WISHING is the first stage of the creative process and is about nurturing your desire to create something. This is where you look for ideas and inspiration, and research stories to obsess over.
The Desire to Create
The Desire to Create
To create anything you
need a space in which to do it – not just a room of your own and time to write,
but space inside your head. This can be one of the greatest challenges of the
creative process, and even if you manage to carve out some time to work on your
ideas, the contents of your mind can throw you off track before you even start.
To hear the voice of
inspiration you need to get quiet enough to listen. Meditation can help to
still your mind, but you can use anything that works – walking, gardening,
listening to music, knitting (really!). Experiment to find what works for you
and build it into your routine. If you want to create, it must become so much a
part of your life that you can’t imagine it not being there. To be still you
need to empty your mind of clutter and distractions. No Facebook updates. No
endless twittering.
Inner stillness is the
key to inspiration.
When you empty your
mind of clutter it clears a space for what wants to be created to come out and
play. As you quieten down inside, hold the idea in your mind, turn it around,
look at it, and let it breathe. Ask questions about the idea to encourage it to
expand. What does it want to be? Who is this character? What’s he doing? Why?
Don’t force it or second guess. Let your imagination go loose, let it play, and
see what happens.
Write it down.
Sit with your idea and
wait. Be vigilant. Inspirations will appear that feed into your idea, so pay
attention to everything going on around you. When you have a good idea the
world comes alive with synchronicities. It’s like the idea, or character, or
image, is magnetic. It draws in other ideas and images that resonate. Connections
form, associations explode. You start to feel the shape of the story spreading
out and moving inside you.
Give it space to
stretch.
Hungry Mind
This stage of the
creative process is exciting and energising. It’s fun to explore and discover
new ideas and connections between things, but it’s easy to become overwhelmed
by all the possibilities running around in your head. The idea balloons into
giant proportions, it sprouts heads, it runs off down an alleyway with you
trailing after it thinking, “Hang on, I’m
not sure I should be down here…”
This is where you start
to argue with yourself about whether or not the story should be written at all,
before you’ve even worked out what it’s about. It’s a difficult state to be in
because you’re not sure what’s going on and you don’t feel in control.
You don’t have the
idea, the idea has you.
The anxiety of this
stage is called Hungry Mind anxiety
and the swirling chaotic mess in your head is a good sign. It means you want to
create something. This is the kind of anxiety you will have to accept if you
want to spend your time creating anything so you better get used to it.
The worst thing to do
in the face of this anxiety is to shut down, turn away, switch on the TV, or go
online. You need to get to a place in your head where the anxiety doesn’t stop
you creating.
You need to feed your
creativity.
How to Starve your Mind
Hungry Mind anxiety is
dealt with by ‘appropriate feeding’
– in other words, you nourish your desire to create by doing things that
support your creativity and encourage it to flourish. There are many ways to
sabotage your creativity. Here are a few examples of inappropriate ways to deal
with hungry mind anxiety.
Gorge on Facts: Are you a whiz at quizzes? A walking version of
Google? Do you spend all day obsessing about story structure? Put your inner
geek to sleep or he’ll sabotage your creative writing. You’ll spend more time
filling your head with froth or learning every variant of dramatic structure,
than creating. Too many details at this stage is deadening. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Only Eat Sweets: If you only ever watch sitcoms and musicals, and
avoid anything remotely challenging, your brain will atrophy. Make sure your
mind has a balanced diet or it will get fat on sentimentality. Don’t avoid the dark side.
Have Intellectual Conversations: The only people who care about
intertextual structuralist hermeneutics or the intentional fallacy are
academics. Avoid this kind of brain numbing mental masturbation or you’ll
disappear up your own arse faster than you can say formalist explication. Put
your inner academic to sleep. I’m not saying don’t think. Goodness knows, most
people don’t think enough, but let your heart and guts join the conversation. You
have a whole body – use it. Don’t live in
your head.
Dismiss your Ideas: When a great idea hits, don’t dismiss it too
soon. If you let all your brilliant ideas go without giving them a chance,
you’ll never create anything. You’ll drift into a state of nihilistic
indifference and no-one will care, least of all you. Hold on to your inspirations.
