Creativity

To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.
― Osho

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.
— Mary Lou Cook

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.”
― Jim Jarmusch

The second masterclass I attended while at Writersfest was one on Forging Your Creativity, presented by Barbara Bell.

She told us that creativity can help you deal with the unknown. It’s a great confidence builder, encouraging you to take risks. Even when you fail, creativity can help you release your fears. But standing in your way is The Judge.

The Judge is that part of you that focuses on what’s wrong with you, on all the reasons you can’t be creative. He (or she) keeps you in your safe place of “can’t” and “won’t.” The Judge reduces your chances of being harmed by keeping you safe. He will beat you up (mentally), warn you about taking risks, and hijack your mind, instigating your negative emotions.

For our first exercise, we were asked to write a description of our Judge, as detailed as possible – give them a name and a voice.

My Judge’s name is Billy-Bob. He’s a good ‘ole boy, middle aged and uneducated, slouched in his worn-out arm chair, cigar dangling from his mouth. He’s unwashed and unshaven, his pants have seen better days and he’s wearing a white, grease-stained wife beater.

“You’re wasting your time,” he tells me. “You ain’t nothin’ special. What makes you think you can write? You don’t got no proper education, not like some of those real writers. Ain’t nobody interested in what you got to say. You might as well make yourself useful and get me another beer.”

The Judge doesn’t work alone, however, he has a posse of saboteurs to help him thwart your creativity and these saboteurs are part of our innate personalities.

There’s the Avoider, who avoids conflict and has difficulty saying no to others. They focus on more pleasant things to avoid the unpleasant things. And yet they have anxiety about the things they’ve been avoiding. These things don’t just go away and often this often leads to suppressed anger and resentment.

The Controller, on the other hand, needs to take charge and is a straight talker. Their anxiety stems from things not going their way. They tend to push people out of their comfort zone, often through intimidation. No one tells the Controller what to do, and they can become angry and intimidating with others who don’t follow their lead.

The Hyper-Achiever is also competitive and is good at covering up insecurities, always showing a positive image. They tend to be workaholics, keeping other people at a safe distance. Feelings distract them from achieving their goal; it’s important for them to feel successful. They feel that life is all about achieving their goals and this makes them lose touch with their deeper feelings and their ability to connect with others.

If you’re Hyper-Rational you could be perceived as cold and distant, and maybe a little arrogant. You have an intense and active mind, but you’re very private and don’t often let people inside. You prefer to analyze the world from a distance, and value knowledge and understanding. Your self-worth is attached to what you know and you get frustrated by people who are more emotional than rational.

Hyper-Vigilant people are always anxious, worrying about everything that could go wrong. They have chronic self-doubt and are always expecting the worst. This constant anxiety burns a great deal of vital energy that could be used for other things.

The Pleaser is the person who tries to please everyone but themselves, hoping to gain affection and acceptance. They have a strong need to be liked, and need constant reassurance. Expressing their own needs feels selfish to them, and they worry this might drive others away. But they’re also resentful when they lose sight of their own needs and are taken for granted.

The Restless personality is always looking for the next adventure. They’re scattered and easily distracted, always staying busy with as many different plans and tasks as possible. Life is too short and there’s always that fear of missing out on what lies ahead. But this is just another way of avoiding what’s really important.

The Stickler has a need for order and perfectionism. They’re highly critical and often irritable or tense. They’ll work overtime to make up for others’ laziness. They’re sensitive to criticism, believing they’re always right. Constantly frustrated and disappointed, this leads to a great deal of suppressed anger. No matter how hard you work, you’ll never please the Stickler.

The Victim is hyper focused on internal feelings, especially painful ones. They can be dramatic and temperamental, and give up easily when things get tough. They often feel alone and lonely and use their emotional problems to gain attention. This often backfires as it tends to push people away.

Have you recognized yourself in any of these Saboteurs? Maybe you’ve seen yourself in more than one. But now that you’ve identified them, you can start working to fight them off. 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

So . . . Not a lot of progress last week. Monday could be excused ‘cause I was recovering from my time away, but I really have no excuse for the rest of the week. Well, until Friday. But if you want to see what my excuse is starting Friday afternoon (and why this post is so late today), you’ll have to read Monday’s post on My Other Blog. 

I think part of my problem was I only made one list last week. And I spent a lot of time helping the hubby finish de-junking his office, which is a bigger deal than it seems because all that junk has to go somewhere. So it wasn’t exactly a writing-focused week.

And it occurs to me that this had better change because NaNo is in just a few weeks. Are you doing NaNo this year?

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,724+717+345+720=3,506
Poetry – 90 words (included in blog post)
Total = 3,506

Goals For Next Week:
Increase the words (should go without saying)

EDITING:
0 pages
I updated my sidebar to remove Magical Mayhem and put Elemental Spirit in its place, but I’m thinking that maybe I should have the book flood anthology up next instead. The stories are done, I just need to pick the ones I’m going to use and then edit them. Whereas An Elemental Spirit . . . I took a look at it and it doesn’t just need editing, it needs to be rewritten.

Goal For Next Week:
Pick stories for book flood and start editing them.

MARKETING:
No Marketing. Not even an attempt at marketing. Too much other stuff on the go. I swear, I don’t even know why I have this as a category.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECH & TRAINING:
Yeah, I got nothing.

Goal For Next Week:
Check out the features of Dropbox – I’m paying for it, I really should use it.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I choked. I admit it. I was all set to do the Mad Cow poetry form, but it’s 35 lines long and the lines have 12 syllables and rhyme. So yeah, I went with the lighter version of it called the Mad Calf.

Did not even give the anthology a passing thought. Oops!

Goal For Next Week:
Suck it up and do the Mad Cow form. Start compiling the anthology

CRAFTING:
Does doing some alterations for the granddaughter count? In that case, I got nothing. I did buy some coloured yarn to do book worms for the upcoming craft sale, but I didn’t even open the package.

Yikes! And I just remembered I still have that beaded Christmas tree I’m supposed to decorate, and I have a guild meeting on Tuesday. Guess I know how I’ll be spending my holiday Monday.

Goal For Next Week:
Get beaded Christmas tree done. Crochet bookworms.

WHAT I’M READING:
Believe it or not, I read nothing last week. Nothing! Nada, zip, zilch. I just did not have the time.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading. At least start my list of books so I can update my Goodreads account!

GOAL REVIEW:

I really should have made the effort to make a list, I do so much better with them. My blog posts were done, and they were all on time, but I did not do any extra writing. I thought about it a lot, and I thought of doing a couple of exercises I was given at Writersfest, but thinking isn’t doing, is it?

I made no progress on coming up with a cover, blurb, and tagline for Magical Misfire. And now that I’ve finished the edits on it I have no burning desire to edit anything else. I’m starting to feel like quite the lazy writer.

No reading at all was kind of surprising. And I didn’t make the time for any crafts, either. It wasn’t just being busy, I was tired and head-achy a lot too. We had a couple of sunny days, but then it was overcast the rest of the week so my solar batteries ran right down.

All in all, it was a rather disappointing week. I mean, yeah, I got my cleaning and organizing done in time for Thanksgiving, but while it’s nice, it doesn’t really feel like an accomplishment, you know what I mean?

*sigh* Well, at least I have a new week to start, and do better.

Happy writing.