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creativity

27 wild days of writing

This is me starting the day with nothing except a hope
that I’ll make something beautiful out of nothing,
that I can conjure magic from scraps, a snip of a dream and a cup of coffee.
Me remembering that I’ve got this if I can just relax.

                                                          ~  Laurie Wagner,  Creator of 27 Powers

Wild days to-do list
Walking on the beach with amore and the princess –  on my to-do list

Last year I did a course with the wonderfully insightful Laurie Wagner called 27 Wild Days. What an adventure of wild writing it was! For 27 days the lovely Laurie appeared in my inbox via a video, sharing wisdom about writing and to read a poem. You listened to the poem (twice), Laurie provided a jumping off point — the title of the poem, a line from it or any other phrase that came to mind — and off you went. 

The premise of wild writing is to write for fifteen minutes as fast as you can, pen never leaving the page, no thinking about it — write the words as they come to you. No looking for better words.  If the word “shit” comes or “kook” or “frumpy bum” — anything that sounds silly or messy (or god forbid, unacceptable!) — it doesn’t matter, that’s the word to use.  It’s your truth.  This is what wild writing is all about.  Getting to the heart of things.  Laurie calls it “putting some skin in the game”. 

Some days it’s writing about stuff that you don’t want to write about, beginning with a sentence like, “If you really knew me, you’d know…” And repeating that phrase as you continue to put ink on the page. It’s about the things that are hidden under the skin. The stuff you find difficult to write about.

She says:

It’s an awesome way to move into the heart of what matters to you, and it’s also terribly exciting to write onto the edge.  You will generate power.  You will surprise yourself, you will not bore yourself.

She’s right. It’s revealing. Beginning this way loosens you up until you get to the story that you really want to tell.  It’s a wild ride, this truth telling.

Wild days to-do list
An orchid from the garden – seeing the beauty that surrounds me

I confess that when I started, I didn’t think I would have enough to say, that I wouldn’t be able to keep pen to page non-stop for fifteen minutes.  But once I started with the truth-telling, I couldn’t stop.  The ink kept flowing, the words tumbled out.  The best part of it was that the demon of perfection didn’t have time to rear its ugly head.  Before I knew it, fifteen minutes was up. 

As the days rolled on, I discovered poetry in a form I had never read before.  The stuff of real life. Raw emotion. Truth.  I also discovered that some of what was appearing on my pages was poetry too.  Good writing.  Honest. Surprising and exhilarating.

Wild!

I’d like to share some of this writing with you over the next few weeks, starting with something that I’m really good at.  A to-do list. Nothing exciting about that, I hear you say. But this is a list with a difference. It’s nothing like any of my usual to-do lists.  It’s inspired by Laurie’s jumping off point on Day 13 — “Things to do today” which is  a line from Tony Hoagland’s poem The word.  

Here’s a few lines of Tony’s beautiful poem:

Down near the bottom

of the crossed-out list

of things you have to do today,

between “green thread”

and “broccoli,” you find

that you have penciled “sunlight ” 

You can read the whole poem here

Reading my wild writing from Day 13 this morning was so well-timed because I was feeling a little low.  It was such a great reminder of the simple things, ordinary things that give me joy. Things that I allowed to slip from my mind. 

Wild days at the beach
With my dog and my guy – barefoot on the sand

So here’s my list of  “Things to do today”. It gives me joy to present it to you.

Things to do today

Enjoy a moment by yourself  

Work on your plan, be productive  

Walk your dog 

Play 

Create something beautiful on the page, or in the kitchen  

Pick fresh herbs and make a salad  

Smile a lot  

Think positive thoughts  

See the beauty around you  

Kiss amore and tell him that you love him  

Take a few deep breaths  

Smell the roses 

Really see the colours of spring  

Remember the people you love 

Say their names out loud and send them a wish through the universe 

Change your sheets and spray them with lavender and orange 

Enjoy the sunshine 

Plant some flowers 

Drink lots of water 

Write, a lot! 

