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-
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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