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creativity

blogging creativity transcending

The one clear thing Part 1

October 31, 2010

It’s been quiet here. You may have noticed. Quiet from my side and also the readers’ side. No surprises that the two are linked. There’s been a lot happening. There is a lot of complexity around me at present.

I am doing the Unravelling e-course with Susannah Conway and a wonderful group of women from across the world and there is much delving into deep layers in that space.

At work, there are challenging issues to solve, multiplicity, new systems being implemented, many projects on the boil and a constant search for streamlining and solutions.

At home, there is much change currently and on the horizon as my daughter finishes school. The effects of grief and chronic illness in the lives of my immediate family weave a web of constant challenge. And the dog is suddenly quite disabled and has to be carried from one place to the other.

So yes, it has been quiet here but I do so love this blog, what it means to me and how it tracks my progress and development, my thoughts on transcending issues like I am experiencing now: the cut through, the coping, the methods, the strategy, the passions. I am loving Unravelling at present for also taking me through this in another way; mainly through images, photos, but also writing, connecting with others and a supported environment for creativity and expression.

So to the blog. I have been wondering if I am on the right track. Have I lost my way here? Is ‘Transcending’ the right focus? Am I connecting? Am I lost? I have been thinking about starting a second blog about my work on reading as it doesn’t seem to connect. Whenever I post on reading and book voyeurs, my stats seem to dive and take a while to pick up. But this is important to me – reading as a form of transcending and riding above, crossing over, connecting. Reading has kept me focused for much of my life on the present, what could be in the future and how to get there.

Fortunately today I came across a couple of great posts from Penelope Trunk, originally via the communicatrix and her fantastic Friday round-up which led me to Penelope’s post ‘Being a snob creates too many limits’ about books, love of books, book sorting, reading and many things I am also passionate about. Then at the end, I read these words as if written for me:

You will notice there are not any work-related books. Anywhere. Which is odd because I receive at least one in the mail every day. I don’t save those books because they bore me. I wish I didn’t have to write that. But I think they bore you, too. That’s why you read this blog.

The best advice about how to conduct yourself at work is to know yourself, and get new information—from outside your own experience—about what is possible in the world. And that is what fiction, and plays, and poetry, and this blog, are about.

Hola! Fantastic and that is truly why I write this blog also. I know I am in another place altogether with far, far fewer readers than Penelope with her thousands of subscribers that she has built up, but I recognise the essence and motivation. I also try to connect what I know from work, from reading, from experience and distil it here. ‘The one clear thing’ was the title I planned to write about today and I have my draft of notes around that. It will need to be part 2. The one clear thing at the moment here, part 1, is to keep focus here in moving forward.

So I read some more of Penelope’s blog. I read:

Penelope’s Guide to Blogging which is excellent – great summary advice and links to previous articles Penelope has written that delve into each topic in more depth.

The one of course that attracted me: Don’t Start a New Blog: Stick with the one you have  How come this woman is inside my mind and talking straight to me today? I think she has been talking for a while and I just haven’t been in hearing range. The words that jump out at me are:

But each of us has multiple aspects to our personality. This doesn’t mean you need to start a new blog. It means you need to understand how your changing self integrates with your old self. Your blog is a way to watch yourself change. Your topic is a way to ground yourself. Write at the edge of your topic. That is where things are most interesting, anyway.

So thanks to Penelope Trunk and Colleen Wainwright, the communicatrix for the leads (do so love the communicatrix’s Frrrrriday rrrrround up. It often seems to get me back on track somehow) and to Susannah Conway for the Unravelling experience which is one of deep change right now. I will:

  • write at the edge of my topic
  • explore my topic as a way of grounding myself
  • understand how my changing self integrates with my old self
  • know myself and get new information about what is possible: at work, at home, in creativity, in writing and through blogs, twitter and other connections

That is the one clear thing for today: the writing of this blog as the way forward and the steps it might take from here.

Do you have any other thoughts on blogging and keeping clear on your focus there and elsewhere?

