Writing from the Peak: creativity

Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Seeing the World Beyond - Open Up Your Inner Child’s Creativity, Part 3

Readers, today we are fortunate to have the second of three installments in Liz Jeffries' mini-series on creativity and unleashing your inner child. Liz reminds us of the joy we find in writing, and how getting back in creative saddle can help overcome personal challenges. Liz shares her tried and true techniques for unleashing the imagination of our childhood and getting the results from mind to keyboard (or paper). Today, in her final installment, Liz addresses those questions she brought up last week and shares her tried and true creative tactics.

We need to feed that creative spark that lies within us. Oh yes, it’s always there, no matter how much adulthood and responsibility have tried to snuff it out. And we can feed it and help it grow. How you ask? Well here are some things I do for myself. Some of these have been taught to me by other people, some I got from books, some I just came up with on my own.
One of my new favorite techniques that I’ve been introduced to since joining Pikes Peak Writers is improv writing. Basically, take a prompt, give yourself a space of time (like 10 minutes) and just WRITE. It can be anything. There is no right or wrong. No one ever has to see it. It’s not anything that has to be made into a story, or has to go somewhere, or even has to make sense. It’s just a time to get your brain to think, to flow, to push yourself beyond the normal comfort zone of your writing. To exercise your brain. To maybe explore things you wouldn’t consider exploring in a ‘normal’ setting.
It’s easy. There’s tons of apps and websites that will create random prompts for you. And you don’t have to write on the exact prompt. For example, a lot of them are in first person, but maybe you feel more creative writing in third. So write in third! Just take the basic idea of the prompt and let it ignite the fires in your skull. And remember…NO RULES. Handwrite it if you have to, to break your mind out of the mold. I do. I find when I write on my laptop I get too consumed with making the story ‘pretty’ and I’ve barely gotten more than a few sentences in when the timer goes off. But put a pen and a piece of paper in my hand? I’m off to the races and I don’t really care what it reads like. I’m just writing.
A second tactic I use is to find new inspirations. It’s hard to be inspired sitting in front of a screen or searching Youtube. Whenever I find myself running a little low on the creativity meter, I try to find something to energize me. Like going to an art museum, listening to music, or going to the zoo. I especially love music. Listening to music and feeling the story that it speaks to you. Not the story the artist intends, although that’s usually really great too. I mean the story that the song speaks to you. Do you ever get images when you listen to a song? What are the emotions that you feel listening to it? Does it remind you of any memories? To just listen to the song, to let yourself drift into it. For nothing to exist in that moment but you and the song. To being open to whatever pops into your head as you listen to it.
I also journal a lot. Every morning I get up and write. It can be complete total gibberish, but I write. I write about how I feel. What I did the day before. Things I dreamed. Things I was looking forward to during the day. Old scars that cropped up that make me feel bad. Things I’m questioning. Whatever pops into my head, it goes down into the journal.
Another tactic is to use your creativity, but in a different way. I like to go do pottery. I also am teaching myself how to make things out of leather. Making things and writing are both an act of creation. But sometimes you can ‘run the well dry’ just doing one thing. Sometimes you have to try and explore something new to ‘jumpstart’ the creativity wheel for your writing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been bent over the potter’s wheel working on a lump of clay when a random thought about my current story pops into my head, or an idea for my blog.
The last tip I have is to just go out into the world and open your mind up to observing and exploring. You can only write what you know and even the most far flung fantasies have to have some basis in reality, whether it’s emotions or how things act/react. We have to have some basis in reality so that our readers can relate. And the only way to understand the world is to observe it, to live it. I couldn’t write a book about climbing a mountain unless I had really done it. Oh, I could. I could pretend. I could read other’s accounts and try to use them. But it’s not the same as actually being there. Actually taking the steps to walk up the mountain. The breeze on your skin. The sun beating down. The smell of the pine trees. The call of the birds. I could not evoke the same emotion, could not describe the environment, the same way I could if I actually got out there, climbed a mountain and experienced it for myself. Saw it with my own eyes. Sensed it with my own senses.
I like people watching. Looking at how people dress, how they stand, what they might say or the gestures they make. I like taking those observations and creating little stories around them. Who they are. Where they come from. What their day might have been like. Where they are going later on. Of course, the stories aren’t true. But it’s an exercise in taking what I see and looking past the reality to the possibility of what might be. I like watching their mannerisms, their style and incorporating that into my characters. To give my characters a depth of reality.
And don’t stop yourself. What do I mean by that? If you get inspired by something, don’t immediately shoot yourself down by saying “oh that won’t make a good story” or “that won’t make it anywhere”. Don’t analyze! Will every inspiration be a story? NO! But by cutting off your inspiration before it has a chance to grow, by shooting it down before it even gets off the ground, trains your brain that it’s wrong. That it has to ‘think right’. Think like an adult. Be rational. Be reasonable. Be responsible. Don’t be daydreaming. Don’t be stuck in the clouds.
Yet that is precisely what we need to do! We need to be children. We need to daydream. We need to see past reality. We need to feed our ability to create. To forget, if even for only an hour, about bills and responsibilities. To let go of all the ‘rules’. To be silly. To be wacky. To push ourselves out of our comfort zones. To look at the world like a child. Where stuffed animals are real and dragons lie in wait around every corner. Where taking a sled down a hill is skiing down the Alps. Where a stick is a mighty sword, worthy of slaying a gigantic beast.
To be inspired by the world around us.
We need to play, without worrying about the ‘adult’ things waiting for us. To not worry about the hours we spend writing. We need to let ourselves get lost in this passion that we love.
The ways I talked about above are just some of the ways I use to inspire my creativity. Use them or find your own. After all, no one is inspired in the same way by the same things. But we do all share one thing. We all have a flame of creativity within us, just waiting to be used. It may be small, buried under all sorts of layers we put down as adults so we don’t act like kids. But it never dies. It’s there, waiting for you to find it and feed it.
It’s time. Release the child inside. Release your creativity. And just watch all the amazing places your mind takes you!
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pikes peak writers liz jeffries head shot

