It’s all too easy to let the creative well run dry. Life is busy, and deadlines loom, and we think … well, just one more project. I can make it through.
It’s a little like becoming dehydrated. Or overly tired. We don’t realize we have a problem until we slam into our internal wall. Even though we know our creativity requires our caring attention, actually attending to it is a different thing.
This past month, I’ve spent time filling my creative well. I wandered through museums, dug my toes into the sand, hiked to waterfalls, and rested in the shade. I let my mind wander. In May, after a long season of focused work, I had hit a wall of creative brambles. I was absolutely, positively stuck. Now, after a month of following my curiosity, of slowing down to take in my surroundings, I see a path forward.
What an incredible thing–to be totally stuck one month and the next, to be free.
I have a busy life. I’m sure you do, too. For me, the path forward couldn’t be retreating to a cabin in the woods. While I might retreat for a few days, I certainly can’t retreat forever. I needed a way to be creatively healthy in the real world, in my real life. While I was away, I discovered that I already had all the pieces I needed to live in exactly this way. I’ve been exploring them all of my life, and even writing about them. What I hadn’t done was to put them together.
I hadn’t seen the simplicity of the big picture.
We need mental pictures. Many research studies confirm that the way we think affects our outlook and approach, which in turn, affects our circumstances. If our mental picture is scattered, our life will be, too. However, without attention, our mental picture can’t be anything but scattered.
While I was away, I realized I’ve had a powerful mental picture for quite some time, but I haven’t been using it to its full potential. I thought of Writerly Play as an approach to writing, but I hadn’t seen that at its foundation, it is also an approach to creative living in general. In fact, I thought of Writerly Play as so separate, I was keeping one blog about creativity and another about Writerly Play. But as you see, I’ve merged the two. I realize they are one and the same thing.
Writerly Play provides a loose structure within which anyone can play and innovate. Like the best kinds of improv games, it’s only a launching point. Every player will discover a path of his or her own. I’m looking forward to sharing the path as it unfolds in the hopes that my story will urge you forward in your own creative journey. As always, I’ll share resources, strategies and playful tools that I discover along the way. I hope you’ll share your insights and discoveries with me, too.
Here’s to you and your creativity!
