But after three games, whether you've won them all or lost them all, you must start writing. If you start making deals with yourself that you'll write as soon as you've won three games in a row, remove all the game programs from the computer you use to write. (Don't ask me how I know)

Whatever trigger you use, make it your writing ritual. Don't fix your tea and then sit and play freecell for two hours and never write a word. If tea is your ritual, make the tea, then sit down and make words happen. At first it might take a bit of effort, but before long, as soon as you smell that candle or taste that tea, you'll feel the urge to write.

Keeping the Well Stocked

In every writer or artist, there is a Well, a deep pool of possibilities that we draw ideas and thoughts and inspiration from. It is important to keep this Well stocked at all times.

How do we do this?

One of the best ways to keep the Well stocked is to journal. Right now, I’m working through The Artist’s Way program, which is a process of unblocking creativity that was created by Julia Cameron. One of the basic tools of this program is called The Morning Pages. Three pages of free thought spilled out onto the page, preferably when you first wake up in the morning (although I’ve been known to do mine on the subway into work, or in the afternoon). Even if you’re not doing The Artist’s Way, this is a great tool to keep you in touch with writing. It will get the sludge out of your brain, that extra layer of “did I turn the coffeemaker off, I need to do laundry, I didn’t call my doctor” that resides in our minds. We need to get below that layer to write. We need to get below that layer to tap into the Well.

Eventually, after you’ve journaled that sludge away, things like, “that’s how to solve the problem that chapter is giving me, I need to cut that character out, this is the real plot of my novel” will begin to come out. That’s when a bucket of water will come up from the Well.

It is vitally important to keep the Well stocked in times when life is getting in the way and you just can’t work on your WIP (work-in-progress). During those times, journal fifteen minutes a day. Yes, you can find fifteen minutes to journal. If you journal for fifteen minutes a day, you’ll find that when you return to your WIP, there will be a lot less sludge to deal with, because you kept the Well stocked.

So tomorrow morning, set your alarm for fifteen minutes earlier (you don’t really need that extra sleep) and journal. It doesn’t need to be brilliant; no one is going to see it. It just needs to be three pages of free thought. And when you’re done, your Well will be stocked for the day.

Thoughts on Facing the Page

We've all been there. If you're reading this blog, then you are most likely a writer, and we writers have all been to that place in our work when sitting down and facing the page is the last thing we want to do, right? We scrub the toilets, we reorganize the bookshelves, we surf every editor and agent blog on the internet - anything to avoid the dreaded WIP that is for some reason or another giving us trouble.

It's what we do.

But here's the thing. We can't leave it alone. Even when our work (or the lack thereof) tortures us and we just can't make the scene come out right or find the perfect word to describe the way our MC walks into a room (without using an adjective!) we feel the itch. We have to scratch it. Because the only thing harder than writing is not writing. Writers write, after all. And we want to be writers, so we do the dance, dipping and twirling between exhilaration and despair. For us, there is no choice.

That's what facing the page means to me. It means having the balls/guts/determination/compulsion/discipline/insanity to sit down every day with pen or computer and create when creating's hard. It means not giving up. Even when you a.) feel unworthy because another writer's work is better b.) are disgusted because another writer's work sucks and they're agented/published c.) are frustrated because your editor/agent/critique group/significant other doesn't get it d.) feel certain that your editor/agent/critique group/significant other gets it - but you don't e.) have just discovered your plot goes nowhere/your mc is not sympathetic/your dialog is wooden/no one likes your story f.) etc., etc., etc.

Do I always face the page bravely in my own work? Ha. Just ask the group here how often they have to soothe the insecurities and push me back on track. But I'm here. And so is the page. And once I stop procrastinating/fearing/avoiding/loathing, the page and I are going to have a great time.

Nourish your writer's soul

Nicole, Jen and Barb did an awesome job talking about facing the page during times of tragedies, busy lives and extreme stress. I’d like to talk about facing the page for a writer’s own well being. I have come to realize that writing is like drinking my 8 glasses of water a day. I have to do it to stay healthy, to keep my writer’s soul hydrated. And, I have to do it every day. Some days I don’t get those 64 ounces in, and some days I don’t get the word count in that I’d like, but I write something! (Even a blog post.) *s* Yes, there are days that it’s simply not possible for some reason or another…but I try never to skip two days in a row. I equate this to getting dehydrated. You can’t go without water…a writer can’t go without writing. Period!

There have been plenty of times that my life took on, well…a life of its own. I put writing on the back burner, to simplify things, but I found it didn’t help. In fact, it complicated my life even more. That is because writing and being a writer is part of me. It’s part of who I am every single day. Writing feeds my soul and nourishes my spirit. If I neglect it, I suffer. I might mention that my family and friends share in the suffering because I perhaps turn a tad cranky and short tempered when I’m not getting my words in.

Furthermore, during the dry spells, the longer I went without writing, the harder it was to start again. But, when I forced myself to write something, whether that be work on my novel, attempting to write a short story, maybe even taking a writing class online…it actually felt like the act of writing was fuel for my body. It literally gave me energy. I’d be pumped up, heart thumping and imagination zinging. It feels so good!

