Creative Journaling (6) – Relief for Right-Brain Strain

[Ref:  Adapted from “18 Things Creative People Do Differently,” by Carolyn Gregoire, Huffington Post, 03/04/2014]

I found the original article interesting and thought-provoking, especially as many of these habits can be considered right-brain activity and have tried to adapt it to the journaling process. As previously we adapted habits from the arts of dance, music, and drawing, so to the following habits of creative people might spark ideas for fellow journalists have been inspired and adapted from this posting by Carolyn Gregoire.

·        Daydreaming: This is a mental shift, useful in journaling.  It is an ability to entertain a visionary experience separate from the immediate environment.  It is a waking, but altered state, usually pleasant and absorbing.  There may be a loss of the sense of time.  It is an act of the imagination, very valuable to artists and writers, often sparked by the question, “What if…?”

·        Observation:  To take notice of something.  It is often a good habit to take a walk before journaling, to see things that are either new or new-again, new details as the seasons pass, are all fodder for journals.

·        Work Times:  Basically, write in our journals regularly, but when and where is up to the individual.  Some people like early morning, others before bedtime, and some have coffee and a journal-break during the day.  Whatever works.

·        Solitude:  This characteristic can be tricky, because it means more than sitting alone in a room to avoid interruptions to your writing.  It is entirely possible to write in your journal while you sit at the table in your favorite coffee house, for in the midst of many, you are alone in your mind – so that can be your solitude.  It is a case of what works for the individual.  However Twyla Tharp [“The Creative Habit,” Twyla Tharp, p. 30-31.]  says, “Build up your Tolerance for Solitude… The thought of going into a room to work all by themselves pains them … in a way that is paralyzing them. … It’s not the solitude that slays a creative person.  It’s all that solitude without a purpose…. [if you have a problem with solitude, you can] Sit alone in a room for one minute and let your thoughts  go wherever they will. … Then start paying attention to your thoughts to see what materializes…”  Good advice.

·        Obstacles:  Sometimes the biggest blocker is the “gate-keeper” in our own minds.  It’s a protector to keep us out of trouble.  That’s fine.  Pay it attention, but then make the decision to just go ahead, or pause and get more information.  It isn’t the problem, but it is a prompt that there is something to consider.  Often the solution is to turn the situation around, or upside-down, or inside-out, to un-lock the writing difficulty. 

·        New Experiences:  It’s good to consider ways to get out of the daily, predictable pattern.  An open and flexible consideration of something new is a good thing.  Rules are fine, but when they become iron-clad and rigid, they are obstacles to creative thinking.

·        Resilience:  Think of this as the ability of a poor, stressed, over-strained right-brain to recover, an ability to adjust in situation of change.  The world today puts plenty of compressive stress on all of us, but adopting a resilient attitude is conducive to the creative process.

·        Questions:  As I’ve said before, in questions lie answers.  As a matter of fact, whenever I have said, “I have a question…, “ the whole family would groan!  Not a bad thing to ask questions – and don’t be afraid to ask the Big Questions.  We all need to have those answered.

·        People-Watching: People are endlessly fascinating.  If you are at an airport, there are those coming and those going, and if you get bored, you can look just at their feet and be fascinated by how the world’s people select shoes.  Journaling is as much about other people as they are about our selves.  As Twyla Tharp says, “You can learn a lot by watching.”  [Ibid., p. 50]

·        Risks:  OK – Taking chances can be chancy, and that’s where the gate-keeper above comes in to play.  But if a risk means doing something new, it’s good to consider the possibilities.  You might discover something totally new and wonderful.

·        Self-Expression:  I have to admit that I’m mostly a quiet person, but after I’ve listened and thought about something, it is a good thing to share your perspective with others.  Throw it in the pot and see what happens.  And a journal is an ideal place to bring up something which is on your mind and sort it out.  State the case, explore the options, and then decide your own view.  Having it clear in your mind ahead of time gives self confidence.

·        Passionate:  Creative people are often passionate about their interests, and passionate about sharing them.  It often takes passion to see a difficult project through to the end.  And, truly, it takes passion to commit to daily and regular journaling, but it’s also tremendously rewarding in the long view.  Journals are contributions to the human history of the world.

·        New Perspectives:  If the drawing is giving you trouble, turn it upside down and look again.  Creative solutions often pop out from innovative approaches.  So if you are stuck, but it around and look at it from a different angle.  Recently, I was in mid-sketch when I kind of froze up on what to do next.  What to do?  Then I remembered a suggestion from Twyla Tharp about “Chaos and Coins.” [Ibid., p. 100]  “Take a handful of coins.  Toss them onto the worktable and study the result. Sometimes the coins fall into a random pattern that’s pleasing.  …Sometimes I fiddle with the coins, moving them around… Eventually I land on an arrangement that feels like a musical chord resolving…. There in a nutshell is the essence of creativity.”