I have always thought of myself as a writer, writing books while I was still in elementary school. However, as I grew up I started suffering from undiagnosed severe chronic anxiety and depression, and emotional abuse from when I was a child that eventually destroyed my love of writing and art, as well as life. Skip ahead to 2011 when I was challenged by a friend to start living again, and dealing with my issues. I started a blog detailing my adventures learning how to ride a motorcycle and a mountain bike, and my slow understanding of my mental issues, and was amazed at the positive response. Slowly, my love for writing started growing again. Fast forward to 2016 when I hit a dead end with my life in Illinois and needed a new adventure. Within a week of deciding, I packed up all my gear and moved out to Colorado. Since coming to Colorado, my excitement and creativity has blossomed, as well as getting my anxiety and depression under control.
Email Liz Jeffries here.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Seeing the World Beyond - Open Up Your Inner Child’s Creativity, Part 2

Readers, today we are fortunate to have the second of three installments in Liz Jeffries' mini-series on creativity and unleashing your inner child. Liz reminds us of the joy we find in writing, and how getting back in creative saddle can help overcome personal challenges. Liz shares her tried and true techniques for unleashing the imagination of our childhood and getting the results from mind to keyboard (or paper). This brief post is designed to get you thinking. Chew on the questions Liz provides, really give it some thought. And check back next week for the third and final installment.

Ask yourself some questions.
Do you ever write just to write? No goals as in “this has to become a book” or “this has to go to a contest”. Just writing for the sake of writing. Of putting pen to paper, or fingers to a keyboard, and just writing for the insane pleasure of weaving something together.
As you go through your normal day, do you see people or places or things and suddenly get filled with this amazing idea for something to write?
Do you throw the rulebook out the window when you write? Or do you get too wrapped up in what someone reading it may think. Is it the proper grammar? Is it the proper format? Am I allowed to do this? This isn’t normally what I write, is it ok to write different stuff? This doesn’t really fit in a genre, is it ok?
Do you get writer’s block a lot?
Do you not write because you ‘aren’t inspired’?
Do you not write because you feel there’s too much pressure to achieve something or reach a goal?
If you said no to the first three questions or yes to the last three, you may have fallen into the trap I did. That so many of us do. You’ve forgotten how to write like a child.
Dedicated writing has its place, when you are trying to make and finish a book or other piece for publication. We should set aside dedicated time to write and be inspired. Rules, grammar, format and punctuation most certainly have their place. But we cannot get so wrapped up in rules that we chain ourselves up. Where we forget how to just let go and write and have fun.
We need to feed that creative spark that lies within us. Oh yes, it’s always there, no matter how much adulthood and responsibility have tried to snuff it out. And we can feed it and help it grow. How you ask? Well here are some things I do for myself. Some of these have been taught to me by other people, some I got from books, some I just came up with on my own.
In the next installment I’ll share my own techniques for unleashing my inner child and feeding that creative spark.
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Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Seeing the World Beyond - Open Up Your Inner Child’s Creativity, Part 1

Readers, today we are fortunate to have the first of three installments in Liz Jeffries' mini-series on creativity and unleashing your inner child. Liz reminds us of the joy we find in writing, and how getting back in creative saddle can help overcome personal challenges. Liz shares her tried and true techniques for unleashing the imagination of our childhood and getting the results from mind to keyboard (or paper). Enjoy!

Remember as a kid how you would play? A stick suddenly became a sword, your bike your faithful steed beneath you as you raced up to slay the dragon and rescue the beautiful princess. A broken cup and saucer suddenly became High Tea at Buckingham Palace. A trip across the backyard became a daring exploration through the rainforest, filled with crocodiles and jaguars and raging rivers. How you’d play for hours and hours and hours until your parents had to drag you back inside kicking and screaming? You’d spend those hours playing, without a care for the time that was passing. For whether you were ‘playing right’. For what other ‘productive’ things you could have been doing.
When a kid is playing with that stick, it’s no longer a stick. It IS a sword. There is a river. There is a crocodile. It’s not just ‘we’re going to pretend it is because we have nothing better’. It IS that object. And they believe it wholeheartedly, with a faith few adults can come close to. That same imaginative faith applies to stuffed animals and imaginary friends. Ever read Calvin and Hobbes? To Calvin, Hobbes WAS a tiger. Even though he interacted with him as a stuffed animal, in his mind he was flesh and blood and fur.
Kids see beyond reality. Not to what a thing is, but to what it could be. And then they make that possibility real, even if it’s only in their own minds. This is the power of a child’s imagination. Their power of creation.
As writers, especially fiction writers, we need to have that same power of creation. We need to see beyond the reality that lays in the world around us, to the stories and possibilities that lie behind it. That is how we are inspired as writer’s. That’s where, for a lot of us, our stories are born.
Unfortunately, as adults, a lot of us have lost our ability to create.
I have always loved to write, from the first memories that I can still dredge up into my head. Yet I went through a very long stretch of my life where I didn’t write, or at least, didn’t write with any passion or conviction. I struggled for a very long time with undiagnosed chronic anxiety and depression. And while that’s a story for another blog post, I can tell you one of the things I most struggled with. Following the rules so that I pleased other people.
I became so obsessed with following all the ‘rules’, in being a ‘good person’, in being a ‘good adult’ that I lost that part of myself that was a child. I lost my hope. I lost my spirit. I became so stressed out trying to be responsible and level headed and ‘adult’, I gave up on the things that made me a writer. My love of weird stuff. My spontaneity. My hope. My openness to see crazy things in the world around me. My anxiety told me I was worthless as a writer, my depression made me feel hopeless and drained, and I didn’t want to write, and my obsession with the rules meant I was so obsessed with writing ‘correctly’ that I’d take three hours to write one page because it had to be ‘perfect’. Needless to say, over years and years of this my creativity suffered immensely. My love of writing stopped. I had nothing to write because I couldn’t get inspired. I couldn’t create anymore.
When I was a kid I was plenty creative. I remember playing zoo with my brother, and we were the animals. I remember playing African Queen (we’d watched the movie with my mom), using the bathtub for our river boat. I remember playing we were ranchers with the cats as cows (by the way, cats don’t herd well). I remember falling so deep into my fantasy books they seemed almost truer reality than the reality I lived in.
We all have that ability to see things for what they could be. To create and craft new realities, new worlds, new stories from whatever we see around us. We are all born with that. Yet as we grow we let things (like rules, anxiety, responsibilities) convince us that it’s wrong to think like that. And slowly, year by year, that childlike flame of creation that lives in all of us dies a little. Until it’s so small it’s like it’s not even there. And all we can see around is the literally reality of the world.
That loss of creativity impacts our lives. The lives of every human being, not just writers. But especially as writers, because that is what writing is. Creating! Even for the non-fiction people, you need to be inspired to create a book. To find a topic. To research. To write it in such a way, to craft it, to weave your tale that it draws the reader in and makes it real to them. Relevant. And for fiction writers? What do we have to write if we cannot create? We craft and mold everything in our worlds, from the characters to the land to the emotions and words and languages.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Stand Up for Yourself

