I've been thinking that I want to be more focused about my move towards growing in the writing craft. So I've been trying to search for creative prompts that can initiate my journey to writing more creatively. I think the problem is that I haven't really been sifting my mind so much that's why everything simply gets stuck. I also have not been reading a lot and my momentum in digesting words has gone to slow. My literary sense has faded.
But I am optimistic. I've been seeing a lot of people venturing towards their dreams lately and the first thing they did was to aim high and then follow a process. For athletes, it's a training schedule. For artists (or writers like me), it's a creative routine. Most of the things I've read say that the most important tip is:
To read a lot.
Last week, I managed to finish reading a book in one day. I used to devour two books in one day when I was in college but that ability has been stunted ever since I attended business school where my taste for literature has gone bland. Filled up with stacks of case studies and business reports has numbed my creative writing mind and it desperately needs some resuscitation.
The next important tip is:
To write a lot.
They say that it doesn't matter what you write, just write. Some say that it's important to plan what you want to write and others say just write and then edit later. I don't know which advise is better but I find myself unable to "just write" right now. I suppose the cluttered thoughts have a lot to do with the bottleneck.
The third important tip is:
Find people who believes with you.
I suppose the birth of any dream is fueled by the strong desire and belief of the dreamer and those who stand by the dreamer. It makes a lot of impact when your environment allows you to test all sorts of possibilities without restraining your creative potential and the limiting the journey of creative exploration. Those who find it difficult to begin taking the first step towards their dream, I find, are those people who have never been exposed to an encouraging environment.
Negativity is easy to come by especially in a world that wreaks with turmoil, crisis, poverty, unemployment, heartache, death (this is just to name a few of those anxieties we constantly run through our heads on a daily basis). For some reason it has become human nature to find it easier to point out a mistake, a wrong deed, a wrong action than to point out a good deed, best effort, a trial overcome, a change made. It feels like an itch. Or worse, a pimple aching to be popped. You just can't stand it. You have to scratch it. You have to pop it.
Where do we get that urge? I can't speak for everybody but I suppose for myself, it's because I am unable to empathize nor see beyond the inner struggle of one who goes an experience or simply said, I don't believe the inherent goodness in a person. But that was past. As I move towards authenticity, I am growing to realize that I too limit myself if I limit others.
The poison to any possibility is a negative word. Somewhere in Proverbs it says, "Death and life is the power of the tongue." It is easy to stick this on a car bumper or to post it on your office wall or make it a desktop screensaver. But it is very hard to live out. It becomes hard to live out because we are more quick to call others' attention than ours.
A chat with a friend recently reminded me of this bible saying that goes, "One who has been forgiven much, loves much." How can you love much if you don't know how much you've been forgiven? How will you know how much you have been forgiven if you think you don't NEED to be forgiven? :-)
I think I've strayed far from my point of enumerating the important steps of embarking on the creative writing craft but I think it is important that before any journey begins, the heart, the mind and the soul is set in the right place. For you will not know what kind of challenges you will face but if you got your insides intact, your inner mettle will let you rise above anything that tries to run by you.
So here I am trying to move with the flow again and believing that even if there are seasons in where my creativity runs dry, there are definitely seasons where the spring will come again.
But I am optimistic. I've been seeing a lot of people venturing towards their dreams lately and the first thing they did was to aim high and then follow a process. For athletes, it's a training schedule. For artists (or writers like me), it's a creative routine. Most of the things I've read say that the most important tip is:
To read a lot.
Last week, I managed to finish reading a book in one day. I used to devour two books in one day when I was in college but that ability has been stunted ever since I attended business school where my taste for literature has gone bland. Filled up with stacks of case studies and business reports has numbed my creative writing mind and it desperately needs some resuscitation.
The next important tip is:
To write a lot.
They say that it doesn't matter what you write, just write. Some say that it's important to plan what you want to write and others say just write and then edit later. I don't know which advise is better but I find myself unable to "just write" right now. I suppose the cluttered thoughts have a lot to do with the bottleneck.
The third important tip is:
Find people who believes with you.
I suppose the birth of any dream is fueled by the strong desire and belief of the dreamer and those who stand by the dreamer. It makes a lot of impact when your environment allows you to test all sorts of possibilities without restraining your creative potential and the limiting the journey of creative exploration. Those who find it difficult to begin taking the first step towards their dream, I find, are those people who have never been exposed to an encouraging environment.
Negativity is easy to come by especially in a world that wreaks with turmoil, crisis, poverty, unemployment, heartache, death (this is just to name a few of those anxieties we constantly run through our heads on a daily basis). For some reason it has become human nature to find it easier to point out a mistake, a wrong deed, a wrong action than to point out a good deed, best effort, a trial overcome, a change made. It feels like an itch. Or worse, a pimple aching to be popped. You just can't stand it. You have to scratch it. You have to pop it.
Where do we get that urge? I can't speak for everybody but I suppose for myself, it's because I am unable to empathize nor see beyond the inner struggle of one who goes an experience or simply said, I don't believe the inherent goodness in a person. But that was past. As I move towards authenticity, I am growing to realize that I too limit myself if I limit others.
The poison to any possibility is a negative word. Somewhere in Proverbs it says, "Death and life is the power of the tongue." It is easy to stick this on a car bumper or to post it on your office wall or make it a desktop screensaver. But it is very hard to live out. It becomes hard to live out because we are more quick to call others' attention than ours.
A chat with a friend recently reminded me of this bible saying that goes, "One who has been forgiven much, loves much." How can you love much if you don't know how much you've been forgiven? How will you know how much you have been forgiven if you think you don't NEED to be forgiven? :-)
I think I've strayed far from my point of enumerating the important steps of embarking on the creative writing craft but I think it is important that before any journey begins, the heart, the mind and the soul is set in the right place. For you will not know what kind of challenges you will face but if you got your insides intact, your inner mettle will let you rise above anything that tries to run by you.
So here I am trying to move with the flow again and believing that even if there are seasons in where my creativity runs dry, there are definitely seasons where the spring will come again.
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2 comments:
i think what you need is a visit to remy's thrift shop in cubao x one of these days :)
rick
projectmanila.com
I'll do that. :) Thanks Rick! :)
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