Fiction Writing ~ The Passionate Journey! The Blog of Writing Coach, Emily Hanlon

2008-08-08T06:23:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,
I have been getting ready for my retreat in Tuscany in September, Women, Creativity and the Journey of the Soul, and it is taking all my time. So no blogging, among other things... However, this blog is rich in articles, stories and information, so explore and enjoy...

More to come in October.
Hope your summer is abundant and creative!

Emily

Why and How Your Inner Critic Stops You from Expressing Yourself?

2008-07-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a scenario about how the Inner Critic gains a foothold in our lives. Imagine you are a little kid and you go to touch something that is hot and your mother screams, “Don’t do that!” Or, you are playing in the dirt, having a grand time, and your mother says in horror, “Oh my God! We are going to grandma’s house and you’re filthy dirty!”

The Inner Critic takes that criticism and turns it into a dictum: don’t get dirty; don’t disobey; be a good girl; be a good boy; and be obedient. The Inner Critic doesn’t want you to make your mommy and daddy angry. The Inner Critic wants to keep you safe. It doesn’t care if it’s crushing your curiosity and creativity in the process. It just wants you to be “good” and “safe” and to do this the Inner Critic always takes a conservative, status quo stance.

This a quick view of the “why” the Inner Critic comes into being. The problem is the Inner Critic voice begins to take over and becomes the CEO of your life. The image I use is if your mind were a radio station, basically what happens is that every station you turn to is the nagging, blathering voice of the Inner Critic. It sometimes feels as if you can’t stop the Inner Critic's assault, always accusing you of doing the wrong thing, calling you stupid, dumb, asking why did you do that? Don’t you remember the time when –– twenty thousand million years ago –– when you did this and this terrible thing happened… and so it goes and goes.

So what do we do? How do we defang the Inner Critic? The first thing to do is to acknowledge the existence of your Inner Critic as a controlling voice inside your head. And to know that the Inner Critic is not all of you by any means. It is a loud voice that lives in your mind but has no access to your heart. Second part of defanging the Inner Critic is to start listening to –– I mean really becoming aware of the insistent and invasive assault that is the voice of your Inner Critic. The jabber is constant.

Thoughts on the Inner Critic

2008-07-07T14:19:00.001-05:00

Spend time listening to your Inner Critic. He or she is not comfortable with the risks demanded by a creative endeavour. By becoming aware of the foul jabber of your Inner Critic, you can see how your mind puts up roadblocks to creativity.

Tip 3 from Ten Tips on Creativity

Imagine your conscious mind is tuned in to a radio station run by a single disc jockey, your Inner Critic, and you have no way to turn down the volume much less turn it off. In fact, you've grown so used to the constant talk from the Inner Critic, you hardly notice he's ordering you about, commenting, passing judgment and evaluating just about everything you do or say; this is all so subtle and insidious that you don't separate out the Inner Critic from other parts of you. The Inner Critic has become you-it seems as if the only time you can escape his badgering is when you sleep. There is a reason for this. When you sleep, your conscious mind shuts down. The dream state or intuitive right side of the brain, takes over.

The Inner Critic avoids the dream state like the plague. He can't get a foothold in a place where there is no apparent logic, where things appear as images, feelings, sounds and colours. It should not be surprising, then, that your best stories, characters and plots, come from this place of dreams, where little is known and anything is possible. The problem is how to wrest control of the radio station from the Inner Critic so that you can give your Inner Writer some air time.

Answer the following questions quickly, without thinking.

What is the colour of your Inner Critic?

How big is your Inner Critic?

What is the texture?

Is your Inner Critic masculine, feminine or both?

What does the voice of the Inner Critic sound like?

Make a list of the things your Inner Critic says to you. Don't worry if you repeat. Come back and add to this list as you become more aware of the Inner Critic.

What is a creative risk you fear taking?

Make a list of the reasons your Inner Critic has for you not taking that risk.

Make a list of the negative things your Inner Critic says about being a writer.

Find a symbol of your Inner Critic. Students I work with have come up with anything from a picture of a boss to a vial of sulphuric acid. The image of my Inner Critic is a fierce looking puppet. I like to turn it inside out, which makes it look like a harmless alien!