Write about the things you love, write a blog post, write a list of all the things you
plan to finish 

Rest your back

Have a bath

Buy yourself something nice

Get in touch with your friend Ruth, tell her you’re thinking of her  

Don’t beat yourself up about the things you haven’t done, think about the great things you’re going to do  

Go to the beach and walk barefoot on the sand  

Draw something  

Finish your drawing course

Finish something else on your list  

Feel good about where you’re at right now  

Meditate for five minutes  

Post a beautiful picture on Instagram  

Write a letter the old-fashioned way and send it to your daughter

Write one to your son as well  

Find joy in the ordinary and be thankful for what’s good in your life  

Be happy. 

Journal writing - wild days
Beginning wild days -Day 13

These are words from my wild heart,  my wild writing — unpolished, unedited.  Not just for today, for other days too. Days when I need a reminder that there are good things in my world. A reminder to be happy. I hope it will inspire you to think of things to do today that make you happy. And if you feel that 27 wild days of writing could be the thing that gets your creative juices flowing, or maybe you need a little help to get some ink on the page, why don’t you hop over and see Laurie. I guarantee that you’ll be delighted, surprised, maybe even a little shocked (in a nice way) at what appears on your page as you write your way through 27 wild days.

Over to you now.  I’d love to hear what’s on your list.  Maybe your list is a poem? 

Colleen

The flourishing of creativity through writing a journal

Creative journal writing frees your spirit. It liberates insight and while it makes your mind dance, it soothes your soul.

~ Stephanie Dowrick, Creative journal writing

Journal writing makes your creativity flourish

I’ve been writing a journal consistently for a year now. It’s a private space where I record my dreams and wishes, my complaints and disappointments and my sorrows and joys. It’s truly the ideal friend — a good listener, non-judgemental, always there when you need her, she invites me to write my way through challenges and helps me discover solutions which sometimes appear serendipitously on the page. And the most unexpected and delightful benefit of writing a daily journal has been the flourishing of creativity in all areas in my life.

For a long time I wasn’t clear about what really mattered to me. I knew I wasn’t the person I wanted to be but I didn’t know who that person could be. Journal writing was the catalyst for a shift in imagination. The daily writing helped to clear the clutter from my mind, fostered new ways of thinking about my life, and helped me to create a foundation for becoming who I really am. It opened the door to new possibilities, allowed my creativity to flourish.

This passage hasn’t been an easy one —inertia, resistance, and fear were my friends for a while. You can read my story about how I managed to vanquish these old foes and step onto the path toward a wholehearted life, at Quiet Writing

Writing a journal didn’t come naturally to me. It’s been a battle. I fought the hellion of resistance and my lack of discipline to even show up at my desk and come to the page. And the wrestle with the demon of perfectionism is an ongoing struggle. This process of self-discovery required a helping hand — new mentors, inspiring collaborators were called for. Books have been companions and teachers throughout my life so it was the place I turned to for help.

Journal writing books
Journal writing mentors

I first discovered journal writing through Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. But I wasn’t ready for it. I was sceptical that writing three pages could free my captive creativity and I found the artist dates too confounding in my moribund state. I also didn’t have the discipline to see the twelve week course through.

However, Cameron’s ‘Morning pages’ (three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing in the morning) did help me to shrug off my corporate writer, my perfectionist self, for a while. And a quote by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in Cameron’s book touched a chord with me even though at the time I didn’t know what it meant or how to achieve this state:

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

rituals
Lighting my oil burner with a few drops of essential oil became part of my morning ritual

Janet Connor’s Writing down your soul was also edifying. Connor’s suggestions for showing up were simple and practical. They helped me create a daily ritual for writing my journal which was meditative and calming. I arrived at my desk each morning, lit a candle in my oil burner with a few drops of whichever essential oil spoke to me that day, sat down, and took a few deep breaths. I read a page from Susan Shaughnessy’s Walking on alligators, a book of meditations for writers (always inspiring) and opened my journal. Connor says to write a salutation as you would begin a letter. Mine was, and still is, Dear Friend. I love that it’s like beginning a conversation with a dear friend which is how I do see my journal.

I only read the first part of the book closely as many of the questions and exercises seemed too profound for my situation. I just began to write whatever came into my mind. But It didn’t feel satisfying. I continued with this for a while but looked for another mentor. I needed a guide who could show me how to free my captive creativity.