·        Beat the Clock:  That is, lose track of time.  It’s OK, and very right brain.  And it feels so good, when you finish and return to the world. 

·        Beauty:  Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. [Confucius]   “Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it.”  [Roger Scruton, Beauty]

·        Connections:  Build a bridge to the next day.  I’ve taken to drawing an empty box, a frame, on the next day’s journaling page because is established connectivity among my days one to another, so it doesn’t feel like I’m always starting over from scratch. 

·        Mindfulness:  It’s a kind of focused awareness.  For some people it meditation.  For others it is yoga.  Or a candle flame.  No matter.  “A lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day…..In the end, there is no one ideal condition for creativity.  What works for one person is useless for another.  The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself.  Find a working environment where the prospect … doesn’t shut you down…. To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that’s habit-forming.” [Ibid., Tharp, 16-17].

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        Be brave.  Face your fears.  [CR]

·        What is the first creative moment you remember?

·        What is the best idea you’ve ever had?

·        How do you begin your day?

·        Who regularly inspires you?

[ Questions from Tharp, ibid., p. 13-14]

Creative Journaling (5) - A Story Line

If you completed the previous Creative Journaling posting activities up to now, and I hope you enjoyed them, then you have some idea about “reading a line.”  But just in case, let me summarize a bit about lines.

From looking at the different emotional information in drawing lines, such as the differences in writing a signature, it is possible to guesstimate some of the conditions under which the signature was written.  Does it have evidence of fast speed in execution?  Slow?  Jerky?  Tension?  Arthritis?  Smooth?  Scribbled?  Splattered?  There could, of course, be many more choices.  But given the signature itself, what does it communicate to you about the person who wrote it?  What do you “read” about the line when you look at it? 

Now, turn to the previous 8-panel activity.  Each panel had a tag or label at the bottom of the space:  Anger, Joy, Peacefulness, Depression, Energy, Femininity, Illness, and a personal choice.  In our journaling group, we made copies of everyone’s panel pages (some people did more than one).  Then, everyone placed their initials on the back of each panel for identification, and we cut all the panels apart.  Next, we glued all the “Anger” panels onto one piece of paper, all the “Joy” panels on another sheet, and so on.  We then tried to “read the lines.”  What could they tell us?  Although each one expresses the individuality of the person who made it, taken all together, they also express a wide range in how the information was conveyed. 

Betty Edwards (Ref:  Drawing on the Artist Within, ch. 7, p. 77, 79.) comments, “One would expect enormous variation among the analog drawings – and in fact, no two drawings are alike.  What is surprising, however, is the structural similarity of the drawings that express a single concept, such as “Anger,” “Joy,” Peacefulness,” and so on. And this structural similarity occurs often enough to suggest that it is a shared intuition which contributes visually to our understanding of the concept the drawing means to express.  These structural similarities are most easily seen if one views a large number of drawings at once.  We have looked at a collection of “Anger” drawings. …

     you see that each drawing is unique.  Yet the drawings share a basically similar structure.  The concept “Joy” appears to generate not jagged, dark, pointed forms that almost overwhelm the format as does “Anger,” but instead light, curving, circular forms that tend to rise within the format show how master artists use the language of like to express joy.”  (She goes on to discuss in detail each of the other panels in terms of their form, structure, and visual impact.) …

     In conclusion, “I believe these analog drawings have proved to be a very valuable exercise, for they demonstrate that there is a “vocabulary”  of the visual language of drawing… to generate ideas and to overcome ‘blocks’ to writing.  Both methods apparently skim from the subconscious in R-mode fashion, skirting the rules and regulations, restrictions and censorship of L-mode thought processes…” (Ibid., p. 95.)

There is another activity which I call “Story Line” (my daughter calls it “Taking a Line for a Walk”) which is both simple and a yet a challenge, but it helps to hone the skill for leaning to read lines. 

Activity – “Story Line”:  Take a piece of paper (or in your journal, if that seems better to you).  On it, you are to draw a single, continuous line which tells a story of some sort, of your own choosing.  Then under the drawing, tell the story in words.  This can be more difficult that just drawing a line for just one feeling.  Now it needs to convey a more complex visual situation.  Again, use of pictures (flags, hearts, kites, logos, etc., are not allowed.)  Just start the story/line and do not try to visualize what’s going to happen beforehand – just take the line for a little walk.  Allow the image(s) to emerge in their own way.