Now, write to you Inner Writer. As her or him what you should do when your the voice of your Inner Critic is very loud and destructive. Put your pen to paper and start writing. Learn to listen to the voice of you Inner Writer. Give your Inner Writer some powerful stations on the radio in your mind. Turn to her when you feel your all dried up and will never write again.

Begin now:

Dear Inner Writer....

Writing from the Shadowland of the Human Condition

2008-06-29T13:05:00.002-05:00

There is a wonderful quote by the Roman, Seneca. He says, “Nothing human is alien to me.” I think that is such a powerful quote. If we are to find our true voice as writers, we cannot be afraid of the dark side of the human condition. What is really powerful writing is writing that explores the shadowlands of the human soul. We all have dark and we all have light within us. If you’re afraid to write about sex or you’re afraid to write about violence or you’re afraid to write about homosexuality –– if you’re afraid to write about anything, anything at all, then that’s stopping your creativity.

All aspects of the human condition have to be open to us. You can choose not to write about something, but there’s a big difference between choosing not to write about something and being afraid or actually unable to write about something.

As creative writers we need to explore all the primal passions; only then can we make choices in our writing.

Thoughts on the Inner Critic

2008-06-15T13:57:00.000-05:00

Imagine your conscious mind is tuned in to a radio station run by a single disc jockey, your Inner Critic, and you have no way to turn down the volume much less turn it off. In fact, you’ve grown so used to the constant talk from the Inner Critic, you hardly notice he’s ordering you about, commenting, passing judgment and evaluating just about everything you do or say; this is all so subtle and insidious that you don’t separate out the Inner Critic from other parts of you. The Inner Critic has become you—it seems as if the only time you can escape his badgering is when you sleep. There is a reason for this. When you sleep, your conscious mind shuts down. The dream state or intuitive right side of the brain, takes over.

The Inner Critic avoids the dream state like the plague. He can’t get a foothold in a place where there is no apparent logic, where things appear as images, feelings, sounds and colors. It should not be surprising, then, that your best stories, characters and plots, come from this place of dreams, where little is known and anything is possible

Interviewing Your Characters

2008-06-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Some Interviewing Questions:

1. How old are you?

2. What kind of work do you do?

3. Are you married?

4. Do you have any children?

5. Are you in a good relationship to your spouse or lover?

6. Have you ever been unfaithful?

7. Has your partner ever been unfaithful?

8. What kinds of things make you angry?

9. How do you express that anger?

10. You’re in a scene with someone who is making you very angry. Why? What’s making you angry?

11. What memory does the scene bring up?

12. What memory does the memory bring up?

CREATIVE WRITING IS EXPERIENTIAL

2008-05-31T12:25:00.000-05:00

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with writing. The answer is both simple and complex, and further elucidates why creative writing is not about language. It is about experience and feelings, and where do experience and feelings lie? In the body. Nothing is more human than the body, and few things are more confounding than the passions that lie within: everything from the tenderest love to the most murderous rage. Therefore, if as writers we are to explore and express the human condition, we must approach our task through the body, not through the mind. Through experience, not through words. Which doesn’t mean you have to go out and literally experience everything you write about. That’s what the imagination is for. You imagine and the characters unleashed from your creative unconscious live the life and through them, you live it, too.

Dorsey, one of my students, put it this way:

When I began to write, I wrote about personal experiences that would have shriveled my mother’s toes. Like how I sliced my forehead with a razor (just a little bit) when I was ten years old, how I ran away, and how I suffered with a cancer operation. But alas, there was a limit to my experiences. Then Emily explained how I could tell limitless stories with fiction. I could be savage, coy, or seductive. I could be a throat slitter, a convent girl, or a dull dowager. I could be all those things so unmentionable when I was growing up. Emily spoke of finding the passion of the characters. It made me want to twist my fingers with embarrassment at first, those words—passion, lust, anger . . .

I would say that ninety percent of the people who come to me either do not know how to or are afraid to let out their passion. The other ten percent, who hurl themselves down the Rabbit Hole willy-nilly, have other problems to confront. Usually such people are very at home in the chaos of the unknown, but must struggle to get order.

