Nurturing the Creative Juices

Borrowing some good advice from the art world can enhance the journaling experience. In the following excerpt from a posting by artist Robert Genn, just imagine that as he talks about creativity and art, you can apply the thinking to writing in your journal. [Ref: Robert Genn, “Art Keys,” 9/22/2004] 

“There’s a singular habit you need to develop.  You need to build a regular productive rhythm that explores your own doing.  It’s going to be a bit like chain-smoking – you use the last one to light up the next.  But unlike a production line where all the products are the same – this conveyor belt will only exist in order to show development, variation, possibilities.   

Here are a few keys to a possible adventure in ‘one to another’:

·        Start up your line every day at the same hour.

·        Temporarily renounce other joys of your life.

·        Let no one and no thing interrupt your flow

·        Supplement your imagination with books.

·        Let motifs and ideas grow out of themselves.

·        Keep asking yourself “what could it be?”

·        Keep fresh – do not linger or anguish.

·        Be delusional – be full of ‘moxie’ and ‘mojo.’

·        Let your processes become your governors.

·        Become particular about your tools and systems.

·        Take joy and optimism to your growing mastery.

·        Be always prepared to change your mind.

·        Fall in love with the actual doing.

·        Use your intuition to assess your progress.

·        Accumulate your winners and toss your losers.”

More Words of Encouragement:

v     Creativity is never what it seems.  “An amateur photographer friend was invited to dinner and took along a few pictures.  The hostess looked at this work and exclaimed, ‘These are very good.  You must have an excellent camera.’ Later, as my friend was departing, he turned to the hostess and said, ‘That was a delicious meal.  You must have some excellent pots.’” [Simon Evans]

v     “The name given to a thing is not the subject; it is only a convenient label. The subject is inexhaustible.” [George Bellows]

v      “Focus is equal parts concentration and awareness.” [Gen.  Fred Franks, Jr.]

v   "If you focus on the flaws, you miss the feast." [Anonymous]

v     “To write about one’s life is to live it twice, and the second living is both spiritual and historical, for a
       memoir reaches deep within the personality as it seeks its narrative form.”  [Patricia Hampl]