By Linda Rohrbough

I spend a lot of time sitting, literally. And I’m tired of it. Here are the gyrations I’ve gone through to find a more active way to work.

I heard about the treadmill desk. What a concept. Walking slowly and brainlessly as I work. Burning calories while I’m distracted. Love that idea.

But I’m cheap. I don’t mind spending a grand or two on something I know will work. But I can’t bring myself to blow that kind of dough on an experiment. Especially one that means getting rid of my current desk, which I love and would miss.

So I bought a used treadmill from some people who were moving to the beach (lucky them). It folded up and had wheels so it could be moved. With help, I schlepped it up to my office in my townhome and put it behind my desk. It was a big, dark behemoth of a contraption. I bought a glass cube from a store that sells used retail store supplies and put my monitor up on it to get it high enough to see above the treadmill display. I got a board and used tape to put it across the arms of the treadmill for the keyboard and mouse. I tried this arrangement for exactly one week.

I learned a lot of things. Even at a slow pace, I bounce up and down when I walk. I didn’t know that. Makes it tough to see what I’m doing as text can get blurry. Also, I concentrate pretty intensely when I’m writing something new, so I either trip myself or I can’t get the level of concentration I need to do the work at all. Plus, I forgot I like to work without shoes on, until I tried the treadmill barefoot. I ended up turning the thing off and standing.

I found, however, I could work well on things like email and web-surfing by standing still. These are things that don’t require as much concentration as writing fresh material.

So I put the treadmill into the garage and sold it for a little more than I paid for it not too long before Christmas. That made someone else happy and paid for all the peripheral stuff I bought for the experiment.

Learning that I can stand and be productive for some tasks gave me hope. Sure, I’d burn more calories walking, but just standing burns more calories than sitting. Plus, someone said there are hormones that are secreted when you use your legs that help with metabolism. Of course, standing all the time is not good, either. I realized that I need to be able to stand part of the time and sit part of the time.

In a perfect world, I’d get one of those 60-inch flat screen TVs that can also act as a monitor and put it up on the wall. Then I’d find a way to get my keyboard at standing height and get an electronic device to switch between my monitor and the TV on the wall when I wanted to stand.

This isn’t a perfect world.

Did I mention my penchant for not spending a lot of money on things I’m not sure will work?

A family member reminded me I have a data projector that lives in a bag in my closet except for when I’m speaking at a conference. Why not try that as the monitor to see if this sit-stand thing will work? I love that projector and so do most of the groups where I speak (because they don’t have to rent a projector). It’s bright enough to show a very respectable image even on wallpaper in a poorly lit hotel room, which is often where I end up.

The rub is finding an arrangement where I can get my keyboard up at standing height when I want it there. At 5’7” I need a keyboard stand that’s about 42” off the floor. What I found is a rolling, adjustable hospital bed tray on eBay. That tray, set at its tallest setting, now stands beside my chair and the projector is set up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

This arrangement works pretty well. I can quickly turn on the projector, then switch so the computer image goes to the projector rather than the monitor. I got a second USB keyboard for the rolling tray table so I don’t have to move the keyboard and mouse. I found, however, that I want to put my foot up on something, so I got a couple yoga blocks, since I work a lot barefoot or in socks. The visual clutter, while increased, is minimal, especially compared to the treadmill.

I’ve been using this setup for over a month now and I like it. I acquired a stand for the projector so I can put papers under it and I don’t lose as much desk space. I am starting to see contraptions for sit-stand arrangements aimed at “knowledge workers.” So I’m holding off on the big screen TV for a while in case something better makes itself known.

So that’s my journey. How about you? Have any of you tried sit-stand arrangements? How’s it working for you? Inquiring minds want to know.

