The following is a list of suggestions taken from artist, Robert Genn's regular newsletter. (Link to the subscription page by clicking onto the title of this post). He is a working artist who publishes an e-newsletter twice weekly and speaks to all levels and expressions of creativity. I believe that these are a great series of guidelines to follow no matter what you are working on.
Know that others have gone where you wish to go.
Put "getting good" ahead of "making a living."
Learn to be alone and to be your own best critic.
Cut back on impedimenta and outside distractions.
Work more hours than the average factory worker.
Notice interesting directions and go there again.
Become a perpetual student of your own progress.
Don't expect too much help from anyone or anything.
Stick to your vision, but don't fear change.
Do not be adverse to developing skills.
Know that raising standards has to be chronic.
Know that marketing is easier when you have quality.
Be curious about everything, including how you turn out.
If you fall in love, accept the gift, surrender.
In this same vein, I have heard that Mark Twain is said to have declared that if you wake up each day and eat a huge, ugly frog that you can be quite sure that the rest of your day is likely to only get better.
The point being to simply eat the darn frog and get it over with so that you can move on rather than trying to come up with a million excuses as to why or how this task should be avoided.
It's very much the same with any creative endeavour: there are so many reasons and excuses that we can feed ourselves to keep us from working on that which gives us creative expression, that the only thing to do is to work even harder to ignore these excuses and just do the work that needs to be done.
I've said it before, if I had any idea that I would have been working on this project for three solid years, and that here I am 4 years later, still committing time to it, I would have quit on page one. I'm glad I didn't know. I'm glad that I started writing that first story about Starla's childhood.
The post titled JOURNAL, Sunday, Dec. 9th in the novel speaks of the anxiety that Starla has lived with all her life, and the things that she does to demand that Danny prove himself to her. In rereading this passage now several years after I originally "put it to bed" I'm amazed at the realities that I see in myself, in my children, in my childhood that are there, naked on the page. It's difficult to read.
And I'm still glad that I started writing. I'm glad I persevered.
Copyright 2007
July 24, 2007
June 10, 2007
"Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem." Brian Aldis.
I've always known about creativity in my life. I just didn't know what to call it.
It is in fact the way that we look at problems and think of ways to make them better. I once had a job cooking for a youth camp when I was totally unprepared for such an undertaking. I cooked for 40 people on a wood stove, outside without shelter, using large quantities of only a few ingredients that the staff had scavenged. No one told me that I was unprepared, I just did it. When I was 12 I knitted my first sweater, taking the bus into the city every weekend to buy another skein of yarn. When I was finished, it would have fit a Volkswagen but I laced a cord through the bottom and wore it proudly. Problem solved.
Later on I went away to Teacher's College at 30 years of age, leaving my 4 year old and husband behind, because the problem was underemployment. I became a store owner because I was laid off from my job as a teacher. I started writing to add another dimension to the somewhat narrow confines running a small business. Creativie responses wind their way into our lives when we can't really put up with things the way they are going.
Another aspect of creativity's role as problem solver arose when I woke up to find that I had written what amounted to a 100 page letter to Claire, Starla's sister, and realized that something had to be done with it. When I broke it down into a series of letters of sensible length I had to find some reason to space them out in time.
In most cases, what separates a series of anything is life, the living of it and the getting on with our daily requirements. It therefore made sense to follow Starla's life through a journal.
But the most important contribution of creative problem solving that these choices made was that they divided the project up into manageable pieces. I was able to work in a very focused manner on the 2 or 3 pages of a journal entry during the hour or two that I could devote to the writing each day. Then when that entry was done, I could go on to the next. It worked really well for me.
Copyright 2007
It is in fact the way that we look at problems and think of ways to make them better. I once had a job cooking for a youth camp when I was totally unprepared for such an undertaking. I cooked for 40 people on a wood stove, outside without shelter, using large quantities of only a few ingredients that the staff had scavenged. No one told me that I was unprepared, I just did it. When I was 12 I knitted my first sweater, taking the bus into the city every weekend to buy another skein of yarn. When I was finished, it would have fit a Volkswagen but I laced a cord through the bottom and wore it proudly. Problem solved.