My student, Dorsey, is a risk taker, and every writer I know who is successful is a risk taker. By success, I don’t mean they’ve made the best sellers list or even are able to sell their book or story. Success means they struggle, sometimes daily, with their demons and open to the passion of their writing. Success means they have found discipline that allows them to write through the blocks and survive the dry spells. Success means that they know in their heart that they are a writer and that, on most days, they love the writer within. They write despite the angst, they write for the joy, they write for the wonder, the experience and the surprises. They write because they are writers and they must write. They write because to write is to journey, to change, to grow. They write because for a writer it is in the writing that life is often lived most deeply.

All this is why writing is, at its core, experiential. And the truly miraculous part, I have discovered, is that when we brave the journey and open fully to our passions through our characters, we actually integrate those passions into ourselves. We expand as human beings. This is what I call writing as ritual. If we battle our Inner Critics, if we battle the inner demons, if we gather in the disowned parts of ourselves by merging with our characters, then we are actually, literally changed because of the journey. Passionate writing, writing that scares us witless, is transformative for the writer.

Fiction writing is not a linear process.

2008-05-17T18:57:00.000-05:00

Fiction writing is not a linear process. To understand we have only to look at creativity itself.

Creativity is a subtle and magnificent dance between the rational and the intuitive, between the left and right parts of the brains, between technique and imagination. Both partners in this dance are absolutely necessary and are needed in equal proportion, which means that imagination is not more important than technique and visa versa. If you only live in the imagination, you will never get organized, you will never complete your story. However, if you start from the rational, linear, organizational part of the process, ( ie. Gotta have the perfect opening sentence and first paragraph... better yet, an outline...) you will never fall into the rich, passionate cosmic landscape of the imagination where anything is possible.

However, the main problem I have seen in my thirty years of teaching fiction writing is over-dependence on the rational part of the equation. People want to get the story written and get it out. (Whatever that means?) The want to leap frog the process, get the words down on the page and finish the story. This is to symptomatic of the goal oriented society that we live in, a society that is striving upwards toward success instead of embracing the deeper, more powerful and life changing journey of descent that takes us into the creative realm of the true self.

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Albert Einstein

Releasing the Creative Energy in Fiction Writing

2008-05-01T08:26:00.001-05:00

What is good fiction writing technique? How do we unleash the creative energy through the channels of character and story? Although I teach technique, my emphasis has changed and the techniques themselves have shape shifted. I know now that the journey of the writer is first and foremost a journey of self-discovery, the path on which we can find essence and hear the song of our soul. Craft and technique are necessary, but the trick is to not put the cart before the horse. Technical expertise alone cannot release the writer's passion, and the perfectly turned phrase will please the ego, but if it doesn't translate into something meaningful for the character and story, it is so much wasted word count. Not that there's anything wrong with seeking the perfectly turned phrase. I do it myself. It's a great delight for the mind; the problem is when we confuse perfection of outer form with essence.

Both technique and passion are vital in many ways, but I've worked with writers who are technically excellent but can't plumb the depths of the human condition. Conversely, I've worked with writers who have great intuitive understanding of the task William Faulkner set forth for writers -- "... the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself... alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the sweat and the agony."-- but whose lack of technique flaws their story telling, sometimes to the point where they can't finish and give up in frustration.

But revealing the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself is, for most, the more difficult of the two tasks. If we are to succeed, we must leave our conscious self and all our mind's expectations and journey into the unknown, that place of shadows, mist, fertility and birth that knows neither right or wrong, that holds a truth beyond the mind's understanding. If we brave this journey, we will emerge from the mists and shadows into a landscape more vibrant than the one we left behind. Miraculously, we find ourselves writing the story we never thought we'd write, the story our minds could not conceive but our hearts hunger to write.

Giving the Inner Critic What For!

2008-04-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, do you have the symbol of your Inner Critic?

If not, find one.

Take it in hand.

Hold it before you.

Look it in the eye, if it has an eye, or dead on center.

Talk to it, out loud. Be as firm as you need to be. Say something such as, “Inner Critic, I’m going in search of the Rabbit Hole now and if I’m lucky and brave, I’ll fall right in. But for sure that won’t happen if you’re around. So get your butt in gear and get out of my writing space!”

