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Freewrite Your Heart

Freewrite Your Heart

by | Jan 24, 2019

Freewrite Your Heart

Move your hand across the page speedily to bypass your critic and discover your heart.

Style

Inventor

Skill

Finding the Heart

Time

15 mins

THE ATTIC:

Freewrite Your Heart

You’ll do best with this activity if you can get your heart rate up before you start. Consider turning on some music you love and dancing for a few minutes before sitting down to write. Then, without thinking too hard, dive into the writing with the same intensity that you used when you were dancing. Make writing as physical as it can be, bypassing your brain as much as possible.

You want to race the clock right past your inner critic to find those aha! moments that you might not discover in a different state of mind.

Materials

How to Play

  • Timer

  • Paper

  • Pen

1. Set your timer for ten minutes.

2. Ask yourself: What matters to me in this idea? What are the non-negotiables? How do I hope the outcome will feel and flow? Start writing as fast as you can, using connecting phrases to keep your pen moving.

– And so …

– Which makes me think that …

– Because …

– What I really mean to say is …

– Another way to look at it is …

– It reminds me of …

3. When the time is up, read over your entry. Underline thoughts that stand out. If you think there’s more to say, and you have more time to write, expand on the thoughts you’ve underlined.

5. Tuck this writing away for a day when you need a reminder of why you’re working so hard on this project.

Try On Other Creative Styles

Frame Your Heart in Three

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Choose three adjectives that focus your attention on the core of this project, and its importance to you.

Try This

Zoom In On the Heart

FOR ARCHITECTS

Answer three key questions to focus your attention on the core of this project, and its importance to you.

Try This

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

FOR COLLABORATORS

Choose a confidant and write a letter about your project. What is most important to you about creating this artwork?

Try This

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

by | Jan 24, 2019

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

Choose a confidant and write a letter about your project. What is most important to you about creating this artwork?

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Finding the Heart

Time

15 mins

THE ATTIC:

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

 Whether you share your letter or not, writing about the importance of your project to a specific person can unlock buried ideas and insights. When you give yourself a goal — to communicate clearly — you can rattle loose thoughts that were otherwise stuck.

Consider, too, writing to more than one person. Each reader will draw out different aspects of your personality, and the combined insight may surprise you.

Materials

How to Play

  • Timer

  • Paper

  • Pen
  • Envelope (optional)

1. Choose a friend or family member who you trust.

2. Set your timer for ten minutes.

3. Write a letter to your loved one, explaining your project and why it matters to you.

– What do you want to create?

– What obstacles are you facing? What are your fears?

– Why are you willing to face them anyway?

– Are there examples, common points of reference between the two of you, that help to describe what you’re trying to do and why?

– What, if anything, could your loved one do to help support you in this effort? (And if you don’t send the letter, is this “ask” something you could ask of yourself? Sometimes we look to outside people for support we have every ability to offer ourselves.)

4. Read over your letter and underline thoughts that stand out. If you think there’s more to say, and you have more time to write, expand on the thoughts you’ve underlined.

5. If you’d like, send the letter to your friend. Or, keep it in a safe place where you can reference it when you need a reminder about the WHY of this project.

Adaptations

Try a Character

If you’re writing a story, step into the shoes of one of your characters and write from their perspective. Again, choose a loved one, or a pair of loved ones, that will bring out various parts of their personality. Instead of asking yourself about the project, ask about the main situation in the story. Then, use the rest of the questions in step three to deepen your understanding of this character’s motivations and purpose.

Try a User

Step into the role of a reader, or of someone who will experience or use the item you’re creating. Assume reading the story or interacting with the object is important to this user. Why would that be? What desire or need does this item address for them? How does it shift their mindset, provide new perspective, offer resources, or help in other ways? The more specifics you use, the more helpful this exercise will be.

Try On Other Creative Styles

Freewrite Your Heart

FOR INVENTORS

Move your hand across the page speedily to bypass your critic and discover your heart.

Try This

Frame Your Heart in Three

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Choose three adjectives that focus your attention on the core of this project, and its importance to you.

Try This

Zoom In On the Heart

FOR ARCHITECTS

Answer three key questions to focus your attention on the core of this project, and its importance to you.

Try This

The Hero is You

The Hero is You

by | Jan 3, 2019

Recommended Book: The Hero is You

By: Kendra Levin

 

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

 THE HERO IS YOU

By: KENDRA LEVIN

ISBN: 978-1573246880

QUESTIONS EXPLORED:

  • What are your biggest challenges as a writer?
  • How might you overcome those challenges?
  • Where might you find a sense of play and possibility in your creative process?

 

WHAT I LOVE:

It won’t surprise anyone that I love The Hero is You. This book invites you think about your writerly development within the context of the Hero’s Journey as defined by Joseph Campbell. What’s more, the ideas and concepts included are highly compatible with Writerly Play.

The Hero is You is subtitled: Sharpen Your Focus, Conquer Your Demons, and Become the Writer You Were Born to Be. While ambitious, this promise is realized in the book. Levin examines eight archetypes that Campbell identified as common to tales around the world for thousands of years. With each archetype, she illuminates one aspect of the writing process and life. Through the lens of these archetypes, we see aspects of our creative selves. Once seen, we can play to their strengths.

Take for instance the Herald, about whom Levin writes, “Wherever you go, the Herald in you is seeking the narrative, the juice, the inspiration in the everyday. It’s the part of you that’s always looking for a story.” She also discusses the inner mentor. “Each of us is guided by a source of inner wisdom, a deeper part of ourselves that knows things our rational mind takes longer to process.”

The book is filled with pearls of wisdom such as these, as well as playful activities to engage your imagination in the thinking process of exploring your artist’s heart. As Levin writes, “Ultimately, what we are up to here is bigger than a single piece of writing. It’s about translating our writing to ourselves, using writing as a way to better understand ourselves and our world.”

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION:

Imagine having your own personal mentor―someone encouraging yet honest, supportive yet empowering, who could help you set and achieve your goals, turn your moments of doubt and fear into sources of strength, and discover what you’re truly capable of when you’re at your best.

Kendra Levin is that mentor. And with this book, she’s here to help you do the best writing of your life―and live your best life while doing it.

Using a fresh new approach to Joseph Campbell’s archetypal Hero’s Journey, Levin reveals how to be a hero in the narrative of your own process. She weaves together wisdom drawn from her years as a life coach for writers and an editor at the world’s biggest publishing house with behind-the-scenes stories from a panoply of best-selling authors and career entertainers. With over thirty exercises designed to help you reinvent your creative process from the inside out, this book will show you how to:

  • Identify your biggest challenges and render them powerless
  • Start a project that you love―and stick with it
  • Design a structure for writing regularly

 

Whether you’re a first-time writer with a brand-new project or a seasoned pro, you’ll reach the end of this book feeling fulfilled, inspired, and ready to mentor the next writer on their creative journey.

Buy Now:

Print | eBook

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