Image, Glass of Water by gfrphoto from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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creativity

Gems #10 On creativity

October 17, 2010

Some recent gems shining a little light on creativity…

I am doing the wonderful Unravelling e-course currently with Susannah Conway and a whole raft of incredibly creative people. It’s very inspiring to see the creativity of others in images and words and also to feel your own tendrils of creativity stretching into new directions.

Here are some recent gems about creativity, resistance, getting moving and what can help and hinder its expression:

Stop Resisting and Start Creating

What’s ROBBing you of your creativity?

How to stop thinking, worrying and analysing and just start creating

That’s all for now, as off to create 🙂

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blogging creativity writing

Blog writing heroes

October 10, 2010

 Last post, I wrote about ‘The Writer as Hero’ and how my favourite writers inspire me and my writing, just as sporting heroes might be a source of inspiration to others. I’m excited to be writing today about my blog writing heroes. These are the people I have followed online through their blogs who have successfully built a blogging presence and reader platform over time, committed to regular writing both on and off their blog and are writing towards further publication of their work offline.

These writers are among My Seven Stars and are such great role models with unique vision, commitment to craft and belief in their goals. They have set writing goals, strived to put this into practice and shared the journey with others through their blogs. They are true writing heroes influential in their impact on my personal journey of a writing life and that of many others.

I celebrate the following blog writing heroes:

Chris Guillebeau

Chris has just published the book of  ‘The Art of Non-Conformity’ after building a successful blog of the same name. As Chris says,

One of the main reasons why I started AONC was to write a book. It only took two and a half years (it’s not dead, but publishing is indeed a sloooow industry), but here we are.

This dream is the same for many writers and I count myself among them. Here is someone who started the journey and committed to the vision of the ‘art of non-conformity’ in all its forms: travel, the nature of work, how we write, entrepreneurship, living your dream and providing the tools and the model for how to do it practically. I am a big fan and Chris’s work has been very influential to me over the past 18 months since I started among his readership. I am loving watching Chris promote his book across all 50 states in the US on the Unconventional Book Tour. In addition, designated proceeds from his book go towards his charity project in Ethiopia. The book and the projects around it are an excellent practical demonstration in every way of the ‘art of non-conformity’.

Joanna Penn

Joanna is another inspiration in writing, blogging and publishing; not least because she manages all this with a day job in another sphere. Through the ‘The Creative Penn’, Joanna has built up a strong audience of people interested in writing and publishing through providing loads of useful information, podcasts, links and experiential tips. Her resources on writing are excellent. Apart from this, Joanna has written a number of non-fiction books and is currently working on her first fiction book, ‘Pentecost’. On her blog, she shares the experience of writing this novel with her readers in posts such as ‘Editing your Novel: High level Story Read Through’ and ‘7 reasons why you should read your book out loud’. I look forward to reading ‘Pentecost’ when it is finished; I’m sure many of Joanna’s other readers are also looking forward to it. In this way, Joanna is developing the very platform based audience that she blogs about as a new publishing trend.

Susannah Conway

Susannah started her blog in 2006 and has developed a strong following for her beautiful work based around photography and creativity of all kinds that has grown out of grief and her healing journey.  Susannah has also created the Unravelling e-course based on photography and journalling as reconnecting and healing tools for how you see yourself and your world. I am a current Unraveller and although only in week 2, it is already a fabulously powerful personal experience. In May this year, Susannah announced ‘Unravelling: the Book’. She shares her writing journey on her book in posts like this one on overcoming getting stuck on a long piece of writing. Again, the reader platform for the book is already growing exponentially even before it is written based on Susannah’s blog and Unravelling presence.

Shanna Germain

Shanna is also writing her book, a novel, now. I have loved following Shanna’s writing journey from when I first joined her when she was writing on a remote Scottish island some time ago. Shanna documents her writing life, her commitment, her goals, her striving towards them and her publishing successes which have been many. In a great recent post, Here I Go, Shanna explains how she has been writing away, has had her novel accepted for publication on the basis of a synopsis and the first third, and how she is off for five days to a retreat in the woods to enter further into the writing experience of the novel. I am so excited for her. It is what I would love to be doing and hope one day to do; but Shanna is doing the hard work of making this real now. All courage to her.

