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

- 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

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

1. 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.
2. 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!
3. 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.
4. Write down the image on a piece of paper.
5. 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

How to Use Writing Prompts

1. 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.
2. 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?
3. 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!
4. 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?

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

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!

Food for Thought

• You play tennis, even take lessons, does that mean you dream of playing at Wimbledon?
  
  
• You hike mountains, does that mean you have to have plans to climb Mt. Everest to have a great day?
  
  
• You love to cook, even may even take cooking lessons, does that mean you have to write a best selling cook book or become a chef in a ****Restuarant to have a deeply enjoyable meal?
  
  
• You take yoga classes several times a week, does that mean you have to be a world reknown yoga teacher to get all the benefits of yoga?
  
  
• So, ask yourself, why doesn't the same rule apply to your writing?
  
  Read Emily's article, Publish or Perish: It's Not Only for Academia
  
  
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On Living a Creative Life...

Living a creative life demands faith in your inner world and the only way I know to take the plunge is to trust that order will emerge. It must. Order is as integral as chaos to the creative process, but the order will be new and often unexpected. Gertrude Stein put it this way, “You cannot go into the womb to form the child... What will be best in it (your creation) is what your really do not know now. If you knew it all it would not be creation but dictation.”