Mar 10
Whether or not you’re procrastinating, you’ll LOVE this enchanting music video from singer/songwriter Oren Lavie: “Her Morning Elegance.” A creative winner, hands-down. (Thanks for the link, Rebecca!) You can close out the annoying Google ad if it pops up across the bottom of the video window, BTW.
Mar 9
When it seems like you’ll do anything and everything rather than show up at the page, turn to Jerry Oltion’s 50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work. His piece is full of gems. Here’s the intro:
Work avoidance is one of the major paradoxes of the writing profession. Generally, writers want to write (or want to have written), but all too often we find ourselves doing anything else but. We’ll mow lawns, do the dishes, polish silverware–anything to keep from facing the blank page. At the same time we know we eventually have to get to work, so we come up with all sorts of strategies for forcing ourselves to the keyboard.
Read Oltion’s stragies and the full peice here. Then, get to work!
Hey! Reminder that tonight is the deadline for this week’s creativity contest. The prompt is “light.” So let it shine, ladies… 🙂
Feb 24
Don’t forget to send in a submission for our weekly creativity contest. The prompt is “eyes.” Deadline is tonight, 10:00 p.m. eastern time. Come on, “see” what you can do!
Feb 24
If you loved Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, then you’re going to love this video of Gilbert discussing her paradigm of creativity, and how it might help you too. Recommended viewing. Do you subscribe to Gilbert’s philosophy? If not, do you want to?
(Thanks to Suzanne Révy and Rebecca Coll for alerting me to the clip.)
Feb 17
From the Irish Independent, a glimpse into the life of Cathy Kelly, best-selling writer and mother of 5-year-old twins. The piece includes her own writing tips.
Since discovering motherhood, Cathy admits that her writing schedule has changed. “I don’t want the boys to think they aren’t as important as my work, so I tend to do the real ‘working mother’ thing, which means everything fits around them. If I’m in trouble near the end of a book, I just work at night when they go to bed, which I hate doing, but sometimes it’s the only way. I’d prefer to be there for them in the afternoon.
“John and I get the boys ready for school, then we drive them in and I start working at my desk from 9.30am until 2pm. I always pick the boys up. You can count on one hand the amount of times I haven’t dropped or picked them up. My theory would be to do another hour of writing after they come home, but a lot of the time that doesn’t work out very well because my study is in the house and they come in and out. They think it’s their computer that I get to work on. They call what I do ‘mummy’s typing’.”
No matter where she is, Cathy will always write something daily, even on holidays. “Maybe it goes back to the journalism days where I worked full-time and wrote three books; I got so used to working all the time that I got used to working on holidays. Now, when we go down to Spain, I take a laptop.”
Read the full article here.
Feb 6
Happy Friday, friends! Here’s a roundup of the latest interesting bits from Creative Construction community members.
I hope all February Finish-a-thon participants have a rewarding weekend! (Well, and everyone else who reads this, too.) Any great ideas for managing to fit family time, household time, and creativity time all into the same weekend?
There’s still time for an entry in this week’s creativity contest. The prompt is “clock.” Grab a minute or two and wind something up! (Gee, so many weak “clock” clichés, and so little time…)
Don’t forget! Send something in for our weekly creativity contest. The prompt is “hope.”
Dec 30
Cough up some of your lingering yule spirit and send in an entry for this week’s creativity contest! The prompt is Noël.
Dec 18
Doing a bit of housekeeping. I’ve just updated the About page here at Creative Construction, and I’d like to include an avatar and brief bio for all of our blog regulars. Whether you post, comment, or just lurk — and you’d like to be included on the About page, please send me a short bio (feel free to include links) along with an avatar. You can check out what I posted about myself if you want a starting point. I hope you guys will join me, ’cause I don’t want to be hanging out there all alone!
Dec 8
From yesterday’s Boston Globe:
WHILE POLICY WONKS debate how to deliver high-quality healthcare without skyrocketing costs, here’s one opportunity for some cheap, evidence-based medicine. In a recent study, 36 men were asked to write for 20 minutes on three consecutive days. Half the men had to write about their deepest emotions related to a traumatic experience, and the other half had to write about time management. Several weeks later, all the men were given a standard skin biopsy wound. After another couple weeks, the men who had written about the traumatic experience were healing significantly better. It’s believed that writing about a traumatic experience has a latent emotional impact that benefits the immune system.
Weinman, J. et al., “Enhanced Wound Healing after Emotional Disclosure Intervention,” British Journal of Health Psychology (February 2008).
Hmmm….maybe that’s one reason why morning pages are so good for you…?
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 