Pause, listen, get a sense as to whether your Inner Critic believes you. If not, repeat your statement, make yourself sound more commanding. Say it until both you and your Inner Critic know that you are in charge. Now, literally, carry your Inner Critic away from your writing space. Turn its back to a wall, bury it under a mound of towels or dirty clothes. Do whatever you need to do, short of annihilating it, to keep it away while you are creating. At the same time, advise the Inner Critic that when you finish creating, you will come and get her. Tell her this will be the routine whenever you are writing, and if she has hopes of ever being partners in your creative endeavors, she’d better learn to stop nosing in and berating you.

When you are certain the Inner Critic is safely under your control, return to your writing space.

Do this exercise as many times as you need until you feel the imagination overpowering the Inner Critic. You may need to do it every time you go to work in this book or on your writing or in other areas that demand creativity. I do this exercise when I am feeling anxious or upset and need to get control of my emotions. After a while, you won’t need the symbol of your Inner Critic; you’ll be able to carry on a conversation in your mind. When you no longer need the physical image of your Inner Critic, you can enshrine it on top of the refrigerator or on the back of the toilet bowl!

Let the Gypsy in You Dance! And an Exercise

2008-04-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

You cannot be truly creative until the gypsy in you dances.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Imagining your creative desires is the first step on the journey to getting them. The pursuit is not an easy one. Creativity doesn’t just happen. Wildly creative people aren’t the beloved children of the Fates. creativity is hard work. It is risky business. Creativity is something we must choose every day of our lives.

Creativity is active and passionate. Creativity is about doing and feeling. The rich fertile ground where creativity is born and nurtured lies in the heart and the gut. Creativity rises from the unknown, the unseen, the forgotten. Creativity laughs and cries, it dances and sings, it creates and destroys.

Calling Forth Your Gypsy

List negative words to describe Gypsies.

List positive words to describe Gypsies.

Write down one subject that you would never, never write about. If you think there isn’t any subject that is taboo, make one up.

Make a list of all your creative desires. Leave nothing out.

Make a list of the risks you have taken in your life. Big risks, little risks—they all count.

Go to the list of creative desires and see if there are any more you’d like to add.

Look at the list of your risks. Which one makes you feel the best? Why?

Get a crayon, broad-tipped magic marker or dark inked pen. . look at the one subject that you would never, never write about. Write it down now.

Write a short piece about an imagined character doing the one thing that you would never write about. Whatever you write, make it something that both frightens and delights you. The point of this exercise is to take a chance, be bold, passionate, have fun! Get down and dirty. Let your imagination run free. Write without thinking. Let the Gypsy in you dance.

This exercise is taken from Emily Hanlon's book, The Art of Fiction Writing

Creative Chaos: Its Call, Its Difficulty and Its Freedom.

2008-04-09T16:47:00.001-05:00

A TeleSeminar from Emily Hanlon

Tuesday, April 22, 1 pm eastern time

Chaos is integral to the creative process.
Without chaos, nothing would be born.

This chaos has been called the great seething sea of the unconscious and it is the most difficult aspect of the creative process. It follows on the heels of the first spark of creativity, when everything is possible and nothing has taken form.

You try to give form to your idea, but the idea refuses to be tamed. Possibility and excitement turn into fear and overwhelming discouragement.

What happened to my great idea! Everything is falling apart. I'll never get it done... woe is me... I'm not really creative...

At this point, if you give into despair, you are in danger of aborting your creativity. For it is in the chaos that the spark of creativity is nurtured. In fact, you might even call the chaos the womb of creativity.

This TeleSeminar explores the irresistible call, difficulties and ultimate joy and freedom of creative chaos!

If you can't attend the TeleSeminar, you can listen online
or download the audio to your computer, CD or Ipod.

Cds are also available.

Tuesday, April 22, 1 pm eastern timeRegister: $20

A Room of One’s Own

2008-04-04T14:06:00.001-05:00

"There must be silence to hear the song,
there must be darkness to see the stars.
The dance is always danced above the hollow place,
above the terrible abyss."
Ursula LeGuinn, "The Farthest Shore"

Do you have a place where you write? A place that is especially yours? If you have one, does it support and reflect your creativity? It is inspiring and fun to make your writing place alive and organic, a shrine to your creativity, delights and passions. Gather things small and large. Pictures of people you love, flowers, rocks, toys. Choose and arrange them carefully and with love.

