NOTE: These posts are inspired by The Artist’s Way, a 12 Step Process to recovering your creativity by Julia Cameron. You can read all about it here.
Today we talk about one of my favorite sections of The Artist’s Way—Recovering a Sense of Connection.
My first novel, Oblivion Black, is the timeless story of an artist and his muse. It’s about tapping into the creative source and trusting that your work already exists, in complete form, waiting for you to become the person to create it.
Likewise, your actualized self, who is a masterpiece of creation, is also waiting for you at the end of your artistic journey. Our art runs in tandem with our growth as individuals.
At the time I was writing this novel, I thought I was stumbling into artistic revelations no one had ever thought of. Little did I know, it had all been said and done before by countless others throughout time (including the Artist’s Way).
This only proves that there is a common source we are all connected to that expresses itself through us through our many different artistic lenses.
Where did that come from?
Have you ever written something that completely surprised you? That is a sign that you are connected. You are now at the depth of being that your conscious brain does not have access too, which means it won’t step in your way and say, don’t go there, don’t do that.
This is why Hemingway said, “Write drunk. Edit sober.” Drugs and alcohol are chemically induced ways to bypass the stodgy, reasonable, cautious mind and free the boundless, fearless, artist to do what it knows it’s supposed to do.
Your turn
Fortunately, you can safely connect to your creative source without going into into a chemically-induced trance.
Here are some ways to tap into your unconscious and increase your receptivity to the collective well.
Morning pages/journaling
Yoga
Meditation
Breathing exercises
Self-awareness/mindfulness
Listening to music in the dark
Physical exertion (e.g. trigger a runner’s high)
Therapy/psychoanalysis
Tantra
Hypnosis
Dance
Chanting
Religious practice/service
Massage
Sauna or steam room
Divination practice
Sensory deprivation (float tanks)
Challenge: try something new this weekend
Clear your creative circuits. Pick one or more of the above activities that you haven’t tried before. See what happens!
All writers want to open their story with a killer first line. What makes a great opening line? It’s not easy to define.
Some say the best first lines must encapsulate the entire theme of the story. Other say it must establish the character, time, place, and even dilemma. Others just drop us right into the action, woo us with lyricism, or make an impact with some shocking truth.
I hadn’t given much thought to my first lines. Then I attended the Virtual Writers Circle Retreat with Mollie McClure. There her guest, Jaqueline Mitchard, talked about crafting a compelling first line. I wondered, how do my first lines stack up?
I made a list of all my opening lines and discovered that only one out of ten made an impact. This was because I didn’t actively craft my opening line.
I was curious if the members of the Writers Mastermind paid close attention to their first lines and challenged them to pick out the best first lines they had ever written. I also asked them to share their favorite first lines of all time.
Here is the result of that experiment. You can see that some hint at theme, others foreshadow, while others start in the middle of a scene. Some opening lines are simply poetic and beautiful, or give us a clue to the plot or character.
Members’ Best Opening Lines
There is no night when you’re staring straight at the sun.
Josh Gardner
He awoke in a cold sweat, pulse racing, senses hyper alert – his body prepared for fight or flight.
My mothering was a thin wall with nothing to hold it up.
David Powell
Each night, with my desk flush with the floor to ceiling glass of my high-rise apartment, I gaze at the lights beyond Orchard Road, waiting for them to twinkle out a story in some secret optic code, but when I wake up in the morning, breath like jet fuel, eyes gritty against their lids, I look at my Word doc and only see the plaintive blinking cursor.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man with a fortune is in want of a wife.”
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
“Marley was dead, to begin with.”
Christmas carol by Charles Dickens
“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there’s something seriously wrong somewhere. “
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Submitted by Joseph Sale
“In the eyes of the eternal Buddha, all things could be seen.”
Black Heart by Eric Van Lustbader
Submitted by David Powell
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Submitted by Christa Wojciechowski
“Sometimes, when I’m staring down a room of Japanese stewardesses-in-training, looking across a sea of shiny black coifs, a chorus line of stockinged legs, knees together, toes to the side, when I’m chanting ‘Sir, you are endangering yourself and other passengers!,’ I think I should have let my brother stab me.”
NOTE: These posts are inspired by The Artist’s Way, a 12 Step Process to recovering your creativity by Julia Cameron. You can read all about it here.
