Creative Angst
Creative Angst- Step 3-Puking On The Page
Now that you have your notebook, I’m going to teach you some things that will help you get to your subconscious and your creativity. Because we have a notebook, and usually notebooks mean writing, I’m going to teach you this little trick that I learned years ago. Not everyone is a writer and sometimes just owning a notebook can feel overwhelming. These tips I am sharing have helped me to write and organize my thoughts. A long time ago I went through some of these processes and learned quite a bit about myself and my creativity.
Clustering developed by Gabriel Lusser Rico.
Clustering is similar to mind mapping, but I feel clustering is so much better. It fits my personality perfectly! Take one whole sheet of paper preferably one that has an entire white sheet next to it. Now, in the middle of the sheet write the word creativity and circle it. Now let your mind and your hand go and think of everything that this word means to you. Draw a line and another circle, does that thought lead to another one? Then write that thought down and another circle. When a thought is depleted, come back to the center and write another trail of words from the word “creativity”, this can be anything, personal items, sayings, anything that comes to your mind. Let your mind go. What does creativity taste like, smell like, sound like etc? If you feel stuck for a moment, doodle on the page, circle a word or wait a moment. When you feel you have exhausted your thoughts then go to the right-hand side of the paper, the clean sheet and start with this prompt.
Creativity is…
Then let yourself write for a few minutes. There is no right or wrong way to do this. There is no one to check your spelling or your grammar and that is not important. Just write. I call this puking on the page. No need to sort through your vomit to see what you have eaten, just purge!
When your writing is complete, if you want to edit it you may. Please be careful when doing your free writing, some people have an internal editor that is so overpowering, it does not let them do anything without butting in.
If you want to share your thoughts, I would love to hear them. Check out the forum and start a thread or look for a thread called Creativity cluster 1 under the Creative Angst forum. Or post it right here on this blog post as a comment. Give yourself a pat on the back for loving your creative self.
We will use this technique often to help us get through our creative barriers and to understand some of the things that might be holding us back concerning our creativity.
As a side note- clustering is a powerful tool. It can be used in business, for students and for just about anything that requires you to be creative.
We will be working with this technique from time to time, as well as some other creative techniques that I have developed. IF you want to cluster more, feel free to do so. Don’t feel confined to only writing what I tell you in your creative journal. Explore. I’ll be sharing more prompts later- Happy creative journaling.
My two favorite books by this remarkable woman
Creative Angst- is a series of blog posts by sculptor Bridgette Mongeon that help individuals to get past their creative angst.
I CAN’T DO THIS ALONE
Do you need a little hand holding, somewhere to be accountable? There are two suggestions
1. Comment on the blog posts,
WHEN WILL YOU BE BACK?
How will I know when there are more posts? There are several ways-
_____________________________________________________________________________
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwritertwitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Creative Angst- Step 1&2- Baby Steps
As promised, I have a regular segment for this blog titled “Creative Angst” where we will walk through the process of finding our creative selves or reaching a bit further with our creativity. In the first segment Introduction- Creative Angst I introduced this concept. Now on to our next steps.
Step One
Step one- Baby steps
I don’t think this can be emphasized enough. If you start by looking at the entire journey and plan it all out in your head it just feels too overwhelming to take the first steps. Start with baby steps. Start with one step a day. Your step for today can be making the decision to change. There, you have started. Take stock in how this feels. You are changing your life, you are becoming more creative just by taking this one step. Don’t trust yourself? Here, print out and sign this official commitment.
I_________________________on this _________ day of _________ in the year _______have made a decision to change my life and become more creative. I have no idea how that is going to happen and that is o.k. I just know I am opening myself up to that idea.
Your signature. _______________________________________
Step Two-
Now, go to the store and buy yourself a simple notebook. Splurge, get seomthing really creative with bright colors, if that fits your style. Wsrite your name on the cover in marker and the date. In the first page write your commitment out again, and date it. This will be so much fun to read when you achieve your goals. It will be great to see your progress along the way.
This journal will help you to write your creative thoughts, your process, it wil help for you to create a dialogue with your subconscious. If you are not a writer don’t fret. I have plenty of creative processes that will help with that.
Good job. See you are taking baby steps.
It’s hard for many to imagine, but having fun, feeding your passions, and engaging your talents are simple steps that will take you to the bigger answers you seek.
Jonathan H. Ellerby
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Henry Ford
Creative Angst- is a series of blog posts by sculptor Bridgette Mongeon that help individuals to get past their creative angst.
I CAN’T DO THIS ALONE
Do you need a little hand holding, somewhere to be accountable? There are two suggestions
1. Comment on the blog posts,
2 post on the forum. By joining the forum, you may meet other people that will be trying to do just what you are trying to do and you can encourage each other.
WHEN WILL YOU BE BACK?
How will I know when there are more posts? There are several ways-
- Check back to the blog
- Sign up for the RSS feed
- Follow me on Facebook
- Follow me on Twitter
And I will check the forum regularly
_____________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Introduction To- Creative Angst
Creative angst comes in all forms.
Throughout my career as an artist, writer and speaker people have come to me and said, “I need a change. I have stifled my creative self too long.” Maybe they made a decision to go corporate years ago instead of doing what they love, writing, sculpting, painting, dancing, music (fill in the blank.) Now they feel it is time to change, to feed that creative side, but they ask, how do I make this change, what do I do? How do I become more creative? How do I change my life? I had always thought and hoped I would be creative, but it is slipping away.
Perhaps they made a decision years ago that they would make a good living and there would be no financial worries. They were convinced that they could do their creative projects on the side, but somehow they got lost, and now they feel… stuck.
How do I begin? How do I get out of this rut?
Perhaps something drastic has happened, a family death, an illness or God forbid a natural disaster. They say,
“My life must change, it is too short. I have lost time. HELP!”
Well here is the thing. You have just made that change by reading this blog. You have asked the question, “how do I begin.” You have allowed your stifled creative self to have a voice. You are listening to the hunger pains of your soul. You are changing!
I hear the chatter,
I’M OVERWHELMED!
Where do I start?
There is so much I can do to be creative;, there is so much I want to do. It is so easy to get lost in this thread of creativity.
Don’t I need some direction?
Without knowing what direction to go, again I feel stuck.
Can I make money with my creativity?
Can I make money doing what I want to do?
How do I change my life to fit this process?
And there are others who may need some guidance some hand holding. They think, “If I had someone to be accountable to, some place I could go to get help or encouragement. Someone to give me a step by step procedure.” I could do this. Now hand holding is not for everyone, but it is the best way for some.
Over the years, so many people have come to me and asked one or more of these questions, Let’s go, here is my hand, Here are the steps. I will blog regularly about this subject. The title along with the sub title Creative Angst will designate this thread of posts in the blog. Just follow along, or if you are coming in the middle of this writing then do a search on the blog to see all of the previous posts.
I CAN’T DO THIS ALONE
Do you need a little hand holding, somewhere to be accountable? There are two suggestions
1. Comment on the blog posts,
2 post on the forum. By joining the forum, you may meet other people that will be trying to do just what you are trying to do and you can encourage each other. (As of June 2002, whenever you take any of my free marketing workshops you will be invited to the Marketing in the Arts and Small Business Facebook Group. How do you find out about the workshops? Follow me on Facebook, or Instagram. I’m always posting about them. During Covid we made them available. Hopefully we can still do that.
WHEN WILL YOU BE BACK?
How will I know when there are more posts? There are several ways-
_____________________________________________________________________________
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast