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writercises Original Posting 7/5/2019
Writer's Digest, November 1991, has an article by Peter Leschak on pages 26-29, talking about The Five-Step Creativity Workout. The subtitle suggests, "An unexercised mind can't be counted on for heavy writing. Here's how to build your creative muscles."Peter starts by recounting two anecdotes, one about a friend who was a world-class goalie and occasionally found himself catching pucks in slow motion, the other about a Nobel prize-winning chemist who dreamed the formula he was searching for. In both cases, it's practice and hard work over a long time that set up these seemingly amazing achievements. So, "we can achieve similar revelations in our writing – encounter moments when every word seems right and the ideas endless… You can't wait for inspiration. You have to lure it to you – and then reach out and grab it." Then he suggests five keys to help you develop.1. Concentration. The key to writing, to being a creator, is observation, information, perceptions. "The creative mind isn't relaxed and laid-back." Peter suggests remembering your motivation. Making money and paying the bills, your message, "whatever focuses your attention on writing, and keeps it there, is the key to heightening your powers of concentration." Think about the main reason you write.2. Form. "Limits – that is, form – challenge the mind, forcing creativity." Peter talks about a word game that he uses to challenge himself. Close your eyes, flip open a dictionary, and point to something on the page. Use that word as the first line of your writing. Flip some more pages, point again, and use that word in your second line. Keep going! "It's an effective way to jumpstart the mind, and I'm often amazed at the associations and ideas that pop up." Experiment with form. Play with it. "Write a character sketch of your spouse as seen through the eyes of your dog, or better yet, your goldfish."Peter ends his discussion of form with a description of a rather strange experiment. Send students into a room with a chair and a bowl of Jell-O. Tell them to bare their souls to the Jell-O. Surprisingly, the students found they learned lots of new things doing this. "You can't think in an ordinary way when you're talking to a bowl of Jell-O."3. Solitude. Cut off the input and see what you've already got. Set aside a place and time to write. Make sure you have got all the tools, and avoid distractions. "Solitude allows the fresh and unpredictable to surface."4. Patience. "Creative wisdom, the ability to produce good work, often comes only with experience – with time and maturity, and the accumulation of knowledge." Keep plugging.5. Confidence. "If you have a goal that's reasonably within your grasp, then faith plays an important role. The raw belief that you can accomplish something will help bring it about." Peter suggests that you need to realize two things. First, you can write. You learned it as a child, and you been practicing ever since! It's a craft, and you need to keep doing it. Second, you can destroy what you have done. "No one has to see what you've written until you are happy with it." You are in control. Now, creating does take guts. When you present your work to an audience, there's judgment, criticism. "That's painful because there will always be some who won't like what you've written." Remember, though, if you don't write it and publish it, there's no way for anyone else to read it! So, set yourself a goal, and keep going.Exercise? Well, stop and think about it. His five keys, concentration, form, solitude, patience, confidence? How often do you practice those? What can you do to build them? Go ahead, give yourself some time and freedom to work on those, and see what happens to your creativity!There's a sidebar on page 28, called The Liberty Banana by Marshall Cook. It's a different creativity exercise. Basically, consider someone challenging you, or a room full of executives, to give as many answers as they can in five minutes to the question, "How many ways is a banana different from a bell?" Then, take another five minutes and consider the question, "How is a banana like a bell?" And, just to top everything off, take another five minutes and consider, "How can you make a bell better by making it more like a banana?" So, try comparing your hero to a bicycle, or perhaps just two random subjects, to get yourself started! How is it different, how is it like, and how can you make it better?
Writer's Digest, November 1991, has an article by Peter Leschak on pages 26-29, talking about The Five-Step Creativity Workout. The subtitle suggests, "An unexercised mind can't be counted on for heavy writing. Here's how to build your creative muscles."Peter starts by recounting two anecdotes, one about a friend who was a world-class goalie and occasionally found himself catching pucks in slow motion, the other about a Nobel prize-winning chemist who dreamed the formula he was searching for. In both cases, it's practice and hard work over a long time that set up these seemingly amazing achievements. So, "we can achieve similar revelations in our writing – encounter moments when every word seems right and the ideas endless… You can't wait for inspiration. You have to lure it to you – and then reach out and grab it." Then he suggests five keys to help you develop.1. Concentration. The key to writing, to being a creator, is observation, information, perceptions. "The creative mind isn't relaxed and laid-back." Peter suggests remembering your motivation. Making money and paying the bills, your message, "whatever focuses your attention on writing, and keeps it there, is the key to heightening your powers of concentration." Think about the main reason you write.2. Form. "Limits – that is, form – challenge the mind, forcing creativity." Peter talks about a word game that he uses to challenge himself. Close your eyes, flip open a dictionary, and point to something on the page. Use that word as the first line of your writing. Flip some more pages, point again, and use that word in your second line. Keep going! "It's an effective way to jumpstart the mind, and I'm often amazed at the associations and ideas that pop up." Experiment with form. Play with it. "Write a character sketch of your spouse as seen through the eyes of your dog, or better yet, your goldfish."Peter ends his discussion of form with a description of a rather strange experiment. Send students into a room with a chair and a bowl of Jell-O. Tell them to bare their souls to the Jell-O. Surprisingly, the students found they learned lots of new things doing this. "You can't think in an ordinary way when you're talking to a bowl of Jell-O."3. Solitude. Cut off the input and see what you've already got. Set aside a place and time to write. Make sure you have got all the tools, and avoid distractions. "Solitude allows the fresh and unpredictable to surface."4. Patience. "Creative wisdom, the ability to produce good work, often comes only with experience – with time and maturity, and the accumulation of knowledge." Keep plugging.5. Confidence. "If you have a goal that's reasonably within your grasp, then faith plays an important role. The raw belief that you can accomplish something will help bring it about." Peter suggests that you need to realize two things. First, you can write. You learned it as a child, and you been practicing ever since! It's a craft, and you need to keep doing it. Second, you can destroy what you have done. "No one has to see what you've written until you are happy with it." You are in control. Now, creating does take guts. When you present your work to an audience, there's judgment, criticism. "That's painful because there will always be some who won't like what you've written." Remember, though, if you don't write it and publish it, there's no way for anyone else to read it! So, set yourself a goal, and keep going.Exercise? Well, stop and think about it. His five keys, concentration, form, solitude, patience, confidence? How often do you practice those? What can you do to build them? Go ahead, give yourself some time and freedom to work on those, and see what happens to your creativity!There's a sidebar on page 28, called The Liberty Banana by Marshall Cook. It's a different creativity exercise. Basically, consider someone challenging you, or a room full of executives, to give as many answers as they can in five minutes to the question, "How many ways is a banana different from a bell?" Then, take another five minutes and consider the question, "How is a banana like a bell?" And, just to top everything off, take another five minutes and consider, "How can you make a bell better by making it more like a banana?" So, try comparing your hero to a bicycle, or perhaps just two random subjects, to get yourself started! How is it different, how is it like, and how can you make it better?