Had an interesting revelation while doing the 20 questions exercise. Rather than having a childhood full of bad experiences which are stunting/degrading my creative side (blurt: assuming I have one, lol); that perhaps having moved away from home, away from my family and oldest friends, has eroded my base so that when things are a little tough, as they are now, I am more prone to drift. When I did the circle exercise last week, I really had no "friend" to include within the circle from my current life...
My artist's date yesterday bore tangible fruit as well. I went to my local B&N to browse travel guides (I'm being forced to spend a week on Kaua'i for my job). I found a real nice one, then on an impulse bought a little travel journal, figuring it might be fun to do my morning pages watching the sun rise from the beach or something. On the way home I stopped at my local wildlife preserve for a hike, and while walking, I got to thinking about the journal and came up with the idea of filling it as a series of, or one long, letter to a friend--an old friend, or at least a dear friend. Not exactly the epitome of pulitzer-caliber fiction, but for the first time in a while I'm looking forward to a writing project that isn't an assignment. I have no idea where it came from or why it appeals to me. Just roll with the synchronicity, I guess.
I'm to the point now where I'm counting even the tiniest victories, and I tallied two in the last two days.
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
anyone else having motivation/ concentration problems this week? I totally tanked, don't really know why. Maybe it's unrelated to the process, but I was wondering if anyone else was struggling through this part.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I'm struggling through this part mostly because it keeps asking me to think about my childhood, which I hated. Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
For the most part I'm hanging with the program pretty well. Next week I'll be travelling, so keeping up will be a struggle, and I will be unable to post on here, but I will be back the following week.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
For my artist date this week, I went to Hobby Lobby to get some drawing supplies and a book on how to draw. I used to scribble as a kid but it's been years since I made any effort and I never really learned how. One of the exercises this week asked me to list some childhood accomplishments and I remembered winning a drawing contest in elementary school. This inspired me to pick it up again.
There's a lot more to it than I expected though. I had to get a bunch of different kinds of pencils and a couple of different erasers for textures.
I know drawing isn't writing, but I find myself thinking that if I can have more fun with my creativity and play a bit more, it will help me write better. Some of the scenes I have in mind to draw are from some of my stories. Heck, maybe I can design my own cover art for my next book.