About the Author: Linda Rohrbough has been writing since 1989, and has more than 5,000 articles and seven books to her credit along with national awards for her fiction and non-fiction. New York Times #1 bestselling author Debbie Macomber said about Linda’s new novel: "This is fast-paced, thrilling, edge-of-the-seat reading. The Prophetess One: At Risk had me flipping the pages and holding my breath." The Prophetess One: At Risk has garnered three national awards: the 2012 International Book Award, the 2011 Global eBook Award, and the 2011 Millennium Star Publishing Award. An iPhone App of her popular “Pitch Your Book” workshop is available in the Apple iTunes store. Visit her website: www.LindaRohrbough.com.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Embrace Analog

By Linda Rohrbough

Those of us who write professionally are constantly looking for ways to stir our juices and embrace new things. That’s because it’s easy to get into what feels like a hole. The trick is finding a way out.

For example, my friends find it fascinating that I’m a writer, but my kids are not at all impressed. They think what I do is the most boring job in the world. My oldest daughter used to make fun of me by sitting at the table pretending to type, and then imitating her or her sister asking me questions.

“Mom, can I go jump off a cliff?”

“Mom, can I eat all the ice cream in the freezer?”

And then she’d mimic me with the same answer every time as she looked straight ahead or held up one hand while she pretended to be typing.

“Just a minute,” she’d say, imitating my voice. Then she’d laugh. It was a funny routine.

Only it wasn’t just a minute. They knew it and I knew it.

That’s the compelling attraction of digital. It sucks us in. I can look up after working on a project and find four or five hours have gone by and I haven’t moved. My life has been like that for more than two decades. Only now it’s not only those of us who love writing, but it’s everyone who has a computer or a smart phone who is experiencing the digital draw problem.

The wrinkle is there’s not much in that digital world that inspires the kind of creative juices needed to get moving on creative work. One of the best books I’ve read in a while about the creative life is Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. I found it this summer and it’s one of the books I keep around for inspiration. In it, Kleon says we need more analog.

By OCAL, clker.com

What’s analog? A pencil is analog. A pair of scissors is analog. Paste, tape, glue, and markers are analog. So are magazines and paper books. Kleon says he has an analog space opposite his digital space and he doesn’t let one world cross into the other. In his case, he has two desks across from each other. One has his computer, keyboard and all the electronic stuff he needs for his work. The other has pencils, paper, markers, and a bunch of creative tools that require no electricity. And he says the analog space helps his digital work.

I heard that before, and I used to think it was nonsense. Until I tried it. My first time was when my fiction agent asked for a detailed proposal for a suspense novel he’d agreed to shop and I needed to finish the ten page synopsis he wanted. The novel was set at Denver International Airport (DIA) and I was in Littleton staying in a hotel. I was making trips to the airport to meet the airport public relations people, but I was stalled on the proposal.

I looked for ideas and I remembered I’d been in a workshop where the writer leading it suggested cutting images out of magazines that remind me of things in the novel or about the setting. It sounded stupid and childish, like one of the projects I did in grade school, and I just couldn’t see how it would help. But I was desperate.

I had decided to go to a bookstore to buy magazines when I walked past a rack of touristy magazines and travel brochures in the hotel lobby. I stopped short, gathered up an armload, borrowed a pair of scissors from the desk clerk, and went up to my room to begin cutting.

To my surprise, this analog activity did help. The images I found not only sharpened my senses and reminded me of things I loved about Colorado, but I remembered details about mountain lions (which are in the novel). And there was something about cutting out and arranging the photos that helped, as well. The activity details got me going again and I got the proposal done and sent off when I’d promised.

Kleon also says other analog activities help with the creative work, even though they look like a waste of time. I knew that already. I find myself loading the dishwasher or putting in a load of laundry when I’m stuck on a plot point. Walking is one of my favorite activities. So are yoga and hip-hop line dance class, which I make a point of being at no matter how busy I am. If I need to, I tell people I’m in a meeting. Because the times when I’ve sacrificed my yoga or line dance class for something to do with my business, I’ve always regretted it.

Now, it’s my belief that Colorado folks know how to do analog. But I suspect people from places other than Colorado are reading this. So, I’ve got to ask, what’s your favorite analog activity to help stir your creative juices?

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