Tag: creativity

Finding refuge in flash fiction

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Flash Fiction will change you. It will make you a very different writer.

Nancy Stohlman

Having previously attempted the world renowned practice in November of writing a novel in 30 days (NaNoWriMo), and found that I was unable to sustain the motivation to finish, this year I stumbled upon a different type of November challenge – Flash Nano! This writing challenge is the brainchild of Nancy Stohlman, author of the recently published craft guidebook to flash fiction, “Going Short – An invitation to flash fiction”. Nancy provides daily writing prompts with the challenge and expectation the writer is to write a flash fiction story of 1,000 words or less every day.

Sounds simple, right? It’s not but it is an amazing challenge and the by-product is learning more about oneself as a writer as well as some of the nuts and bolts of the craft. And…even better, it has been a wonderful distraction from all of the chaos across the globe especially the political farce playing out south of the border and the looming escalation of viral infection.

To date, I have received seventeen prompts and written seventeen stories. Today I will tackle number eighteen and the best part of receiving these emails is that I now find myself spending more time during the day on this writing practice and I am also discovering it has enhanced my creative inclinations in other aspects of life throughout the day.

We likely all know what types of activities or strategies work best for each of us to stay engaged, creative, and energized. But maintaining consistency with any undertaking seems to have been elusive for me over the past few weeks as the outside world has become somewhat overwhelming. It has also been more difficult to simply find joy, excitement, and just plain fun in an activity. This one has helped check all of those boxes for me.

This has been instructive on several levels and surprising as well. This one activity has helped me focus on setting goals, applying effort to achieve them, learning and developing new skills, persevering when you think you don’t want to do something any longer, finding fun in the process, and learning to tune out all of the negativity that is knocking at the door. Writing practice has been a part of my life for the past couple of years and this month it has been amplified and elevated.

It has been awhile since I have looked forward to completing a task every single day. Perhaps this is one of the defining features of the disruptive force this pandemic has had in my newly sculpted post retirement life. Having made it through my own personal life transition, the farthest thing from my mind was to anticipate the collective transition that we are all going through. This writing practice has taught me a few personal lessons that I hope I am able to sustain long after we pass through this dark tunnel of time.

Hope you are finding things in your life that nurture you and create positive energy, excitement and just plain fun. Stay healthy and safe!

Finding that spark at any age

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If you find something you love it’s so exciting. Your brain is a bowl of energy. It gives you such passion for life. That is the power of creativity.

Thelma Pepper

One of the most fascinating women I have come across is a photographer who just yesterday celebrated her 100th birthday. Thelma Pepper didn’t begin her creative journey until she turned 60. It was at that point in her life, she embarked on a long career creating stunning black and white portraits of people from rural Saskatchewan. She elevated her subjects, celebrating hardworking people who had amazing stories that would have otherwise never have been told. Thelma also told compelling stories through her camera lens, about the lives of many individuals living in long term care homes.

Her message of finding something you love to do especially later in life is both impressive and inspiring. Creativity does stimulate energy and it can appear at any age or stage of life. I have noticed during this time of physical and social isolation that I was missing that creative spark. My attention span seemed to have vanished and finding that energizing passion for either photography or writing has been almost non-existent. At best, I have been able to revisit pieces of writing and photos taken and focus on an editing process instead of creating anew.

My writing practice seems stunted, some of the tricks that have worked in the past no longer inspire. I am putting in the time but don’t feel that I have that upbeat energy I get when my brain and heart work in tandem. All of those editing tasks that I had been putting off are now completed and submissions for publication have been for writing pieces written some time ago. I have been missing that form of energy that completely envelopes you, making it hard to leave what you are doing when you are required to attend to something else.

Tired of cleaning the house, I have been seeking that elusive creative energy from the stories of other artists which led me to Thelma’s story. Her award winning art is stunning and her message is one of hope that at any age, we can navigate life transitions and begin a creative career by following what leads us to touch that passion within ourselves. What serves as your source of creativity and inspiration? Hopefully you are finding your way through this pandemic, overcoming the difficulties that may have arisen and are moving forward in the direction you would like to be going in.

Stay safe and healthy!

Creativity fosters relevance

Much of the world has been in lockdown for the past few months and social media platforms are chock full of posts that display the many creative ventures that people have embarked upon. From baking sourdough bread to finding innovative methods of gardening in little to no space on an apartment balcony, there is evidence all around us of creativity and innovation.

Children do this naturally and as we reach adulthood many of us lose our natural ability to adapt, innovate, and pivot when faced with changing circumstances. This world crisis has given many of us ample opportunity to progress through boredom to create novel solutions to many problems that have been imposed by “staying together by staying apart.”

The need to find ways to reimagine how to do things in our lives in new ways also helps us to feel relevant. In some ways, this seems reminiscent to me of my first few months when I had retired from full time work. The need to feel relevant loomed large at that time and I had to relearn ways to adapt and live this new life so I could still feel like I mattered.

Watching the world lean in to doing things differently and considering a new normal has been inspiring. The creative spark has been electrified around the world at a time when chaos could have overwhelmed our spirit. From watching a local arts festival on my iPad at home to receiving an invitation for an international virtual convention for fellow professionals.

It seems there is no end to ways in which something can be created from nothing.

One of my favourite places is our local library and since it has been shuttered, there has been a proliferation of electronic resources added to our community system which everyone can now access with a digital password and pin number. Wonderful! Through one of the new additions to the electronic resource catalogue was an ebook where I found the following quote,

“I am motivated to create so I can shape my life with my actions. Life is not simply happening to me; I play an active role.”