CREATIVE ABUNDANCE
In my post The Problem with Writers and Money, we talked about relinquishing the old poor, starving artist cliché. Today we talk about living a life of luxury.
And it’s not what you think…
FROM THE ARTIST’S WAY
All too often, we become blocked and blame it on our lack of money. This is never an authentic block.
The actual block is our feeling of constriction, our sense of powerlessness.
Art requires us to empower ourselves with choice.
At the most basic level, this means choosing to do self-care.
by Julia Cameron
Authentic Luxury
We don’t have to book a 5 star hotel or buy the a $300 bottle of wine to get a sense of luxury.
We can take a mundane task and turn it into a moment of luxury.
Instead of rushing through your daily shower, bring a blue-tooth speaker and a scented candle with you.
It is surprising how adding a few more sensory delights transforms mindless routines into a luxurious experience. (You will probably get some great ideas too. Great ideas always pop up in the shower).
Or, try this—next time you’re at the store, buy one small thing for yourself that isn’t on your shopping list. Nothing practical or needed. Pick out something out of the ordinary and frivolous.
A while back, I bought a wine-colored wool fedora. Not practical in scorching Panama, but I like owning it, and it could be used for a future author photo.
Before that, I ordered two Klimt prints for my office from Great Big Canvas. I can’t tell you how luxurious and inspiring it is to write surrounded by my favorite fine art.
There are endless things you can order online purely for your own pleasure.
Ship them to your home, and it’s like receiving a gift from yourself. How thoughtful of you!
Your turn to luxuriate
You can create a sense of creative abundance all around you by becoming intentional about how you shape your experience.
Treat your life as a work of art. Get creative.
What would your weekend look like if you could design it?
Because you can.
Let’s do it right now.
CREATIVE LUXURY CHALLENGE
For this coming weekend, write a list of 10 things you could do to feel luxurious, like …
Order a fancy fountain pen.
Buy yourself a bouquet of roses.
Order new athletic gear.
Luxuriate in an afternoon of unstructured time.
Go out for a gourmet gelato.
Pick one or more items and enjoy.
Work your way down your list in the coming weeks.
Would you like to join us for more exercises like these? Treat yourself to becoming a better writer. Sign up here!
No one will respect your writing time if you don’t.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell why we are doing something and even harder to figure out where to draw the line.
For example, someone asks you for a favor during your writing time. You say yes, even though you’ve been neglecting your WIP and are getting increasingly frustrated that it isn’t finished.
Did you agree to do the favor because you really want to and don’t mind putting your work aside … again?
Or did you cave to avoid guilt or disapproval?
These mini-decisions may seem inconsequential, but add each of these occasions up, and you have a lifetime of saying yes to things that take away from your creative possibilities.
You have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Is being the “nice guy” more important than getting out the many worlds inside you?
Think about how you will feel in the future? At the end of your life? Will you have regrets?
Of course, there are some responsibilities we can’t and should not avoid. We have to be workers, parents, friends, spouses, and humans.
But we are at our best and most giving when we are happy and fulfilled, and we are not happy if we are not living the artistic life that excites us.
We are pleased to invite all fiction authors (published or unpublished) to our annual Author Year End Review for 2022.
Now that we’re about to close out 2022, it’s important to process all that happened (or didn’t happen) for us as writers this year.
We need to find out what worked and what didn’t, so that we can double down on the things that brought us results and eliminate whatever is draining our time, energy, and creativity.
Author Year-End Review
What worked for you? What didn’t?
What reasons do you have to celebrate?
What helped or hindered your creativity?
How close were you to your writing, publishing, and sales goals?
What daily habits and mindsets are holding you back?
If you want to make 2023 your best year ever as a writer, then the Author’s Year-End Review will help you 100%.
Growth is uncomfortable. It’s messy. It hurts. Sometimes it feels like everything is falling apart. We are losing grip on who we are. The ground is caving beneath us.
This is a good sign. Nothing is worse for creativity than being stagnant.
Growing pains mean that you are changing. Transformation means inspiration.
Be patient with yourself. Don’t try to run away.
Wait to see what happens and who you will become through your experience.
May the muses be with you,
—Christa
*****
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.
MARTHA GRAHAM
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