I was listening to the radio while driving last week and the weatherman launched into local temperatures, but when he got to the desert he said, “And the desert has hotter temperatures… as usual.” Just a slight afterthought interjected where one usually isn't. Insignificant to many, perhaps, but the “as usual” struck me a funny, seemed like a bit of an attitude, and as such, it stirred the simmering soup of creative play within me.
What if there was a story about a character that was enamored with a weatherman who had an tendency to add his opinion to the forecasts? Aha! I was inspired to at least play with a shitty first draft just for fun. That's how stories begin... and then, you know if you are a writer on-fire, your subconscious takes control and it's as if someone ELSE is writing - both in fiction and nonfiction. All three of my books were like that.
Optimal conditions for intuitive creating, (my favorite kind), include driving while awake enough to the moment to be gently startled by a singular stimulus – an image, a sound, a sentence, a thought that snaps you into a connection, that summons a possibility, flirts with the “what if …” and seduces your passion to create.
Optimal conditions also include showering, walking, daydreaming, sitting and beginning and trusting your intuition to ignite a parade of willing ideas, characters, images, songs, kindnesses, surprises, new thoughts about your existence on a regular basis. And showing-up so the creative fireworks can shoot off.
This not only applies to writing, but art of any kind including the art of living your life with amplified awareness, to how IT IS ALL ART, the good and the bad, the gifts and the losses. It’s the art of being human and all of it can be alchemized into creative expression - the antidote to reality.
Ray Bradbury speaks of this:
“What is the Subconscious to every other man in its creative aspect becomes, for writers, The Muse. Here is the stuff of originality. For it is in the totality of experience reckoned with, filed and forgotten that each man is truly different from all the others in the world. All that is most original lies waiting for us to summon it forth.”
This is why the material for my trainings and workshops emphasize instinctual, intuitive creating over linear, forced, should-infested pressure. Right brained drawing, free writing launched off of clever devices and media that catch the critic off-guard, guided relaxations to connect to the intuition and imagination - all set the Muse free.
How do you get into the instinctual flow? Many of you are there already, you just need to acknowledge it. Others need to get out of your way. Still others, and this is the biggest number, need to show-up - which is not easy this days without a few tricks.
A few tricks:
Make a list of those things that distract you.
Make a list of what you love about your creative pursuits.
Compare your feelings about these two lists.
When you feel yourself gravitating toward the distractions remember what you love about your creative pursuits, somehow short circuit your distraction by a little small movement to dislodge you from the habit: closing a computer window, standing up and walking, saying STOP to yourself and just intending to spendi a small amount of time with something that is more than a hollow reward.