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Jackson Pollock
awards
signs of progress
National Novel Writing Month, 2007
call for submissions
• Third Person Press •
what: Undercurrents Anthology
speculative fiction/poetry
who: Cape Breton Island writers
when: deadline March 15, 2008
how: click for detailed guidelines -
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Apr
12
reNEWals
April 12, 2007 |
[-commentary, writing, process-]
by Nancy S.M. Waldman
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When I was a
child, going to the library was about third on the ‘as good as it gets’ list for an activity that had the chance of coming along often. Only swimming and playing outside after dark could beat the joy of coming home with an armload of new books.
Libraries gave away so much for free: hours of entertainment, play, knowledge, excitement, and discovery. And, if that weren’t enough, there was a bonus. Any book, or even the full armload could be renewed. Simply by asking, it was possible to hold onto any of the books that held special interest or needed further study or enjoyment or hadn’t been fully appreciated yet.
Renewal is a wonderful concept to bring into our creative lives. Creativity doesn’t have to mean conjuring up something original from start to finish. Sometimes we can take what is already done, either something we once made or something made by someone else, and use it as the not-so-raw material.
This last weekend, I went on a Writer’s Retreat with six women from my writing group. This was a first-of-its- kind, home-grown affair, planned and nurtured by all of us as a short time away from our daily lives in order to focus on writing.
Arriving on Friday evening and home by early Sunday afternoon, we packed in several long walks in the country, lots of eating, carefree conversation and writing time plus no less than seven excellent presentations on various aspects of writing. We learned about Beginnings and Endings, Personal Essays, Journaling, Autobiography, Character development, Poetry and Narrative Voice. We did a role-playing exercise where we interviewed for a job in the persona of one of our developing characters. We made a collage to flesh out characters. We explored and practiced the concept of found poems.
We came home after less than 48 hours with a renewed sense of ourselves and our creative reach. We did this simply by using the resources we had at hand. The bonus is that this renewal will continue to reap benefits for weeks and months to come.
As you go through your day today, think about reNEWals - ways in which you can use what you have at hand to create something you love and what kinds of renewals you need to keep your creative energies at full level.
All the best !
See all our posts about Alterations
See all our posts about Inspiration
Need some Writing Tips and Tutorials? Click here.
Here are our articles on Journaling.
Originally published in the April 2006 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: alterations
also posted in: Writing - technique, craft, tips , Writing , Alterations , The Original PCQ, 05-06 , Essays - Nancy , Creations , Commentary , Craft
tags: alter, books, create, creative, creativity, day, essay, learning, library, renew, renewals, retreat, write, writing, writing retreat
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"It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way."
- Ernest Hemingway
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Results of our previous poll
What is your biggest creativity problem?too many projects at once can't get in the groove not enough time everything else takes priority self-doubts
other ['not enough talent']27% 20% 20% 15% 15%
5%