Later on I went away to Teacher's College at 30 years of age, leaving my 4 year old and husband behind, because the problem was underemployment. I became a store owner because I was laid off from my job as a teacher. I started writing to add another dimension to the somewhat narrow confines running a small business. Creativie responses wind their way into our lives when we can't really put up with things the way they are going.
Another aspect of creativity's role as problem solver arose when I woke up to find that I had written what amounted to a 100 page letter to Claire, Starla's sister, and realized that something had to be done with it. When I broke it down into a series of letters of sensible length I had to find some reason to space them out in time.
In most cases, what separates a series of anything is life, the living of it and the getting on with our daily requirements. It therefore made sense to follow Starla's life through a journal.
But the most important contribution of creative problem solving that these choices made was that they divided the project up into manageable pieces. I was able to work in a very focused manner on the 2 or 3 pages of a journal entry during the hour or two that I could devote to the writing each day. Then when that entry was done, I could go on to the next. It worked really well for me.
Copyright 2007
June 6, 2007
Choices
One of the interesting things about writing is that you get to choose a whole lot of details to fit into the context that you are creating. I chose to use was a journal format for many of the segments, but then I had to figure out what to do about dating these journal entries. I decided not to include the year for a few reasons. The most obvious one was that I didn't want to date the story, out of concern that it may be perceived as less relevant say in 10 years. It may or may not be the case, but why take a chance.
Also for those who are into looking at these details, Oct. 2nd (the date of the first journal entry) fell on a Tuesday in 2001, which happened to be the year when I was setting the final format of the book. Well as we all know, the autumn of 2001 was an interesting season for most of Western civilization -- coming to terms as we were with 9/11. Although Starla often refers to what might be going on in the world around her, I didn't want to use 9/11 as a metaphor, or a backdrop for any part of the book and so I chose to ignore it all together by simply never referring to the year.
It does make one feel quite omnipotent, having all this choice at one's disposal.
Copyright 2007
Also for those who are into looking at these details, Oct. 2nd (the date of the first journal entry) fell on a Tuesday in 2001, which happened to be the year when I was setting the final format of the book. Well as we all know, the autumn of 2001 was an interesting season for most of Western civilization -- coming to terms as we were with 9/11. Although Starla often refers to what might be going on in the world around her, I didn't want to use 9/11 as a metaphor, or a backdrop for any part of the book and so I chose to ignore it all together by simply never referring to the year.
It does make one feel quite omnipotent, having all this choice at one's disposal.
Copyright 2007
June 4, 2007
"ALL JOURNEYS HAVE SECRET DESTINATIONS OF WHICH THE TRAVELER IS UNAWARE." Martin Buber
I never set out to write a novel.
In the '80's when we lived on Vancouver Island, in the heart of aging Hippie-land, we knew this lovely young girl, Heidi -- she was about 13 at the time -- who was completely exasperated by her parents' need to cling to their "back to the land" ways. She would roll her eyes and say: "I mean, just for Christmas, can we not have real shortbread cookies. Does my Mom have to make them with whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds and honey?"
I actually set out to write a cute little short story about a girl like Heidi. I figured that it would end up being about 3 pages and funny. I sarted writing. After 4 months, I had 100 pages and the essence of Starla's story, and I realized that this thing had taken on a life of its own.
One of the things about my personality is that I really hate to waste things: time, food, energy, bits of paper...Well it seemed after all that work, I couldn't waste it, but I also realized that what I had was just a framework which didn't stand by itself. Had I realized that the project would consume a mojor part of the next 2 1/2 years of my life, I may have thought it through a bit more. Sometimes it's a good thing that we don't know what lies ahead.
Copyright 2007
In the '80's when we lived on Vancouver Island, in the heart of aging Hippie-land, we knew this lovely young girl, Heidi -- she was about 13 at the time -- who was completely exasperated by her parents' need to cling to their "back to the land" ways. She would roll her eyes and say: "I mean, just for Christmas, can we not have real shortbread cookies. Does my Mom have to make them with whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds and honey?"