Make writing your water. Your body and your mind crave it! Make it part of your day, something you have to do to be whole and content. Face the Page every single day because it’s good for you…it’s a part of who you are…you need to….because you are a writer.

Ginger

Staying in Shape

Nicole talked about writing in the face of tragedy.
Jen talked about writing in spite of everyday hurdles.
But what about when life knocks you on your butt?

There I was, a completed first draft, half the edits already accomplished, requests from two agents . . . and my husband was laid off from his job. Suddenly fiction was the furthest thing from my mind.

What do you do?

You keep writing. If you can't write fiction, journal. Every word on the page helps keep your writing muscle in shape. Every word is an act of hope that you will return to your stories.

Think of it like being an athlete. When a player gets an injury he does whatever he can to stay in shape. He does not become a couch potato. When Derek Lee of the Chicago Cubs broke his wrist, he concentrated on lower body workouts. As soon as the cast came off he started--carefully--working on his upper body, throwing, catching, preparing himself to rejoin the game.

When life temporarily takes you out of the game, don't let your writing muscle get flabby. Do what you can to keep it in shape. Journal. Freewrite. Do a writing exercise using a prompt. Every single word on the page keeps you in shape for when you can return to the game of fiction.

Everyday Hurdles

Nicole did a great job yesterday writing about overcoming the big stuff, facing the page, and choosing hope. In everyone's life, from a national scale to a family scale, there will be unexpected, heart-wrenching, seemingly insurmountable events to overcome. And in everyone's life, there will be the same old day-to-day to overcome.

Nicole thinks globally; I'm the local same old same old girl.

My life is not unlike the life of the woman sitting in the next office.
Both of us rise in the morning, feed and walk the dogs, wake the kids, pack their lunches, give them the ninety-second lecture on resisting peer pressure and maybe, just maybe -- if the gods of the red lights are with us -- stop at 7-Eleven for a cup of coffee before we get to the office. (Well, I'll stop at the 7-Eleven. My office neighbor keeps kosher; I'm not sure 7-Eleven is on her hit parade.) We spend the next eight, nine, ten hours focused on our jobs, and then we do the morning in reverse: stop at the market to pick up dinner, pick up the kids from football practice or the babysitter's, feed and walk the dogs, make the dinner....

Any of this look familiar to you? Maybe it feels familiar -- the burned out, brain dead, no strength to laugh at the end of the day feeling? BE honest. Sometimes an average day will suck the life out of you.

So here’s my survival mechanism, the thing the woman in the next office doesn’t do: at some point during the day -- be it a stolen moment at lunch or be it waking up an hour (or two) early -- at some point, I face the page. (And sometimes I have to play Aerosmith really loud but that’s just a bonus quirk.)

To sit and write is easily one of the most selfish endeavors I engage in. But I can’t stomach the thought of giving it up. The joy, the exhilaration, the sheer FUN of writing is MINE, mine to savor and cherish and revel in. I’m greedy for the sense of accomplishment I get from simply putting words on the page every day. They don’t have to be plentiful, they don’t have to be gems, but they have to be there. If they’re not there, I’m not a writer.

So in the midst of all the day to day, same old same old, I make the time to do myself the kindness of facing the page and keeping “I am a writer” a true statement.

Welcome to Face the Page: Choosing Hope

Six years ago, we faced a national crisis. But many of us faced a personal crisis as well. In the face of such tragedy, such monumental sorrow, how could we move on? How could we continue our pursuit of happiness, when so many others’ had been cut off?

Our society often tells us that the pursuit of art is self-indulgent. But a friend of mine once told me that art is the soul of the world, and artists are the protectors of that soul. I thought about his words often after 9/11. I think the soul of our world is bruised and battered and that our work is more important than ever.

I was four blocks away when that first tower fell and I’ve avoided every anniversary. The anniversaries remind me that I’m not safe. But this morning I woke up determined not to avoid this day. I woke up thinking that it would be better, braver and more productive to choose hope. So today I am choosing hope instead of fear.

Facing the page is about choosing hope. It’s about saying, “I’m a writer, and yeah it’s hard, and yeah it’s a struggle, and yeah I might not sell a book this year, but I’m still going to sit down and write something today.” Every sentence we write is an act of bravery. Every page we pen is a victory. Every day we face the page instead of avoiding it is a day that we are choosing hope instead of fear.

So my wish for you, today and all days, is to choose hope. I don’t think the fear ever goes away, but hope is always more powerful. Hope will put words on a page; fear won’t. Choose Hope. Face the Page.

TGIF!

It's overcast and muggy, but I get out of work in an hour and a half, there's leftover ice cream cake in the break-room fridge and tomorrow is Saturday. What could be bad?

interesting quote

"I'll match my flops with anybody's, but I wouldn't have missed 'em. Flops are a part of life's menu and I've never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses."
~Rosalind Russell

Welcome!

If you build it, they will come.