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| Why shouldn’t that novel be published? Why should you not finish that short story? Why are not your works given the honor they deserve? For the cynic the answer is not being good enough. What is the property of good or bad but the relative identifier produced from an arbitrary process given by an imperfect judge? Is the judge to be believed as assigning a binding declaration? Or, is the judge giving opinion as the circumstances prevail? |
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As a child did you care if the enemies you fought were pretend or the helmet you wore was really a plastic colander? Did you pay attention to the fact that your play at times moved from one illogical progression to another with nothing to tie them together? No, or at least I did not. I let my imagination run with whatever the game happened to be. It was creativity to imagine a field full of enemy to combat or a horizon full of stars.
Now the BB gun I shot my brother with one day was real, but the cardboard boxes we were pretending to be a tank wasn’t!  (don’t worry, he lived!) It was play and creativity unfettered by reality (tell that one to my brother!) and unbridled by convention. Child stars, child prodigies, or any child who is thrust into adulthood at a young age often miss one of the formative aspects of childhood; play. Forced to step into the adults world they eventually come to regret the life of play they never experienced. Yet somewhere between childhood and adulthood we all lose the ability to play. Some of us may extend that a little; holding on to childhood or childish ways a little long into life. Eventually we are driven to “maturity” by societal pressure. Yet it was that state of mind from our younger years that most reflects the pure state of art. Not “A” art, that nefarious idea of esoteric grandeur sipping cappuccino,s wearing outlandish clothing, and prancing around with an air of the untouchable elite. Art is creativity best seen in children’s play. It is imagination and cares little for the umpire or the judge. Sometimes it can be destructive as the unthinking player, caught up in the imagination, destroys some heirloom or china plate. And the first thing out of our mouths to the rapscallion cuffed in our grasp? What where you thinking? (and if my brother was thinking that, he didn’t say anything until I shot him!) If their play was right it wasn’t thinking; it was creating.
As artist writers we spend far too much time thinking with our right brain and not enough time creating with our left. That childhood we had where we played and made up our own rules and pushed the limits of our parent’s patience needs to again be called upon to create the stories and phrases in our writing. Writing is a play date set with our muse/inner artist. The imagination is the realm of that side of ourselves but if it is always kept in a dark closet or a drab room or some other sterile environment we leave our creative part with very little to go on. Will a child play in a sensory deprived room? Why would your inner artist child want to create in a like environment? Similarly, how many children have you seen play when forced to at gun point? Why then should your artist child create worlds and words for you when forced to?
Do you guilt your writing? Do you say to yourself that you must not be much of a writer since you haven’t been able to write or have just been too lazy? Children are never lazy about their play. Chores maybe or other tasks that are foist upon them like homework, but play is never something one has to prod or goad a child into participating in. Perhaps your artist self is gun shy and abused. Perhaps they have been drained by too much forced and rule ridden play where the attention soon wanes. Call lazy what it really is; fear. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of critique, fear of no critique, fear of … A child wracked with fear will not spend time in play and neither will your creative side spend much time in creating. To be a play filled writer you will need to cultivate the right atmosphere for play for your left brain side. Comfortable surroundings, little indulgent gifts or treats bought for no reason but to treat yourself, and a change in thought pattern are needed. Recognize procrastination as an indicator of fear about something you are holding on to but not yet willing to release.
Becoming published and a household name are lofty and worthy goals; but are those goals also creating the very blocks that are preventing them from being realized? What did you enjoy more about your childhood, writing reports or running around outside playing in your tree house fort? The report for school was something you had to do to get a good grade. The play was nothing you had to do but wanted to do anyway. Your writing should be no different and your creative self wants to play if allowed to.
Make a play date with your muse and give them total freedom to create next time you sit down to write. Who cares if it is a silly creation with no meaning but to you? Art isn’t about awards or notoriety but about seeking and finding the truth in life; that truth is discovered through your play and not formulated like an equation on the chalk board of your mind.
When and what was the last thing you created just for the fun of it?
If you can be accused of artist abuse (inner artist, muse, artist child) how and why do you do it?
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Items I’ve churned up in the many searches we NL editors have to do deal with creativity and writing and most of them turned out to be poems. While there aren’t any tried and true methods that can be applied universally across the spectrum of writers; there are a few universal truths that we can grasp hold of.
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Question from my 12/15/05 NL
If you are still plugging away at NaNo, what have you discovered so far?
If you were unable to participate or have had to quit, what did you discover in the process that you would change next time?
April Sunday 
Submitted Comment:
A long time ago, I decided not to write without it. Wit comes easy to some, is ignored by many. Without it, we face the B word. Boring!
scribbler
Submitted Comment:
humour is your own, when writers try to use jokes or quips that arent't thier own style but one widely accepted, that is when they fail. If you are a die hard dry humourist then that is what you should write, maybe its rude jokes, situational humour or sarcasm. You have to write what you think is funny.
teapoe
Submitted Comment:
I enjoyed the comments from the last newsletter. I have recently purchased the NaNo founder's book "No Plot? No Problem!" It's a great book. I'm planning my own writing marathon for January (I work in retail). The writers here expressed myself. One day I'm thrilled and itching to write. Others I feel like a fake with no talent or imagination. Thanks for helping me see that I'm not the only one who feels this way.
Tink
billwilcox
Submitted Comment:
Phil!
Loved the article about comedy in writing. A must for any serious story is a bit of levity to break up the tension. Question: will we get to read your scripted SNL sketch? Man, that sounds like fun!
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For Authors: January 18, 2006 Issue [#835]
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