Some time back I was promoting here the idea of CROSS-TRAINING FOR ARTISTS of all sorts: doing some work/play in an art form other than the one that's the main focus of serious ambitions. FOR THREE REASONS:
*It's fun and refreshing to be entirely playful with art.
*It's good practice; that playfulness, which is so productive, will come more easily than otherwise during the "serious work."
*It keeps the engines of creativity, the source of new ideas, well-oiled.
So this is why I have this picture of my personally-hand-beaded leaf here. Or at least it's how I'm justifying showing you this.
My work is words. I fool around, with no standards to meet, with lots of kinds of visual arts and crafts.
Last summer I beaded this roughly 3x4 foot item you see hanging from a tree next to my driveway (we live in a cabin in the woods.) Sewing on this many loose beads allowed me to play with colors and filmy material and gave me lots of time for thoughts to float up. Which they did.
I got the thing ready in time for a party at my house in July. I thought of it as my New Leaf party, though I wasn't really turning over any new leaves at the time. Now I am.
Now this leaf is my New Year's New Leaf: reminding me every time I come and go of my fresh career strategies I learned in the Creative Capital workshop that I've been detailing here for the last month.
And so my New Year's Resolve, which is: value myself (more and in ways that I can feel.) The pieces to put this into practice are:
*increase my income by 20% this year
*spend a minimum of one hour a week organizing my house better, so that everything I use is easily accessible, uncluttered, and pleasant to live with. This hour will, of course, turn into more than one, but if I start with a high requirement I'm likely to put off getting started.
*stop berating myself about anything. Do or don't do--but no wasting energy and time on self-nagging. My plan for doing this is to write down every time I start haranguing myself, and congratulate myself on having caught it. (This tactic came to me at lunch today from the creative mind of my friend and fellow writer Stephanie Bass.)
I will report here how I fare. And I'd like your encouragement.
Happpy New Year and New Resolves to you. I'd love for you to use this space to commit yourself to small definite steps toward what you want most this year.
5 comments:
I'm particularly intrigued with the idea of stopping the self-nagging w/o losing oneself entirely to Not Doing The Work.
I've been playing with this the past few days. I've avoided getting back to my revisions. Informed myself that was Okay. Further, gave self permission to read through newer ms pages. Immediately angsted over having stopped a first draft flow to do the afore-mentioned revisions, thus losing the flow of the first draft work. Reminded self not to berate self for making a (perhaps) poor decision. Indulged self in writing 5 pages of yet another ms! Adding to the "stress" in one way, but also adding fuel to the creative fire in another.
I'm not sure how this process helps or hurts. But someone gave me a cut-out from a magazine years ago that remains on my bulletin board: "Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity."
How does one keep the edge that anxiety provides but w/o the negative self-talk that stops things up?
I love your beaded leaf. I have a vision of myself (and have for a year or more) knitting a poncho by the woodstove. One: I don't know how to knit. Two: I'm not great at sitting and doing one quiet thing. But somehow I feel it would be beneficial in many ways. Not to mention the cool poncho! Perhaps my 2006 resolve is to knit that poncho!
Happy New Year to all.
That's my big fear too: that without the nagging I wouldn't do anything.
I've caught myself browbeating myself once in the last 24 hours, and now I don't remember what it's about, which seems like a good thing.
I also noted that I got up 20 minutes late this morning--as I usually do--and didn't berate myself over it, which I also usually do. Feels like progress.
Your recent activity sounds amazingly productive to me.
I forgot to mention one thing I decided to do this month in the name of new artistic resolves: re-read my five favorite novels and really let myself sink into them, taking a look at why they work so well, but more importantly, reminding me of why it is I write novels and want to publish them.
I love being drawn into a good story where I'm also enchanted with the language and style of the telling. I love that feeling John Gardner talks about - the vivid continuous dream - and the only other way I know to get it other than reading a fabulous novel is to write one!
A lot of things get mixed up in this process - the logistics of publishing, etc. - but I *think* reading my five favorites will remind me that at the bottom of it all there is something valuable going on that lies within my control and not that of the publishing industry.
Looking at it this way I feel productive, as opposed to the somewhat toxic thought, "I'm productive when something sells."
Thanks for the inspiration to look at these things!
Five books in one month is an impressive lot to add to your schedule. I like the strategy.
Some writing makes me feel like writing. I've never articulated why, so I can't predict what will give me the desired effect. But I'll bet it's possible to figure out.
The best choices probably change, though, depending on where I am in a book I'm writing.
If there is one thing that I believe with all my heart is that you can have any life you choose to, you can live the life you have always dreamed of.
Link to this site: word of inspiration
http://www.inspirational-faq.info/
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