CREATIVITY SPARKS^TM
July 2007

Escape Into your Art
Six Ways to Get Out of Your Own Way
by Beth Barany

"When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. The throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves." -- A Circle of Quiet: The Crosswicks Journal--Book 1 by Madeleine L'Engle

Action
We must take action to create our art. We must play at it, as a child approaches playing. I love this Madeleine L'Engle quote, and want to share with you how we can escape into our art. How to open the door into the sumptuous world of our own creativity.

I'm assuming you know what your art is, that you know how you want to apply your creative energies, but you feel stymied in some way. If you don't know what your creative art is, then I suggest you "Remember and Identify" it. You could also read about Sparking your Passion.

What was your favorite game or pasttime as a child? Think back to how you spent your time. For example, I loved playing Olly Olly Oxen Free, a complex version of hide-and-go-seek, with friends and siblings. Or, we played Capture the Flag, or explored the nearby wine grape vineyards, or played in abandoned fields getting full of burrs and messing with blackberry brambles. On the other hand, I loved curling up with a good adventure story, like Misty of Chincoteague or The Lost Prince.

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Play
What did you love about the games you played? Dig beneath the pleasure and describe its elements. With reading, I loved – and still love – diving into another world, so completely different from my own, and coming out of the story refreshed and so in love with that other place, it makes this place stand out as foreign, and intriguing. I'm always on an adventure and this I love.

Identify
Identify the thing you love about your writing, your art. Identify it and allow yourself to sink your teeth into it. I'm in love with my current piece of fiction: its characters, setting, and problems. I can't wait to return to that world so that I can sit in the angst of the problems I've created and move my characters to some kind of resolution. I love that exploration. Because although I know where I want my characters to go I don't know exactly how they will travel there, or if they will really succeed in their missions.

As Madeleine L'Engle, says, "We must throw ourselves out first," and become our art creating itself.

Time to take action. Any action will do. Okay, almost any. If you need more clear direction, then below are more exercises. Do one, or do them all. The point here is to get out of your own way and create in a place of love, enjoyment and play.

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Time limits
Set the time for 20 minutes (more or less is fine, though I've found 20 minutes to be optimal for writing. For your craft it may be more or less.) Write about all the reasons why you can't do your art. If you find yourself writing about other things, great. The point is to move pen across page without stopping until the buzzer rings. Or, write about what you want your creative project to really be like.

Tracking
You are ready to work. Your art materials are laid out in front of you, the computer is one, or the clay is before you. In a notebook, or on an excel sheet (a one-page PDF), a tracking sheet helps you, well, track. Not just what you've done and for how long, it tracks that you've done it!

Congratulations! Showing up and following through on your creating is what's it's all about.

MAP
As my friend and leadership trainer, Greg Norte, taught me, a MAP is a A Major Accountability Partner. Maybe this person is a life partner, a business partner or colleague or creativity buddy. Call them at the start and at the finish to report in, celebrate your successes and shore up any challenges. Weekly is best. I have MAPs in all areas of my life. Go team!

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List of Twenty
One of my favorite exercises, appealing to both the left and right brainers out there. This exercise can be used for any kind of creative project, and yes, of course, writing. It's great in fact for story and idea generation in any area. Five steps to implementing this simple yet powerful tool.

Step One: Set your intention for the list. In other words, decide what you're going to use the list for. For example, you could decide to list out twenty possible plot ideas, terrible scenarios for your hapless characters to fall into, or twenty ideas associated with a big lifestyle change. Or the question "what do I really want with this creative project?"

Step Two: Number your page down the left hand side, 1-20.

Step Three: Get ready! Know that you will list twenty items, even if you repeat yourself, even if it doesn't make sense what you write.

Step Four: Go! Write your list of twenty. Don't stop until you’ve reached the end.

Step Five: Read your list with amusement and neutrality and congratulate yourself. You did it. If you are so inspired pick one item and work on it right now.

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Fieldtrip
When I need inspiration, and something to jolt me into action, like today, I took a little field trip down the hill to my neighborhood, Piedmont Avenue on Oakland, CA. I took a fieldtrip to one of my favorite coffee shops, Peets' Coffee, sat in the little plaza and enjoyed the mural, and the passersby while I wrote, then went to that wonderful resource, the public library, and popped into a fun new store in the neighborhood, Issues, with their wacky and wonderful magazines and newspapers from around the world.

Where can you go to mix things up, get inspiration, spur yourself to action, feed your fire? It may only be a seven and a half minute walk away.

Great! Hopefully by now you have been inspired to action, to choose one or a few or all of the above exercises to help you "wholly concentrate" and "share in the act of creating" with your art, and to lovingly and kindly get the hell out of your own way.

Go be creative! Go Play!

c. 2007 Beth Barany


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