My writing room was my son’s room originally. When he moved out, I took over what had been his dark teenage den and transformed it into my space. I wallpapered, much to his chagrin, with lovely blue-flowered paper. Stars and moons hang from my ceiling above my computer. (I feel compelled to say I was a star and moon collector long before it became the fad!) On top of my monitor I have a little plastic windup toy of a cat in a cup as well as a statue of a lamb that I bought while touring England’s West Country; there is a small knight given to me by my son, a pin that says “magic happens,” a chakra stick given to me by my daughter, a piece of bark from a tree. On the wall to my right hangs a rain stick crossed over a sword and across the room is a Celtic Cross carved into slate that my husband bought me in England. There are pictures of my family; my favorite books are nearby and a flowering plant is on the desk. I try, but I can’t seem to keep my room neat for more than a day. Sometimes that bothers me, sometimes it doesn’t. No matter, I love this room. It is mine.

I sit here when I need peace. I curl up on the couch when I am sick, and my three cats, Al, Mushy and Jilly, have staked out their claims—Al and Mushy on the couch, Jilly by my computer or on my chair. (We have a long-standing battle as to who owns the chair!) If my golden retriever, Molly, can’t find me, she checks this room first. And last but not least, I know my characters are at home here, waiting for me to return each morning.

I have had many writing spaces over the years, everything from the dining room table to the guest room. This last space is the best I’ve ever had. I created it from the bottom up with one thought in mind: to make it mine.

Message from the Muse

2008-04-01T14:43:00.001-05:00

The work in process becomes the poet’s fate and determines his psychic development. It is not Goethe who creates Faust but Faust who creates Goethe.

C.G. Jung

Interviewing Your Character

2008-03-29T14:51:00.005-05:00

The technique of character interviewing is a very powerful tool in developing characters in fiction writing. The secret to its success is being loose enough, critic-free enough, to go with the creative flow and let be born whatever will be born. You might want to spend time visualizing the character in your mind’s eye. You need not visualize the character’s physical presence absolutely—I never have a photo perfect picture of my characters; rather, go for a walk or sit in a quiet place and feel yourself opening to the character’s presence, allow the character’s energy to rise up within you.

Get a sense of the character as he or she appears. Sense the energy, hear the voice, let the interview take on a life of its own. If nothing comes to you right away, don’t push it. Instead, go for a walk, or while you’re doing some mindless task, or just before falling asleep, ask for a character to come forth. Take whatever comes. Don’t worry. Don’t second guess. Play the character. Sense the energy.

Coming Soon on the Blog: 50 Interviewing Questions

Let Emily Interview Your Characters: Explore How

Or a TeleSeminar on Interviewing Characters

Priming the Pump of the Imagination:

2008-03-20T11:23:00.005-05:00

Image as a Bridge to Character and Story
A Four Session TeleWorkshop from Emily Hanlon

Can picture spawn a thousand (or more) words? For a writer — absolutely! That's exactly what we will be doing in this high energy, four week teleworkshop.

Explore This Four Session TeleWorkshop

Tuesday
starting March 25!

IMAGINATION AND BRUISED NOSES

2008-03-13T17:20:00.001-05:00

Dear Writers,

Emily graciously invited me to share the following excerpt from a recent article I wrote for ImagiNews.

Enjoy and Write On!

Patresa Rollinger

A few years ago that strong voice of knowing informed me I needed to move on from places in my life that had come to fruition. It was time to venture into new territory, plunge deeper into passion, expand my vision and creativity. I barely had time to grab my pen as I was marched down a magical path called fiction writing. The voice said “GO.” I tried not to listen. Oh, how I tried. But my Inner Writer, cloistered far too long in an empty white room, banged on the walls of her cell. “Let me help for a change.” She cried.

“…for a change.” The words struck home. I heeded her call.

I was offered a white page of limitless possibility after years of writing medical chart notes. Feeling immensely liberated I naively stepped into the delicious vast emptiness that was mine, all mine, in which to create – and promptly ran wham bam into the limits of my Imagination.