Sage Cohen

Sage is a published poet, author of ‘Like the Heart, the World’ as well as the exceptional “Writing the Life Poetic: an Invitation to Read and Write Poetry’, one of the best ever books on the subtle art of writing poetry.  She also teaches the ‘Poetry for the People’ online courses of which I am a ‘graduate’ of levels 1 and 2. I loved these courses for their excellent teaching, mentoring and encouragement that truly helps poets to develop and re-engage. Sage has a blog and an ezine as well as a new book to be published through Writers’ Digest out in December this year, The Productive Writer. It’s available by pre-order through Amazon now. I know this book will be full of Sage’s practical and tested advice on productivity and writing. Again, Sage has built her readership through an online presence and e-courses in advance of the publication of her book.

So a sincere thanks to my blog writing heroes for being so personally inspiring to me.

Who are your blog writing heroes? How do they inspire you?

Image, Young woman blogging – after Marie-Denise Villers  by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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creativity transcending writing

The Writer as hero

October 3, 2010

I’ve been reading Chris Guillebeau’s great post, ‘The Agenda Part II: The Individual as Hero’ about how it’s okay to pursue your big dreams, invest in yourself and understandable that you have difficulty explaining the reasons for your quests to others:

 

You don’t have to apologise for pursuing a big dream, because a distinguishing feature of such things is that not everyone relates to them.

Chris talks about the Olympics, marathon runners and other sports people among his heroes. I acknowledge these journey and achievements, but like Chris says, they are not the heroes I relate to. My heroes are writers – their stories are the ones I read, treasure and follow.

For me, there is something incredibly heroic about the writer’s life and journey. This is because it is my goal: to write and publish work of value that speaks to others: poetry, novels, creative non-fiction. This blog is part of that goal – getting me writing and connecting with writers – but the real goal is larger and more compelling, hard to explain, talk about and justify, but I know it’s what makes sense and connects the dots for me. I know it’s elusive and also very hard work, but it’s when I am writing that I feel truly alive and myself. So today, following Chris’s lead, I celebrate the writing heroes who inspire me.

My writer heroes fall into two categories:

  1. Published, famous writers whose books I read and biographies I study assiduously
  2. My blogging heroes who are all out there creating now and inspiring me

In this post, I’ll concentrate on the first category; next post, I’ll talk about my blogging heroes also writing books right now and documenting their journey.

My published and famous writing heroes’ lives intrigue me for their romanticism, their lyricism and their commitment to craft and writing practice. They embody what I aspire to. They are mostly women; today’s list of my key writing heroes is all women. Their stories of how they strived to balance work, family, creativity and their craft are often difficult journeys. There are themes of obsessive love, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, suicide, struggling to make ends meet, trying to write while making a living, reclusiveness and withdrawal. There are also themes of: success, achievement, the pursuit of perfection, hard work, constant crafting, connection with people, being in the literary milieu of an age,  publishing and public readings attracting many.

For these heroes, it was mostly a battle for their creativity to be expressed in the works that endure. I am grateful for their determination, their quest and the lyricism of their work that speaks to me over the years. It is because these heroes understood the ‘big dream’ and lived it that they mean so much to me. I celebrate these six heroes:

Daphne Du Maurier

I love Daphne Du Maurier’s sheer prolific work, diversity, narrative and story-telling skills and her dedication to her craft. Her unique vision created historical fiction, psychological thrillers such as ‘Rebecca’ and ‘The Birds’ and wonderfully innovative works such as ‘The House on the Strand’ which blends historical and psychological fiction together in a narrative about experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs way before it was fashionable. I am absolutely in awe of Daphne’s writing skills and writing life. My journey to Fowey in Cornwall where she lived was a pilgrimage and to be there taking the ferry across to Fowey and walking the narrow streets was thrilling. There are some excellent pictorial memoirs of Daphne Du Maurier’s Cornwall and the country that inspired her.

Suggestions to read: Rebecca, The Birds and other stories, The House on the Strand, Pictorial memoirs: Daphne Du Maurier Country – Martyn Shallcross; Daphne Du Maurier’s Cornwall – by Daphne Du Maurier.

 Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf’s novels are wonderful but I especially am inspired by her non-fiction, essays and diaries. ‘A Room of One’s Own’ is sitting here in front of me on my rolltop and is never far away. ‘Three Guineas’ is a favourite thought piece on war and also women; Virginia’s writing on women and writing excite and support me as the pioneering work they are. These works explore the barriers that women face in attempting to produce literature and help to understand the challenges in the dream of being a writer especially as a woman.

Suggestions to read: A Room of One’s Own, Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf: Women and Writing (The Women’s Press collection)

Sylvia Plath

I love Sylvia Plath’s poems for their genius, craft and power. Her poetry has had the most impact on me of any poet and I am thankful for her body of work and what she achieved in such difficult circumstances. I especially love the books that shows Sylvia’s mind at work as she edits and crafts her poems, the precision of it, the artist at work.

Suggestions to read: Sylvia Plath: Collected Poems, Sylvia Plath: a Critical Study – Tim Kendall (Faber & Faber) – for some wonderful copies of original drafting processes on poems

Emily Dickinson

I love Emily’s reclusiveness, her unique voice, her secretive commitment to her craft, her pearls created. The sheer volume of work created without an immediate audience is staggering showing a complete commitment to her individual vision and style. The story of her life is fascinating and worth a read for the contexts in which she was creating the work we now know and value.

Suggestions to read: The Life of Emily Dickinson, Vols 1 & 2, Richard B Sewall (Faber & Faber).

Elizabeth Smart

‘By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept’ is one of my favourite books for its sheer poetic power. A novella, ‘a cry of complete vulnerability’ as my copy says on the back. The story of Elizabeth Smart’s life is about balancing love, writing, creativity, children and a fight for self-expression. The narrative of her life is about ‘the experience of being a woman artist in the middle of the century.’ (Sullivan – below p xi) I wish she’d written more but I know it was difficult with how life played out and the choices she made, but I treasure ‘Grand Central Station’ as a classic novella in the style I would like to write in.

Suggestions to read: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, By Heart: the life of Elizabeth Smart – Rosemary Sullivan (Flamingo)

Edna St Vincent Millay

I love Edna St Vincent Millay’s romantic lyricism, her sonnets and her commitment to form. She was amazingly well-known in her time – the most famous poet of the Jazz Age and the image of  ‘the new woman’. She was incredibly committed to her art and lived an extraordinary life for her times, taking many lovers of both sexes. Her poetry was widely celebrated with her poetry readings often sell-outs with around 1600 people attending in some cases and her collection of sonnets, ‘Fatal Interview’ selling 35,000 copies in the early weeks of release in the middle of the Depression. The beautiful  photo of Edna St Vincent Millay when young surrounded by blossoms graces my desk here and inspires me.

Suggestions to read: Savage Beauty: the life of Edna St Vincent Millay – Nancy Milford (Random House)

These are my heroes, my heroines. I didn’t seek out for them to be all women but they are. I love them for:

  • their commitment to their craft and art
  • the narrative of their writing lives
  • their passion and love for writing
  • the works they have created
  • the lines that make my heart sing
  • the ideas that support me

Especially I love them for being my heroes, the female role models of the ‘big dream’ of writing because they understood it and lived it. 

Image, Vintage Underwood Number 5 typewriter by emilydickinsonridesabmx from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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creativity poetry transcending

Gems #9 Shining light on yourself

September 27, 2010

Some gems about shining a little light back on yourself…

Just at the same time as Chris Guillebeau is enjoying great popularity with the publication of his book, ‘The Art of Non-Conformity’ , he writes an excellent post shining the light back on his readers. That’s one of the reasons I love Chris and his work: expect the unexpected. I always get such a wonderful blast of fresh thinking and often the reverse of current trends; hence his specialty, ‘nonconformity’, I guess.

In his post, What’s your message? Why not share it? Chris starts by referring to the current trend in social media of talking about others more than yourself. Chris turns the spotlight squarely back:

..ultimately people will follow you because you are doing something interesting, not because you are good at passing on other people’s messages.

