![]() (Which is so interesting!)įourthly, I take long, meditative daily walks, leaving the smartphone at home. In my experience, the vacations that best nurture my creativity tend to illicit confusion, even disdain, in other people. Thirdly, I find it useful to rethink the concept of “vacation.” Do I want a status-enhancing signaling opportunity with trophy-photos? Or do I actually want a change of scene / rest / adventure that recharges my creativity? These are not necessarily, nor even probably, same thing. “Edith,” she trills, “did you let this person in?”) Dick sprawled barefoot on the cabbage-roses sofa in Miss Cather’s New York living room, scribbling something mega- duende about a robotic owl in quicksand. One of the greatest of all American novels.īest consumed with a large box of hot tamale candies. In my personal experience, there is no music more nurturing for creativity than Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in D Minor.ĭo yourself a favor, grab an hour and twenty minutes, and just listen: How to nurture more beautiful and interesting thoughts in service of creative writing? A few reflections:įirstly, music helps, for thoughts tend to entrain to and emerge from music. (Beauty, by the way, is not necessarily all sweetness, light, rainbows & Kumbaya there can be intense beauty- and artistic power- in what the poet Federico García Lorca termed duende.) On the other hand, when my thoughts have a more fluid, dance-like quality, and shapes and colors that arrange themselves into some form of beauty, the writing is so much easier and fun. And when thoughts appear in my mind that I would describe as shapeless, colorless, silent, still- or moving only in tight, repetitive fashion- the writing has about as much life as a robotic owl in quicksand. (Screenshot from the edition of Besant and Leadbeater’s Thought-forms)įor me, as a literary artist ( I write poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction), creativity is all about thoughts, corralling, arranging, refining them. (Screenshot from the edition of Besant and Leadbeater’s Thought-forms) Music by Mendelssohn ![]() (Screenshot from the edition of Besant and Leadbeater’s Thought-forms.) Radiating affection. When I saw the illustrations of various thoughts as Besant and Leadbeater had perceived them on the astral plane, I recognized them instantly. Leadbeater wrote about this in a little illustrated book, now over a century old, entitled Thought-forms. ![]() This is perhaps strange to say, but it is not original on my part. They have shapes, colors, and movement, and they can morph, and even emit sounds and flavors in unique and sometimes quite fascinating ways. The posts on Texas Books, the writing workshop, my own work, and a Q & A with another writer, will continue, each posting every other month and, as ever, when there is a fifth Monday in a given month, that’s for the newsletter. Please note: The end of March 2022 marks the 16th anniversary of this blog, after which point, until further notice, I will be posting approximately two Mondays a month. > For the archive of workshop posts click here. Second Mondays of every other month I devote to my writing workshopstudents and anyone else interested in creative writing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |