Writer’s Journal
For a complete list of categories and archives, click here.
On Self Criticism
This last week I was listening to an episode Kevin Smith’s podcast where he interviewed Gerard and Mikey Way from My Chemical Romance. The interview is five years old, but one thing I took away from it was something Kevin Smith said about the artistic brain. Something to the effect of the same imagination that can make up stories about life, can also make up stories about our own work. Your imaginative, creative mind will tell you that everything you create sucks. That you’re terrible at what you do. But, these are just more stories from your artist’s brain. Something to consider the next time you look at your art and decide you have no talent. ❤️
November 5, 2017
On Creativity
Sometimes I feel like the Internet is full of people trying to sell themselves or build an image. In many ways it seems like creativity has been lost to attention seeking. People will do whatever it takes for the likes, the views, and the follows. But, is putting those things out to the world fulfilling? Are you being true to who you are? Are you really making your mark on the world? Will what you create stand the test of time?
I’ve always held to the belief that you have to be yourself. You have to put an authentic voice forward. I’m sure there are times I’ve been sucked in by the masses, drawn in by popular culture, but for the most part I’m a bit of a rebel against those things. What does all of this have to do with creativity? You have to create things that are true to who you are. You have to create for yourself and trust that the like minded people with appreciate it. You can’t create in a style that isn’t you.
You can’t create to impress, or win awards, or gain followers. Those things will happen if you create authentically for the sake of the process. Then you are truly putting something in the world that wasn’t there before. It’s not about branding or becoming a product. It’s about authenticity. Are you speaking in your own voice, or are you hiding behind someone else’s?
When you’re creating in someone else’s voice, it becomes work to continue to be someone you’re not. Creating should be fun. I have found myself in the last couple of months doubting my poetry style. Thinking that I should try writing shorter pieces or sound bites. Thinking I should try this or that to gain more followers. Then it stopped being fun. Maybe I’m not the best poet in the world, but I do think I have my own style. I need to remember to be true to that.
We all have something unique to share. Contrary to what modern life tries to tell you – you’re not a brand or a product. You’re not something to be sold. Tap into who you are and create from there. If people connect, maybe you’ll make a little money and achieve a little fame. If not, you’re still successful because you found your voice and a little contentment in creating things true to who you are.
A Happiness Collection
I once bought a silly, realistic-looking, plastic rooster. I thought it would be funny to set it by the front door of our new house. As people visited, they obviously noticed the rooster. And thought that it meant I had a love of roosters. Pretty soon I was getting roosters for gifts. Rooster prints, rooster doorstops, ceramic roosters. Before I knew it I had a whole collection of roosters.
The problem was, it really wasn’t my thing. I didn’t have any great love for roosters. Sometimes life can be like that. It starts throwing things at you that you really don’t want. You find yourself spending your days doing things you don’t enjoy. Your life becomes a collection of things you didn’t choose. Don’t live a life with a bunch of roosters you don’t want. Clear out all of the things that don’t bring you joy and live a life that makes you happy.
Spring Returns
The promise of spring returns on these gentle wings.
We spend most of our time living in suburbia, but most weekends we escape to our cabin in the woods. More small house than cabin, the best feature is it sits on 17 acres of wooded land. Other than harvesting dead trees for wood for the wood stove, we have basically left the land alone. There are three trails that were there when we moved in and we maintain those. Since it’s mostly untouched woods, there’s quite a bit of wildlife in residence. We’ve seen deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, beaver, pheasants, the normal raccoons, skunks, squirrels, and rabbits. We had a bat get in the wood stove once (luckily it was August and we weren’t using it!). My favorite thing about spring at the cabin is the return of the herons. Out near the creek there are several trees filled with heron nests. They sit empty most of the year, but in the spring the herons return to fight over them. They flap their huge wings and “scream” at each other if one tries to land in a nest already occupied.
Yesterday I stood by the creek, the air was cold, the sky was blue, there was a gentle breeze, and other than the sound of the birds everything was completely silent. It was like being the only person on earth. From over the field next door, a heron flew in. It’s huge wings effortlessly gliding over the creek. It was beautiful and actually brought tears to my eyes. Just that all of this exists in such beauty and simplicity and that I could be in that place to witness it was amazing to me. I’m not a religious person, but these moments are divine, those woods are my church.
Word Collector
I call myself a word collector. It’s my hobby much like people who collect rocks, or postcards, or antiques.
What does a word collector collect? Poems, quotes, books, passages from books, my own thoughts on paper. I love when someone expresses an everyday thought in an extraordinary way. I love when I’m reading a book and a sentence or a paragraph jumps out at me and grabs my soul.
I have been collecting my own words in journals for 30 years. My journals help me sort out my own thoughts and feelings. I can let things go more easily once I have worked through them on paper. I keep a paper journal because it feels like it’s more therapeutic to put pen to actual paper than to type.
I have collected quotes since I was a teenager. I kept them in notebooks and in my journals. Then in documents on the computer. Now on Pinterest boards.
Awhile back I decided to go through the boards and see if I could verify who actually said one or two of the quotes. This led me into a time consuming, but fascinating project. So many of these quotes were either attributed to the wrong person, or I could find no proof of who said them. Many of them had been “dumbed down” and when read in their entirety took on a completely different meaning. So few people seem to care if they are properly attributed. They, like me, just shared them and didn’t think about who said them.
One of my favorite quotes, attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, is, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” But, according to the website Quote Investigator, there is no proof he ever said it. In fact, many of the Emerson quotes that I love, and through which I had built an opinion of Emerson, didn’t actually come from Emerson.
In researching these I learned so much about people I never knew existed. And they are just as interesting as the famous people that are supposed to have said some of these things.
I’m a collector of words, of information and of ideas. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