Think and Chew Gum: Are you doing too many things at once? Stop!
Don’t distract yourself or allow yourself to be distracted. When writing,
write. Don’t try to watch the football/cricket/tennis at the same time, and
tweet and update your blog and text your mates, and write your masterpiece. It
won’t work. Focus.
Join a Club: Are you a Freudian or a Jungian? Atheist or Jedi?
Don’t side with anyone or label yourself this, that or the other. If you label
yourself as one thing in particular, you limit yourself. Never mind sitting on the
fence – tear the fence down! Let your
mind be free.
Lie to Yourself: How often do you tell yourself you’re working on
your novel when you know you’re not? Stop it. The worse thing you can do is lie
to yourself. You’re fooling nobody. Be
honest about what you’re doing.
Attend a Workshop: Do you line up classes like dominos and then
knock them down? You can spend a fortune, and eons of time, going to writing
workshops. You think you’re writing (see above), but never do any proper work.
Yes, you must learn your craft, but at some point you must also write. Writing
is how you learn to write, not listening to someone talking about writing. Don’t be a dabbler.
Feed on Drama: In a bid to ‘live life to the full’ (you’ve got to
have something to write about, after all) you drink and shag yourself silly,
have passionate arguments in public, throw furniture at the walls. You tell
yourself this is research. It isn’t. Remember Julia Cameron’s adage: Keep the Drama on the Page.
Underestimate Yourself: Give up before you start and never use the
resources of your mind. Underestimate what you’re capable of and assume the
worst. Tell yourself you know nothing and nobody is interested anyway. This is
the fastest route to hell that I know. Don’t
be too modest.
Nourish Your Creativity
The best way to deal
with anxiety at this stage of the creative process is appropriate feeding.
There are plenty of things you can do to feed your hungry mind that don’t leave
you with mental indigestion. Here’s a few examples:
Follow the Work: Do what the story requires of you. Research your
subject and dig deep into your characters. Let the story lead the way. Do what
you need to do to create the right atmosphere and draw inspiration to yourself.
Search out nuggets to enliven your story.
Plant Seeds: Give your imagination something to work with. I have a
folder full of ideas, scraps of paper covered in scrawl, clippings from
newspapers, and half thought out possibilities. Every now and then I sift
through what I’ve collected. Something will always surprise me and trigger a
new story idea.
Think by Feeling: Don’t over-think everything. Keep in touch with
your feelings by feeling them – laugh, cry, and live. You are not feeling when
you’re talking or thinking about your feelings. As Bruce Lee says in Enter the Dragon, “Don’t think, feel.”
Feast: Dig deep into your research for the work. Obsess over it,
dream about it, devour it. Let your story penetrate every pore, and every nook
and cranny of your life.
Enjoy the Masters: Return to and relive the books and films that
have inspired you. It will fan the flames of your enthusiasm. Remind yourself
why you wanted to write in the first place.
Revisit your old Work: Enjoy your finished stories. Congratulate
yourself on a job well done. What did you learn? How did the work change you?
Remember how good it felt to finish.
Serve: Share your enthusiasms and your joy. Teach others what you
need to learn. Service forms a large part of the motivation for this blog.
Quieten your Mind: Be still and silent. Surrender to the trance of
working. Let the writing take you, and let it lead you where you need to be.
Think Well: Analyse what you’re trying to do. Think about life and
art. What have the masters taught you, what do you know from experience? Think
about why you think the way you think. Why do you write the stories you write?
Why this story? Why now?
The important thing at
this stage is to affirm your desire to
create. Do everything in your power to support that desire. The more you
undermine yourself at this stage the more likely you are to give up. And you
know you’re not a quitter.
In Part 2 we’ll look at
CHOOSING.
How do you feed your
creative urges? Share your best advice in the comments below.
Image: Dream Girl
First Posted here: http://jessicadavidson.co.uk/2015/01/08/the-creative-process-nurturing-your-creativity/