If you’ve never had the experience of writing fiction, be forewarned. There are no parameters as there are in non-fiction. When you enter the realm of limitless possibility there is no guide BUT Intuition. You will probably get a bruised nose, the result of constantly bumping up against your limits. That is good. Because once you know your limits you can invoke your Intuition to formulate a plan to move beyond them.

Fiction writing offers the most brilliant, severe, jaw-dropping, bring-me-to-my-knees insights I have ever experienced. It can be fierce at times yet offers a deeper, more intimate, level of Intuitive connection. Each new scene illuminates a different facet of the jewel that is life. It helps us see and understand treasures that lie within each of our lives, sometimes bright and shiny, sometimes barely visible beneath the dust; sometimes submerged so deep we can only imagine they are there.

More of Patresa’s musings can be found at: http://www.jewelsinthedust.blogspot.com

Sale on all 2007 TeleSeminars and E-books: 50% Off

2008-03-12T16:55:00.000-05:00

Sale Ends on March 15

View the Sale

Teleseminars on:

1. Character Development in Fiction Writing: The Art and Technique of Interviewing

2. Awakening to the Artistry of Living

3. The Power of Point of View in Fiction Writing

4. The Five Ingredients of the Scene in Fiction Writing

5. Creative Process, How and Why It Works

6. Accessing Your Writer's Voice: Defanging the Inner Critic

7. The Passion of Fiction Writing

8. The Myth of the Descent of Inanna and the Powerful Journey of the Feminine

9. Writing Your Story, Creating A Tapestry of Your Life: Memoir as a Healing Journey

View the Sale
Sale Ends on March 15

I Am Not I

2008-03-11T17:04:00.001-05:00

There is a very particular risk inherent in the creative process: when you take the journey inward, you discover that you are not who you think you are, or you are more than who you think you are. But sometimes these images reflected through the inner mirrors are so alien that they first appear ugly, even demonic and cause us to run. The trick is not to run, but to persevere. The image will shift, the fear will dissolve and the stranger seen through the creative mirror will become familiar and quite wonderful. These unknown parts of us will guide us through unseen doors, into unexpected landscapes.

A poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez speaks wonderfully to this point.

I Am Not I

I am not I.
I am walking beside me
whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit
and at other times manage to forget.
The one who forgives sweet when I hate,
the one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
the one who remains silent when I talk,
and the one who will remain when I die.

How do we discover these who walk beside us and tend to be who we are not? How do we learn to lift the smoke screen?

First of all, I'd like to suggest that these ones do not walk beside us, but these unseen, unexplored voices live inside us.

There are different ways of finding this inner self which some call the dark or shadow side, hidden self or true self. Whatever you call them they are parts of our selves that have been secluded, usually in childhood or adolescence, when it seemed somehow dangerous to put them out into the world. We learn very early in life to pass judgements on those parts of ourselves that don't meet with acceptance and, in so doing, we doom ourselves to live through a very small part of the totality of self while casting other parts of self into the shadows, where we keep them hidden, silenced in the dark.

Carl Jung said that the unconscious is a great friend, guide and advisor to the conscious and that psychic wholeness comes from bringing the unconscious and the conscious into balance. He believed the primary way of doing this is through dreams. I believe that this communication is also part and parcel of the creative journey. The trick is in breaking through the stranglehold that the rational, conscious mind, the "I" we think we are, has on us.

As far as I am concerned, this is the most difficult part of the journey, quieting the inner critic so that we can go unfettered, without judgment and criticism, into the great sea of the unconscious. This breaking through is also the hook -- or perhaps it is more accurate to say that when we finally break through into the creative unconscious, we are hooked. For there we find the hidden selves who hold so much of our deep yearnings and explosive drive. They hold talents, wisdom and knowledge we never dreamed we had. For the fiction writer, our hidden, disowned selves often come through as powerhouse characters -- if we let them! In so many ways, these hidden selves are partners in the dance of creativity.

To explore these ideas in more depth and see how they affect you and your writing, buy Emily's book, The Art of Fiction Writing and receive two e-books free!

A Creation Myth of Personal Creativity

2008-03-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

Have you ever written a myth of your creativity?
Recently I did. You might try writing one of your own.
Please feel free to post it to the blog.
And if you would like to become a member of the blog, email me.

A Creation Myth...
In the beginning she came into the world dancing on the fiery spray of a dying star. She came and she forgot. Not right away, because the air of earth was vibrant, there was love in her father's eyes and warmth in her mother's body. The invisible was but a heartbeat away.

She came to dance, but the dance changed. She came to sing, but the song changed. She forgot she was a song of Mystery and love. Except in private times when the world outside slipped; she flew back into the light, and the mind of the child was filled with the song of remembering.

Forgetfulness is a mean depression, a prison where the self is lost, cold and alone under a well-worn cloak promising comfort and warmth. "You are safe in me." And called her, "Dear One."

"Nothing's either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

2008-02-27T16:01:00.000-05:00

- William Shakespeare

So tell your Inner Critic to put that in his pipe and smoke it when next she tries to stop you from following the passion of your creativity!

Creativity is a labyrinthine journey that takes us deeper and deeper into our self. With every twist, turn and seeming two (three and four!) steps backward for every step forward, we learn more, let go more, fear, love, cry and dance for joy. Creativity is a journey into the dark and it must be. Why? Because as creators, we are manifesting the unmanifested.

Where is the unmanifested found?

Where are seeds found?
What gives birth to dawn?
From where does the butterfly emerge?
What is the warm, encompasing darkness that gives birth to every living thing?

The answers are all around us.

Creativity is BIG STUFF! Don't underestimate the power of the journey! And if you feel at times, and we all do, that you're not up to the task, think of this: if you don't risk the journey, you risk even more.

A Writing Exercise

2008-02-21T18:43:00.003-05:00

You might want to read the previous entry before you begin...

Close your eyes and take three deep, circular breaths. When you breathe, imagine you are inhaling your Inner Writer. When you breathe out, imagine you are exhaling your Inner Critic.
With eyes closed, imagine you are alone with your Inner Writer. Follow her as she leads you into the cosmic world of the creative unconscious. It is a world outside of time and space where nothing is predestined and everything is possible. If what you see makes little sense, you know you’re in the right place!
After a while, become aware that you are looking for an image to make itself known to you. When you see the image three times – no matter that it makes no sense –this is your image, a gift from the Inner Writer that will start you on a new and exciting journey.
Write down the image on a piece of paper.
Now the magic of working with image as guide is going to reveal itself. For that to happen, you have to allow your image to shape shift. But you can’t “think” or try to make it happen. You can’t control, question or try to figure out the shape shift. Are you ready?

Write down the answer the following questions quickly. Don’t think! If one answer makes a previous answer seem untrue, remember, we are in the realm of the imagination where nothing is as it seems. Answer quickly. Don’t second guess yourself.

· Close your eyes and ask your image to shape shift into an object in nature, i.e, a tidal wave, a black rose... whatever… What is it now?

Now your image is going to shape shift into an animal, what kind of animal is? Go for a primal animal; it holds more passion and risk. So, if a kitten comes to mind, shape shift it into a lion, tiger or panther.

· Now your image is going to explode with new color. Remember, the color does not have to make sense. Coloring outside the lines is a requirement!

List as many adjectives as you can think of to describe your image.
List as many nouns as you can think of to describe your image. Write fast. Don’t worry if you are writing down adjectives instead of nouns or vice versa.
List as many verbs as you can to describe how your image moves.
Name your image.
Look at your lists and underline the words that hold the most energy, positive or negative.
Make a list of these words. Using these words as a jumping off point, write some sentences. This is the beginning of a new story growing out of the gift of the original image. Don’t think. Let the rich and plentiful images that rose up out of your creative unconscious be your engine. Write even if what you write makes no apparent sense.
If you get stuck, see if you have enough dramatic tension. If not, arbitrarily throw in something like a fight. Why a fight? It creates immediate tension, which gives energy to your story. Or throw in a stalker or a thief, a seductress or someone in flight. Alternately, go back to your list. Pick out another word or image and see if that gets the juices flowing. Or simple ask your image to write for you.

