Journaling ~ Creative Writing Prompts
Write A Way: Journey to Creativity
"A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the
world."
~ John le Carre (1931 - )
Becoming Alive In Every Sense
By Sandra Lee Schubert
In
Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own,
you are asked to become a super hero and to look at the ordinary things in your
life with extraordinary vision. In previous columns we discussed how writing
requires use of all our senses. As writers and artists we are asked to hear, see
and know our characters. We must recall a smell or a touch and incorporate it
into our writing. How dull writing would if stories had us all eating a red
apple under a green tree with a blue sky and wind blowing. The bookstores would
close and we would have to do something else with our time.
"Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making
something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will
also make it exist by observing it. I call it 'creative observation.' Creative
viewing."
~ William Burroughs, author. "The Creative Observer," Painting and Guns
(1992)
Each day we gather information through our senses. Most of it is assimilated
without much consciousness. The speed and amount of information is too much to
absorb all at once. Nonetheless, we all can become a little more aware.
Times Square, New York City is sensory overload. There
exists every shape and size of tourist and every kind of familiar and unknown
language. People are jostling about, yelling, smiling and discovering each other
and the surroundings. Since I work right in the heart of Times Square, I have an
incredible opportunity of seeing, hearing, smelling and sensing many more things
in one day than the average person. I am full of it. It is bright, loud and
chaotic and still it amazes me when there is something I had not noticed before.
It is if a veil is lifted.
In the midst of all this stimulation, images stand out and later it informs my
writing even if the exact image is not written about at all. Maybe your work and
home environment is more sedate. Still the opportunity exists for new adventures
all the time. Are you willing to take a new tour of your life? Can you walk
through your everyday life with open eyes and heart?
"Creativity is...seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to
find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with
God."
~ Michele Shea, Author(1992)
Seeing is just not seeing. We grow up in the same families and still our
memories are different than a sibling. Ten people witness a crime and have 10
stories to tell. You walk down the same hallway everyday and suddenly realize
the color of the paint is blue. Don't just look - observe. What color is the sky
at dusk? Notice how shadows play on the sidewalk. Feel the wind and give it a
name. Pay attention to what is around you. Absorb it. Breathe in your
environment. Notice the texture of your skin, the feel of a doorknob. Imagine
what it would be like to inhabit another's body. Listen for what is unique.
Uncover what is special.
"I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."
~ Walt Whitman, poet from Song of Myself
What does it mean to be alive in every sense? I sat at my computer one night and
heard the sound of rain outside. You know the kind... rain that comes suddenly
and unexpectedly hitting the ground with big plops of water. The sound intrigued
me - rain was not forecast. I looked at the window and was stunned and a bit
fascinated. It was not rain but the sound of dry leaves blowing down the empty
street. Hundreds of dry leaves. The image was so striking. There were so many
leaves. I could not see any wind blowing in the trees right in front of my house.
I had no real idea what was driving those leaves down the street in such a
hurry. They appeared to be running away from something.
Is that an image that would intrigue everybody? No. It was my moment to see
something extraordinary in an ordinary event. Look at life with those kinds of
eyes. If you stir up one sense, the others will awaken too. You will feel that
special buzz of life coursing through you and you will only want more. Make your
writing become alive with tastes, smells, feeling and color. Venture into new
territory. Take chances. Challenge yourself to see the world with new eyes.
This Month's Creative Writing Prompts
Observe: Become a people
watcher. Look at how people move. Notice the color of their hair. Imagine them
as children. Do you think they were happy? Do they look sad now? Pay attention
to how people interact with each other. Look for the small movements. The way a
man touches a woman's face. How children talk to each other. Do they snuggle
against each other? Are they competitive or shy? In your daily routine, notice
one new thing. Maybe it is the color of the marble in your building lobby. Or
the way a street curves.
Listen: Eavesdrop on some
conversations. Write down a sentence or two that appeals to you. Take copious
notes. Write down all the sounds and smells you encounter. Make up new names for
all the colors. Take in your environment in a new way. Sit down and begin to
write based on your notes or discoveries. Make some simple observation or create
a full-blown story. Try one page and then two. Discover one new thing each day.
Every Picture Tells A Story
Pick a photo. Find one in the newspaper, or magazine. Look through archives of
old photos or borrow a friend's photo album. Using your amazing power of
creativity write a short story, 400 to 1000 words. Be wildly inventive; create
characters, a plot line. Who are these people, what is this location? Create
something from the photo. Write two or more versions. Try it from different
perspectives. Imagine you are a great granddaughter looking at the building
where your family lived for generations before losing it in the depression. What
does it tell you?
Locations, buildings and inanimate objects can tell you a story if you look,
listen and observe what it going on. Each day we wake up and get to choose once
again how we will create our lives. We can live those choices and we can write
about them. What will you create for yourself tomorrow?
Sandra Schubert is the creator and instructor for the Self-Healing Expressions
e-course
Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own.
To learn more about Sandra and her course, click here:
Copyright © 2004 Sandra Lee Schubert. All rights reserved. If you are interested
in publishing this article, please email
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