Musings on Creativity

Really, I know that "musings on creativity" is kind of a silly title for this blog posting, since it is the name of my entire blog, but it is apropos today.

Creativity is not an idea, it's an act.

Don't judge creativity harshly. The act of creativity is sometimes more important than the quality of the product produced. Sometimes the only goal is doing the act.

The worst idea is the one not captured.

When capturing ideas, the simplest tools are the best tools. Thank you pen and paper.

Try new creative endeavors to feed new ideas in the ones you regularly work in.

Writing down, sketching out, recording your ideas, makes reality out of imagination. Imagination is great, but what if the Grimm Brothers had never written their tales down? They might not be remembered now, and the world would be lesser if we didn't have Cinderella, Rapunzel, or Sleeping Beauty.

Why do I get my best ideas in the shower? I've dealt with the "getting ideas in the car" problem by investing in an audio cassette recorder (I like the low tech stuff) but I haven't come up with a paper that won't get wet.

Musings on Religion and Good Thoughts for a Friend

Just a quick note to let you all know that I took a seminar with Barbara Winter, the author of Making a Living Without a Job and it was worth every penny I paid...which you can't say about every seminar. I'll expand on what I learned later.

Right now, I want to make a comment on all those people who say "oh, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual." It's a phrase that makes me crazy. It has no meaning. Do they just commune with some fuzzy warm feeling? Hug actual trees? I don't know. And believe me, I'm no evangelist. Heck, I can't even spell it. (Well, let's face it. I can't spell without spell check anymore, even if it's just the word "a.") But here's the rub. There is very little in the world that is more heartbreaking and terrifying than when you are going through a spiritual upheaval, whether that is because you feel that God isn't answering your prayers or because the very human leaders of your church are failing in their leadership in some way. (As all humans eventually do.) Terrifying, depressing, anxiety-producing.

Will all of you say a prayer for my friend who is going through a spiritual upheaval right now? Just refer to her as "W" as you lift her up. (And no, this isn't a thinly veiled reference to me, but she might not want her business spread all over the internet through my blog. And there ARE other people in the world whose names begin with W.) Even if you aren't a regular church-goer, but are "spiritual" (and now mad at me because of my comment above), please send good thoughts her way. I do believe in Karma...although not necessarily in the Buddhist way--more like the connection all humans have through the Holy Spirit.

Thanks everybody.

Apologies

I try to blog every week, but this week, I've been resistant to doing so. I don't know why, except that all my creative energies have been diverted into finishing replacing my living room floor.

I love to decorate, and feel like I would have been a good professional decorator. My only problem right now with it is that I rent my second bedroom to a friend. He's a friend, so I agreed to allow him to add his some of his stuff to the living and dining room. His exceedingly modern stuff. My other friends can't decide if the chandelier hanging over the dining table looks like a spaceship or something that should hang over a conference table. Really, I keep wondering why those damn aliens invaded my home and not Wired's offices.

And then there's the blue-green chair in the living room. The one that looks, to me, that it was modeled after one of those acrylic commemorative baseball stands. And if I was 3 inches taller, it would be comfortable. But I'm not 3 inches taller. So I never sit there.

Ah well. It's been good to have the extra $$, and when he gets his PhD and a job and moves out, I will miss him. But not his furniture.

Writing exercise

Recently, I have had the priviledge of hearing from old friends that I haven't seen in over 20 years. One of those friends, who has stayed in touch with the others, sent me an e-mail (she found me from this blog) and I've gotten e-mails from the others as responses to messages that she's sent out. These are people that, although I'd lost touch with them, I thought of rather frequently. I was thrilled to hear from Debbie, and I'm thrilled to hear about Mark, Andy, Judge, and Mary Grace.

One of the writing exercises I do sometimes, to work on character development and to stretch my imagination, is to choose friends from my past and to create character studies of what they might now be...based on the little information that I have from rather impersonal e-mails...

Debbie is living in Colorado. She broke her leg last spring. She's a poet.

Mark lives in Illinois.

Judge lives in the capital city of the state he grew up in and works in the arts.

Andy...I really don't know from his e-mail where he lives or what he does now....Creative license!

M.G. lives in Texas.

So, how did these smart and creative people, who started out in a Southern state, get to where they are now? I get to make it up! And I really get to make up what they are doing now, since I don't really know them well anymore.

This is one way to help develop back story for characters you use in your novels, imagining how they get from one place and stage in life to another. And if you start with someone you know, but not too well, you ground those characters in truth and imagination both.

Quick update

I am in awe of my friend Elaine, who has a new job and is able to balance her life in a way that seems to guarantee she writes. I have been asked to critique the first few chapters of her new novel, so that she can begin the submission process by Friday. Good luck to you Elaine.