Any of these suggestions will work if you shut off your mind (the home of the Inner Critic), put pen to paper and let the writing flow. This exercise is not about writing the perfect story. It isn’t even about writing a story, although one may come out of it. It’s about accessing the creative unconscious differently.

Remember, your image is a gift from your Inner Writer and its many shape shifts are the key. Write without thinking. Write fast. In the world of the imagination, there is no right or wrong. Go for it, have fun!

A Writing Prompt

2008-02-16T18:43:00.001-05:00

How to Use Writing Prompts

Any prompt is only a starting point. If your imagination takes you in a direction that has nothing to do with the prompts, go where your imagination takes you. Do not listen to the voice inside your head that says, “Oh, no! I shouldn’t be writing about this!” or “I’m not doing this right!” There are no “shoulds” or “should nots” in this process. The only thing you can do wrong is to not write.
Always name your characters, even if the name never appears in the story. Why would a character tell you her story if you don’t care enough to learn her name?
Write dialogue. In twenty-five years of teaching writing, I have never worked with anyone who couldn’t write dialogue – only with people who thought they couldn’t!
Be a risk taker. Don’t think. Write from your passionate core. Risk and passion are the essence of the creative journey and the sweetest nectar for your Inner Writer. Don’t forget to have fun!

Prompt

I just wanted her to tell me I was okay — I just wanted her to love me and not knock me down and tear me apart. “Can’t you just love me, Mom, just love me the way I look tonight, and tell me I look pretty,” I pleaded with her inside my head. Reason was not a way of life in our house. I knew that for sure when Mom…

This prompt gives you an opportunity for dialogue and strong point of view. What is going on between the mother and daughter? First write the scene from the daughter’s point of view, using her inner thought and lots of dialogue. Then put the daughter’s story aside and write the scene from the mother’s point of view. You need not have the exact same dialogue and almost certainly the story will be very different from the mother’s point of view.

Why Do We Make Writing So Hard?

2008-02-14T15:49:00.000-05:00

We make writing a lot harder than it is meant to be. Don’t get me wrong—writing is not a piece of cake. It is hard work, but it’s good hard work, like digging in the earth to make a garden. The problem for many of us is that our minds have convinced us that sitting down to write a story much less a book is at best painful, at worst impossible.

I believed this for many years –– and despite that I managed to get five novels, two picture books and one book on writing published. I don’t believe in the pain theory of writing any more. Experience and age has convinced me of this: all our stories and novels are vibrant and complete somewhere in our creative unconscious. If we could side-step the Inner Critic who resides in the mind, we could sit down, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and the story would reveal itself in its glorious completeness in much the same way as Mozart’s symphonies did for him. I have read that Mozart sat down and wrote his symphonies with very little revision, if any at all. In other words, he gave himself over fully to the creative journey and fell headlong into its passion.

The first time I read about Mozart composing without revision, I thought, sure, right. And if it’s true, well, we’re talking Mozart. For sure, that’s not me! Now, some twenty-odd years later, I no longer doubt that it is possible to sit down and write a book from beginning to end and have it come out whole. I would like to experience such a creative flow and know that what prevents me is me, my mind that says it’s impossible, “What, are you kidding? Writing is blood, sweat and tears. It’s revision after revision. It’s tearing your hair out. It’s giving up and picking up. It’s blah, blah, blah…”

Because that voice, the voice of my Inner Critic, still has sway over me, I have, like you, something of a difficult time opening to the creative flow. It’s getting easier. And who knows? One day I might just manage to quiet the naysayer in me and write a book whole from beginning to end. For now, I’m happy that writing is no longer such a mountain to climb… and I can imagine the possibility of creative nirvana!

The Inner Critic and the Creative Unconscious

2008-02-12T15:56:00.001-05:00

The Inner Critic is terrified of the creative unconscious because it is the home of feelings, emotions, images and it is chaotic and unexpected. The Inner Critic likes order and loves the status quo, which is antithetical to the creative unconscious. That's why if you "fall down the rabbit hole" the Inner Critic won't follow you! Free of the Inner Critic, you have the possibility of experiencing real creative freedom and passionate stories awaits you. Only then can the true dance begin!