I would be very interested in anyone who wants to share their experiences about the Creative Journaling project by commenting on this Cornerhouse blog site or via email..  (my email is in my profile:  sliknl@yahoo.com. 

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “A rose is a rose is a rose.”  [Gertrude Stein]

“A line is a line is a line.”  [Cornerhouse Rules – CR]

·        You might check out the drawings of Wassily Kandinsky.  “Kandinsky wrote extensively on the ‘language’ of line.”  [Ibid., p. 76.]

·        “The first steps of a creative art are like groping in the dark…These moments are not pretty. I look like a desperate woman, tortured by the simple message thumping away in my head: ‘You need an idea.’”  {Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit, p. 94.]

·        “You must never, never, never, never, never give up!” [Winston Churchill]

Creative Journaling (3) – Reading a Line

In a broad sense, what is drawing?  It is making a line or a mark, though it can be more than that.  A signature, really, a line, which each of us has learned to “draw” – and which, over the years has become unique and identifiable as particularly our own.  It has the characteristics of the hand which makes it.  It can even take on the feelings of the person at the time it was written.  Perhaps they were in hurry or a bit sleepy, or were sitting in car on a bumpy surface, or the paper was lumpy.  But we know that is our signature.  In fact, it is just a mark, a line, but it is a “telling mark.” (Ref: “Drawing on the Artist Within,” by Betty Edwards, Ch. 6, pp. 56+). 

Recently in the journaling class, we composed a fictional first and last name (with closed eyes, using a pin and the telephone book ).  Then we asked everyone present to write the name, as though it was their own, on a piece of paper.  We then laid all the “signatures” out on the table and had an interesting time looking at all these signature-lines, making up a “story” about person it represented.  What kind of “person” was this?  What were they feeling?  What can we tell about them?  In effect, we were learning to see a line and to “read” it. You can try it also.

Activity:  And then for homework, we all shared another line activity.  (Ref. ibid., Ch. 7, adapted from p. 65-67, “Drawing Out Insight”)  Fold a sheet of paper in half (lengthwise), then fold it in half again, and then fold it in half again.  Then open it up. You should have 8 little spaces.  Number each section at the bottom 1-8, and label each panel with a descriptor:  1. Anger.  2. Joy.  3. Tranquility.  4. Depression.  5. Power.  6. Femininity.  7. Illness.  8. _________.  The #8 is the choice of the individual (I chose “Hunger), or any human trait.  Using a pencil (not a pen), in each section, one at a time, make a drawing that to you represents what the word at the bottom stands for.  One exception: “You must not draw any pictures whatsoever or use any symbols at all.  No raindrops, no shooting stars, no hearts and flowers, no question marks, no lightening bolts, no rainbows, no clenched fists.  Use only the language of line: fast lines, slow lines, light, dark, smooth, rough, broken, or flowing.”  Let “expression” be in the line(s) alone. 

The next week, we again laid them all out on the table.  There was lively discussion, as you may guess, as everyone tried to “read the line.”  And the discussion turned to the difficulty of finding out how to make an expressive line without using language or cartoon-like patterns.  It was an investigation of a totally new concept:  how to make feelings visible.  In fact, several people submitted more that one page of panels, as they struggled to achieve what they considered to be the proper expressiveness (to themselves).  We’ve re-done the assignment three times, using different human traits, always gaining more insight into drawing lines expressively. And we agree it works best if we can try to feel or imagine the condition inside ourselves, and then proceed to make the line-marks.  Try it.  See what you think.

“Thus, every line is a statement, a form of communication between the individual who made the line and the individual who views it.  A drawing is a far more complex mode of expression, revealing of a wide realm beyond conscious awareness.  We can “read” a line.  Can we  “read” a drawing?  If so, perhaps we can take a step in the direction of gaining access to that part of the mind which knows…more than it knows it knows – the same part of the brain that asks the beautiful question, ponders the unsolved problem, takes the initial step in the creative process: First Insight.” [Ibid., p. 65]

.Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish an fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight… the idea, however minuscule, is what turns the verb into a noun – paint into a painting, sculpt into sculpture, write into writing, steps into a dance.  I call it scratching.”  [Ref: The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It For Life, Twyla Tharp, p. 94-5.]

·        Do a verb or an adjective in the activity.  Try something new.

·        “Those who wonder are not necessarily lost.”  [Kobi Yamada]

·        “Oh, for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts!” [John Keats]

·        “Look closely.  The beautiful may be small.” [Emmanuel Kant]