A point very well made with much relevance for blogging, tweeting and much of life really:

Be interesting. Be yourself. Do something worth talking about.

Chris then encourages readers to comment about their message. There is much to learn and enjoy in the responses as people focus back on their message and reflect it out again.

Danielle LaPorte’s post on ‘The initiated woman’  shone a light on a very deep place and I knew exactly what she was talking about. It starts with bleeding, vulnerability and giving of the quintessential:

she’s bled from poor decisions that sliced her esteem wide open; and from unguarded boundaries being obliterated; and she’s bled willingly because that’s what you do when people you love are anemic or have been hit by life — you give them your blood. Here, I have lots, it’s fresh and warm. I’ll make more.

And it moves from there to describe a place where the outcomes of experience become a wisdom and strength that can help others. Read it – it is the most beautiful piece of writing. It reminds me of the wonderfully understated words from the song ‘You’re a Heathen of Love’  by Marian Bradfield:

‘Cause experience in a woman never goes astray.

And because Chris says ‘tell us your message’ and ‘be yourself’ and because Danielle says:

She’s so tender she prefers to whisper about her true nature, or write a poem. Abstract. Protected.

…here’s a poem from me. It was written and crafted during my time in Sage Cohen’s highly recommended ‘Poetry for the People’ classes and was featured along with the work of my fellow students on Sage’s ‘Writing the Life Poetic’  blog.

Narrative

She starts up high, facing north

towards slow mist,

watching the sea wash

into the rain’s drift below.

She is called to the beach

as if to a baptism, bride-like,

white as the air, stepping

down the rough rock stairs.

She narrates her life,

writes as she walks,

as if the sand and shells are

the bones of her story.

And the pieces connect her:

an imperfect white oval shell,

a fig leaf from a canopy,

the sketched black lines

of a creature’s moving home.

Cool and tight limbed,

she ends in another place,

as if washed by waves,

her contours, clear and shell-lined

as the Borromean grottoes

of Isolabella,

her white shining lights

coming home.

 

Image, Inishowen Mirror by Janek Kloss from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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blogging creativity transcending

Power out, power up

September 5, 2010

Wild weather and the power’s out here in town this morning. The lack of being able to do anything – make coffee, cook breakfast, wash clothes – reflects how I feel here in ‘Transcending’ at the moment.

I know the lights will go on again and the charge will surge through, but all is strangely flat and without spark after what felt like a strong start in a new space here. So, to regroup.

I wrote about ‘The Value of Howling into the Wind’ early on and the value of writing and getting out there and moving, even if it seemed no-one was watching or reading. My last post was about getting to back to basics on ‘Transcending’, the word, the concept and what it means to me.

‘Transcending’ defines the connection of so much and is my modus operandi: my work life, my personal life, my creative life and the need to cut through, strategise, climb across and rise above.

The tools for me:

writing, poetry

family history

strategy, planning and goal-setting

creative connection and reading

music and the right song at the right time

the words of songs

a perfect image that sings with how I feel

symbols, associations, metaphors

story, narrative

time alone

a walk on the beach

connecting fully with another

the synergy of good conversation

twitter and reading and connecting via blogs

What’s not working for me:

difficulty in finding time to write

no time to myself

no time to plan next steps here

The ‘no time’ business is not something I normally say; I know no-one will give me any more time. I am with Chris Guillebeau when he says in a recent post: 

My strategic plan is: say yes to everything.  The tactic is: get up early and stay up late.

I said to myself a while ago ‘no more either/or’ after reading Danielle LaPorte’s great post on the suck factor of life balance. No more waiting till you get time for writing; no more thinking about waiting till you retire or get some leave, write now.  But it is a fact that my time is squeezed at present and the special time for recharge is what is scarce.

So a resettling now of finding this precious time to recharge, to climb across and transcend, to find the power source. Being an introvert who spends all day with people, it will be powering up through this room, this space, this candle, that cafe, that beach, that song and this white page I can find a space in to shine through.

Send some encouraging thoughts and tell me what you need to do to power up. It might help spark some quiet action here…and maybe elsewhere.

Image, Candle by Nick Merzetti from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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