Tag: Creative work

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Creative Practices to Boost Your Writing Journey

I just completed the first month of The Stafford Challenge, writing a poem a day for a year. Reminiscent of the now defunct NaNoWriMo, this creative challenge requires fewer words in a day, but extends the challenge across 12 months.

Once upon a time, I produced a lot of poetry. Some of it was good; most of it was trite. I can’t say that it has gotten any better, but I am enjoying the challenge and surprising myself with some progress. I may not be winning the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, but I look forward to my mid-afternoon cup of tea and a sheet of paper to see what jumps out of my fancy fountain pen. If nothing else, this challenge has given me an opportunity to ponder my world and I’m grateful for the experience. 

Many years ago, I came across Julia Cameron’s creativity-retreat-in-a-book, The Artist’s Way. It was sometimes hard, sometimes enlightening, and always encouraging as I worked through the exercises and figured out what fed my creative side. 

I learned a few things that carry over to this day:

  • I need to write a little bit each day. ideally, I write several pages in a journal, but some days look more like several lines, sometimes copied from scripture. The point is that I show up to the page.
  • I need to embrace activities that feed my creativity. Over the years I’ve done acrylic and oil painting, photography, needlepoint, jewelry making, mosaic and tile work, puzzles, sketching and watercolor, and my newest hobby, 3D puzzles. I always feel refreshed when I return to the page.
  • I go on dates with myself, to see and do new things on my own schedule because I deserve it!

Perhaps these things have helped me be a better writer. I can say with certainty they’ve made me a writer that comes to the page with a joyful heart.

How do you feed your creativity?

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set aside some time to create

I was looking for some inspiring stuff for something else…naturally. Isn’t that the way we find new things? Anyway, I ran across this short video on creativity, and it made me think about the way I approach creativity — mostly writing, whether it’s jotting off a poem or trying to get a scene just right for a story.

In either case (and in other cases, too) — I do a lot of writing at work. Whatever the case, I found that a couple of things need to be present for me to get some creative work done. First, I need to have some time set aside, and it needs to be time dedicated to me — no interrruptions, and I need an open space without clutter and distractions. When I was a little kid, I used to be able to tune out the entire world…it’s a little harder now that I’m trying to run the world, doncha know.

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