Lavinia Spalding’s Writing Away had been on my shelf for a while. The subheading “A creative guide to awakening the journal writing traveller” caught my eye. It’s wonderful sometimes isn’t it, when help arrives serendipitously just when you need it? Although aimed at travellers, Lavinia has many pertinent suggestions for the stay-at-home journal writer. One that I love is her invitation to view your everyday life as a journey and travel as an ongoing state of mind.
She says the journal,

“is a safe container for astonishing discoveries and the life lessons we take away from them. We write words in an empty book, and an inanimate object is transformed into a living, breathing memoir. In turn, as we write, the journal transforms us. It allows us to instantly process impressions, which leads to a more examined layer of consciousness in both the present and the future. It’s a relationship…

Yes, a relationship with an intimate friend.

One of the biggest take-aways from Writing Away was to use all your senses. It wakes you up, giving that moment a three dimensional impression. I regret not reading this book earlier and keeping a journal on my trips to Italy. I relied so much on my camera to capture scenes and places but a photo doesn’t remind you how you felt in that moment, the sounds of the market place, or what it smelt like. Smell is such an evocative sensation which can bring you to a halt with memories of that moment or situation.

 

A shift in imagination
A sudden disturbance in the air caused the leaves of my nectarine tree to float to the ground in a cascade of golden hues, echoing the shift in my imagination

Autumn 2016 and the leaves on the nectarine tree in front of my window were turning shades of gold. I was showing up at my desk, determined to get into the swing of this journal writing thing. But it was still laboured. Until I found my most influential writing mentor.

I came across Stephanie Dowrick’s Creative journal writing – the art and heart of reflection in the library. Her book was written for me. Everyday situations, engaging exercises, insights and practical suggestions that resonated with me. Journal writing, she says,

 …will train and hone your eye for beauty. it will invite you into the present moment (while also allowing you to roam your past). It will let you re-experience awe and wonder. It will let you intensify and renew your pleasure in events and situations that have gone well. It will support your recovery (and the gaining of wisdom) from the times you wish had never happened.

Suddenly I felt a new freedom — to explore what really mattered to me, to ask new questions, to begin a wild writing adventure.

Beautiful journal
The right accoutrements to excite the senses and bring the words onto the page

I bought a beautiful journal, found a pen I loved and followed the exercises and suggestions in the book. It was the beginning of something special. The exercises brought the ink flowing onto the page and this wild writing sometimes lead me to ideas I didn’t know I had, sparked connections I hadn’t seen before and gave meaning and richness to situations and events I’d brushed aside as insignificant.

I felt a flourishing of creativity and a confidence to try new things. It was a shift in imagination!

I’ve had a secret longing to learn to draw for decades and always dismissed the desire as I thought I didn’t have the talent nor the creativity for it. Until recently. I took the plunge and signed up to an online course to find out once and for all if I had even a skerrick of ability. I discovered that anyone can learn to draw, you just need to be taught some techniques and the rest is practice. What a prodigious surprise!

a flourishing of creativity
A flourishing of creativity saw me bring my long-held dream of learning to draw, to light

Writing a journal is creative. It’s instinctive — your pen moves across the page almost of its own volition, no thinking deeply, or censoring thoughts, or pausing for the right word. It’s woken me up, showed me what it means to be alive. Journal writing has guided and helped me to flourish in many ways: I’ve achieved clarity on my purpose, the freedom to explore what matters to me, I’ve developed my intuition, and let go of the person I thought I should be. It’s helped me to create space to find out who I really want to become. It’s helped me to create a vision for living a wholehearted life, a passionate life.

Are you a journal writer? In what ways has writing your journal helped you? Please drop me a line in the comments, I’d love to hear your experience.

 

Just do it.

JUST DO IT

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

                                                                                             ~  John Anster

Nike’s iconic slogan JUST DO IT. is an apt mantra for me — I’m a procrastinator, a perfectionist, and a wallflower. I’ve been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic (as well as a half a dozen others) for inspiration and guidance on how to do it — that is, how to get on with living a meaningful, creative life. Well, I could keep reading (as is my tendency) but I’ve made the decision — either do it now or forever wallow in regret.

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