I actually set out to write a cute little short story about a girl like Heidi. I figured that it would end up being about 3 pages and funny. I sarted writing. After 4 months, I had 100 pages and the essence of Starla's story, and I realized that this thing had taken on a life of its own.
One of the things about my personality is that I really hate to waste things: time, food, energy, bits of paper...Well it seemed after all that work, I couldn't waste it, but I also realized that what I had was just a framework which didn't stand by itself. Had I realized that the project would consume a mojor part of the next 2 1/2 years of my life, I may have thought it through a bit more. Sometimes it's a good thing that we don't know what lies ahead.
Copyright 2007
May 28, 2007
THE NOVEL AS BLOG
In the fall of 2003, I finished Dancing With Silence, having spent 3 years writing, editing and re-editing the manuscript. And as the close of many of life's major endeavours, I came to the point where I had to say: "Now what?!"
I quickly realized that the skill set required to complete a novel is not at all the same group of interests required to flog a novel in the publishing world. I also realized that I had no interest in pursuing that route, and if some publishing house wanted to come to my door and ask for it, fine. But after 3 years of writing and greeting the sun from my computer each day, I actually had a life to return to.
Along the way, friends who knew of the project would ask to read the manuscript and would inveriably have a list of questions when they had finished it. So we would have lunch and I would tell them about how it got started, which tidbits were "real" and which were entirely from my imagination etc.
In those days, blogs were becoming popular and I had always thought that it would be fun to share the book with a wider audience, and to have a format where readers could get a bit of a glimpse of the birth and development of the project.
Well, the time has come to publish to cyberspace and to send my creation out into the world. And what better way to watch it fly than from a blog, from my own PC, with the benefit of allowing the readers to make comments and ask questions as the project unfolds.
WARNING!
In my other life, I am a professional knitter, pattern designer and store owner. I am amazingly flattered when people make garments from my patterns and wear them proudly. I would however be more than a little POed and would strongly and legally object if someone claimed that one of my designs was their own and tried to profit from it. In that spirit, this project was copyrighted in 2003 and is protected by all that that implies.
That being said, the book has not passed through the hands of the legal eagles at some great (or intimate) publishing house, so any glitches that may exist on that side of things are purely unintentional and I would ask the reader to recognize the spirit in which this is offered. This is my gift to the reader. Many who have already read it have been moved and have told me that it has caused them to think seriously about aspects of their own childhood. Sharing these thoughts is their gift to me.
Thanks for taking the time to enter into Starla's world and please feel free to post comments in either site.
Anne
I quickly realized that the skill set required to complete a novel is not at all the same group of interests required to flog a novel in the publishing world. I also realized that I had no interest in pursuing that route, and if some publishing house wanted to come to my door and ask for it, fine. But after 3 years of writing and greeting the sun from my computer each day, I actually had a life to return to.
Along the way, friends who knew of the project would ask to read the manuscript and would inveriably have a list of questions when they had finished it. So we would have lunch and I would tell them about how it got started, which tidbits were "real" and which were entirely from my imagination etc.
In those days, blogs were becoming popular and I had always thought that it would be fun to share the book with a wider audience, and to have a format where readers could get a bit of a glimpse of the birth and development of the project.
Well, the time has come to publish to cyberspace and to send my creation out into the world. And what better way to watch it fly than from a blog, from my own PC, with the benefit of allowing the readers to make comments and ask questions as the project unfolds.
WARNING!
In my other life, I am a professional knitter, pattern designer and store owner. I am amazingly flattered when people make garments from my patterns and wear them proudly. I would however be more than a little POed and would strongly and legally object if someone claimed that one of my designs was their own and tried to profit from it. In that spirit, this project was copyrighted in 2003 and is protected by all that that implies.
That being said, the book has not passed through the hands of the legal eagles at some great (or intimate) publishing house, so any glitches that may exist on that side of things are purely unintentional and I would ask the reader to recognize the spirit in which this is offered. This is my gift to the reader. Many who have already read it have been moved and have told me that it has caused them to think seriously about aspects of their own childhood. Sharing these thoughts is their gift to me.
Thanks for taking the time to enter into Starla's world and please feel free to post comments in either site.
Anne
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