Threading the Web – Your Creativity is Always Intact

Your Creativity is always in intact. If you are not writing or creating in some way, that does not mean your creativity is broken or has gone away.

Creativity can exist in the midst of chaos of all sorts, illness, war, famine, fear of death…

Just ask any writer who has lived through any of these circumstances and who has written about it, often written during the events. There are famous diaries and other written works which fall into this category and I’ll bet you can even name a few.

I once wrote while in the midst of food poisoning. Food poisoning from an egg roll I’d purchased at a mall food court. I wrote about the experience while I was in it, which is why I know such things can be done. It is the thought of can’t which gets in the way. Clear that off and believe you can.

The piece I wrote, was it a piece I would let you, or anyone else read? No. I tore it up the following week and did away with it.

So, why do this? Why write something if I was just going to tear it up later anyway?

Sometimes we need to write our way through things as a way of processing them, to release what is inside of us so it doesn’t live there any more.

Sometimes we need to write simply to keep our writing muscles flexible and strong.

5 minutes a day is all it takes to keep your writing muscles from hardening up and becoming immobile. In all my writing classes I give timed writing exercises and the 5 minute timed writings are a core part of the program.

Everyone has five minutes to give to the things that are important to them. No excuses. Go on now and set that egg timer, or set your alarm on your phone. Write something, anything. What will you write about today?

 

Threading the Web – Where To Begin – Deciding on Your Point of View

Where do I begin? – My students often ask this question.

One way to begin is to start with the point of view from where you are now. Begin with where you are standing. What do you see?

Last week the cherry blossom trees in my yard came into bloom. Something new to catch my attention, drawing my eye to the beauty there. Creative inspiration could have led me to write a poem about this tree. I stood for a long time taking it in, allowing the visual to speak to me.

Often journal entries will begin this way. Simply what are you seeing now? Where are you standing? At what angle do you view the scene? Now let’s change things. What happens if you move just a bit closer, changing the angle? This changes the emphasis. What draws the eye? What pulls focus?

Now let’s change the view again. Move closer in. Look for the details. Look beneath. Look up. What changes? What calls to you now?

How close can you get? What do you see now? What details emerge? How does this differ from the first scene?

Often we approach our writing from the same viewing point. What would happen if you changed that, moved about to see from a different angle, from a different point of view, through a different story person’s eyes?

Spring is here. Take up your pen and paper and go out and play. See if you can discover something new today.

Tomorrow the view will be different. Subtle changes will appear, blossoms will fall upon the ground, new green leaves will appear. Tomorrow when I come to the page, the view will be different, I will be different. Like a snapshot freezing a moment in time, the pages I write will never be duplicated again. All the more reason then to come to the page, to capture if I can, this perfect moment.

Love and light,

Debra