Rebekah Younger, Be Awake, Create.

Stay healthy and safe!

Creativity in Crisis?

During this past week, I learned that one of our most reputable local literary publishing houses was closing, declaring insolvency, and had begun bankruptcy proceedings. For almost fifty years, local writers have had their publishing dreams realized and many others have been inspired by this independent publisher.

Along my journey to submit pieces of my writing, I have discovered that many literary print magazines have closed submissions due to lack of resources, and some no longer exist.

Last evening, I attended a lecture at the school of journalism at our local university. The theme of the lecture questioned the future of media. There is a tug and pull between carefully crafted press releases and genuine investigative reporting.

Is creativity in crisis? Certainly journalists and writers have been challenged more in the last few years as we have seen the rise of populism surface around the globe. Declarations of fake news obscure truth telling. Power is obtained and maintained by managing the narrative.

Fear, anxiety, and distrust can overwhelm us as we read through negative news feeds, read vitriolic attacks by organized trolls on social media, and plow our way through one global disaster after another. Should we be concerned about a pandemic or not? At times, our trust in the written word falters when there is so much contradiction and confusion.

There are certainly numerous challenges for writers and readers of the written word these days.

Yet, humans crave and require opportunities for creative expression whether it be through writing or another form. Imagination can be transformative. When we put pen to paper or fingers on the keyboard, we can lose ourselves in the process of creating words that allow us to share what is in our hearts and minds. Expression can be both healing and affirming.

Storytelling is the means we use to connect with one another. It is the medium in which we learn about our differences, our similarities, our pain and our joy. Let’s ensure that we continue to embrace our creative impulses and to share them with one another. Happy writing!

Can Accountability help us avoid Writer’s Block?

One of the challenges that I have found while developing a writing practice is becoming accountable for it. No one forces us to create in whatever form of expression we use. And as I am becoming more comfortable with the craft of writing, and am learning more skills, it seems that the potential for becoming blocked increases.

That is concerning.

I have been reading a wide variety of books on the art and craft of writing and am becoming ever curious about the concept of writer’s block. Many writers develop rituals that must be followed before the words will flow. Others seem to have developed unique and individual work arounds to avoid writer’s block. Some don’t even believe that it exists. There seem to be a myriad of opinions about the concept of writer’s block.

It seems that choosing a path of accountability would serve to help us forgo periods of writer’s block.

Being accountable is simply being responsible for your work. Imagine a doctor telling you that they are unable to see you because they are currently “blocked”. What would happen to anyone of us if we simply did not show up for work. Or if we decided that it was mission critical to walk the dog first, make sure the laundry was done, and spent hours “researching” information via the internet to inform or inspire our writing. If we chose to do that in the work world, the consequences of those types of choices are obvious.

Blogging has become one of my anchors to accountability for my writing practice. Having committed to writing and publishing one post each week has actually increased my word count in other projects that I am working on. It is important to me to hold myself accountable in some way as I am learning to become a writer and this has turned into a strategy that also helps me maintain my focus.

The act of writing is not about being published, or having others scrutinize your work. By simply becoming committed to the act itself without all of the what if’s, it is much easier to sit and begin every day. The pact we make about our creative practices should first be with ourselves. Being accountable is also about honouring ourselves, our creativity, and the expressions of that, that bring us passion and purpose.

What do you do to hold yourself accountable to creative practice, whether it be expressing yourself through writing, photography, painting, or other art forms?

Retirement, writing…and the beginner’s mind

Life changes of any kind often leave us in an emotional limbo where we may experience strong sensations of being off balance. Navigating this anxiety provoking tightrope can be challenging indeed.

The old saying, be careful what you wish for, has popped into my mind more than once over the past couple of months. Dreaming for years of having both the time and the freedom to become a writer seemed to be a beacon along the path of a busy life full of family and work obligations. Fantasizing about creating a writer’s den where creative thoughts and activities would abound when I retired was one of my favourite pastimes.

Now that time is here. The part of this new life that never occurred to me was the fact that I would be starting to learn a new set of skills and would have to cultivate a beginner’s mind to appreciate both the learning process as well as the inevitable stumbles along the way.

At a writing workshop I attended not long ago, the instructor spoke of how irritating it could be to hear people state that they intend to write a book in the future as though it would happen with ease. The instructor revealed that most people practically have no concept of how demanding and taxing the work of writing can be. Writing, both art and craft, requires all of the activities you find in learning any new skill. Practice, learning to fail, and developing micro skills one step at a time are all in play on your road to any type of writing success.

When you read a strong piece of writing, it often does little to reveal all of the sweat equity and investment that have to coalesce in order for the writer to arrive with a successful finished product. Learning to have patience, to practice with no end or deliverable required, spending more hours rewriting than actually putting words on the page, are all a part of the beginning writer’s reality.

So how do you cultivate what is often referred to as the beginner’s mind?

Reflecting on past new beginnings in our lives can be helpful. What were my emotional and psychological experiences when I entered high school, university, got married, started my career, had a family? Using a journaling approach to answer questions about these previous life transitions, taught me that I have forgotten how hard life changes can actually be. They are scary, feel threatening, place you on very steep learning curves, and require you to reach out for support at times.

They also mean that you have to become kind and compassionate with yourself as you are learning new skills and going through the trial and error process that is all part and parcel of the beginner’s state of mind. Most importantly, I think I am beginning to accept that it is okay to experience many different emotions as I navigate this new stage of life and struggle to develop new skills as a writer. And that this is okay.