Welcome to the seventh issue of Creative Intentions. With this newsletter, I hope to inspire all creative types to learn about their personal creativity and how to grow from their creative work. Each week, for twelve weeks, you can look forward to a feature article with information, tips and ideas surrounding the realm of creativity.
Feature Article Topic:
Creativity and the Writing Process
Writing has got to be one of my favorite topics to share with you. I have written as a way to express myself and get in touch with my inner feelings since I was a child. For my personal writing, I keep journals, write lyrics and poems, and I do free writing exercises. I recently was reading a book called Expressive Therapies edited by Cathy Malchiodi, in which I learned that writing as a form of expression is a great tool for people to heal, in particular, people with posttraumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD. Healing is a complex subject, but I will say that in order to heal, one must move through their pain, rather than ignore, burry, or cover it up. To be on the safe side, if any of you have experienced trauma in your life and you try writing as a way to heal, I strongly recommend that you are concurrently seeing a therapist for support.
That being said, how does writing relate to creativity? When you write, you open up parts of yourself that often remain hidden, particularly in your subconscious mind. For example, if you begin to record your dreams upon waking, the images and ideas in your dreams can be used to inspire story, music, dance, or art.
Another technique is doing free writing exercises. Often a “free write” lasts for about 10-15 minutes, and the only rule is that you cannot stop writing. If you get stuck, just keep writing what you last wrote over and over until something new comes out. Setting a kitchen timer or writing to a piece of classical music that lasts for 10-20 minutes can be useful in helping you know when to stop the free write. After you have completed several free writes (perhaps over a few weeks time), go back and find interesting lines, thoughts, or phrases and use what you find in another form, such as poetry or story. Let writing inspire your creative juices!
Suggestion:
This week, try to do at least one free writing exercise. You might put a heading on the top of your paper that says, “I remember . . .” then write for 10 minutes. Next, right after you finish the “I remember” free write, start your place with “I don’t remember . . .” and write for another 10 minutes. This exercise comes from Natalie Goldberg’s book Writing Down the Bones.
Here is a brief list of writing resources (I have too many favorites to list them all):
Writing Down the Bones
Writing as a Way of Healing
Bird by Bird
Soul Between the Lines
Writing the Sacred Journey
Writing Down Your Soul
Announcements:
August 2, 2010 Issue No. 8 will feature an article on
Creativity and Spirituality
Happy Writing!
© BrianaCreates 2010 All Rights Reserved
Briana: Artist, Writer, Teacher, and Creativity Coach
Contact at bmriskin@earthlink.net
Blog http://courageouslycreating.blogspot.com/
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianacreates/
Twitter http://twitter.com/BrianaCreates
2 comments:
Brianna: Encouraging your readers to write, write, write is such a gift. It is always such a surprise, such a sweet surprise, to discover that waiting inside the pen is an endless font of wisdom and love. And words, of course. Thousands of delicious words. Thank you for including Writing Down Your Soul in your roster of books on writing.
Love the newsletter Briana! Great resources, I will check them out!
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