K is for Key

If you had the key to this door, what do you think you would find on the other side?

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J is for Jog

No, I'm not talking about jogging. I don't do that if I can help it (when we first moved to Berlin, my son thought people only ran to catch a bus).

source

I'm talking about jogging your mind, jostling your muse, getting the creative juices flowing.  How? Go for a jog. Or a walk, a bike ride, a run. Get out of the house/office, get some fresh air (avoid city streets; if you're deep in thought, you might as well wear a target for muggers, not to mention the hazards of crossing if you're not really paying attention to traffic).

Aside from the obvious health benefits of physical activity, it enhances creativity.

You don't have to go for a hard run or spend an hour at the gym. Moderate activity (a brisk walk) stimulates creative function in the brain immediately after you finish the activity AND for a good two hours after. (For real: check this out.)

Wrestling with an idea? Haven't seen your muse in a while? Go for a walk (jog, run, bike ride) when you'll have some time to write afterward. When I'm struggling, I sit down to write in my journal after a walk, and the problems, more often than not, resolve themselves.

And your back will thank you.

How do you overcome creative block?

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WIP Wednesday

Today is the day for the Creativity Challenge offering (see the challenge prompts over there to the right), but since it is also WIP Wednesday, I'll post my scene on Friday (it'll be cold, dark, and wet with just a hint of magic, you'll want to check it out).

WIP. Or WIPs (or should that be WsIP?). Either way, I've got more than one. Here's where they stand.

My middle grade mystery, Trifocal, is over the half-way point. To celebrate (and keep me on task), I've put a counter up to track my progress. Let's hope that blue bar grows on a daily basis. My goal is to finish it by the end of this month. We shall see how that plays out, but I'll be traveling a lot in October and won't get any writing done then. Good motivation, at any rate.

I decided 40,000 words was a reasonable goal for Trifocal, and I was thrilled to discover that it fits well within current publishing word counts. See this great article by Colleen Lindsay on genre and word count. I had been thinking 50,000 words would be better, but that turns out to be a bit long for middle grade.

I sent off a magazine article last week, have another in the envelope waiting to head for the Post Office today, and I'm putting together a query for a third. I've done my research and these all fall under "current needs" at their respective magazines, so let's hope the editors like them.

I wrote a new non-fiction picture book about migrating trees. Yep, they migrate. They're just slow. I'll have that off to my critique group at the start of October.

Revisions for my middle grade fantasy are on hold for the moment, in light of everything else I'm trying to do. Whew! I didn't feel as though I was making any progress, but now I do. =)

How are you projects going?

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Prodigies and Late Bloomers

I just finished reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. Unlike his other books, this one is a compendium of some of his New Yorker pieces.

I was particularly interested in the one about Late Bloomers. Gladwell describes the fascination our culture holds for creative prodigies: the Picassos, Mozarts, and Kieron Williamsons of the world. These are the people who sit down and create a masterpiece in their first attempt. But are we all destined to be creative failures if we don't possess that edge early in life?

Gladwell says no. He discusses Cézanne, whose work improved with time. Cézanne required the steadfast support and encouragement of close friends to reach his creative potential.

The same is true of artists, writers, and creatives of all kinds. Gladwell calls late bloomers "experimental innovators." They are the people who need to experience things, often multiple times, before their ideas become clear. Experimental innovators are the people who spend years rewriting and revising, modifying and altering their work until it shines.

Do you see yourself as an early- or late-bloomer?

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Finding your top idea

By Reg Lynch; The Sydney Morning Herald

I haven't had poetry popping into my head of late. I think it's because I've been focusing on writing prose, in the form of a MG novel. My head can only deal with one writing format at a time.

I had noticed that poems almost always popped into my head while I was in the shower or just after getting out of the shower. For a while I thought the poetry muse liked the bathroom, in general (maybe because it's the one place where I get a few minutes to myself?). Then I thought it might be the hair dryer (lots of ideas came then, too).

But the poetry muse has been very quiet of late, and I've had other things popping in my head, like the idea for my entry into the weather blogfest. That scene quite literally appeared in my mind while I was in the shower. One could argue that water raining down on me triggered it, but I don't think that's it. You see, I had been thinking quite a lot about the weather.

(Lamenting it, really... I love a good thunderstorm, and the weather where I live is monotonous. Day in and day out of the same thing. It's either weeks of sun without a cloud in the sky, weeks of gray clouds without a hint of sun, or weeks of rain. Where I grew up, we got a little bit of everything every single day. The monotony makes me crazy.)

Paul Graham (software developer, programmer, investor, and all-around highly successful creative person) argues that whatever you think about in the shower is the top idea in your mind. It's the thing your brain is playing with, turning over, working at from various angles. It's the problem you will solve. The light bulb flash that will come to you out of the blue. The solution may not come then, but whatever you are contemplating in the shower is what consumes the neuronal pathways in your brain.

Rather exciting idea, really. Like being handed the keys to the kingdom. But it comes with warning: "be careful what you let become critical to you. Try to get yourself into situations where the most urgent problems are ones you want to think about." I think we could broaden this to say, try to get yourself into situations where your creative projects (or serious problems that require solving) are the things you think about.

Obsessing over a negative critique you received? You're not alone, it happens to the best of us (see Graham's Top Idea article for more about how it affected Isaac Newton). But perhaps the most selfish thing you can do for yourself is to let it go.

Nothing can be done to change it. All you do is damage yourself by carefully plotting out the various ways you could inflict pain (real or psychological) on the offender. Satisfying in the short-term. Detrimental over the long-term.

Wouldn't it be more satisfying to let it go, free your brain to come up with something that fixes the flaws, and carry out the new idea? To succeed by overcoming the problems so-and-so highlighted for you? I think so.

What was your top idea today? And how do you keep your mind focused on the ideas you want to think about?

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Laying the groundwork

We went to the German-American Folksfest last week. It reminded me of the Midway at the Minnesota State Fair. Lots of rides, games, and sweets (but no cheese curds). A mini-amusement park.

The amazing thing is, the Folksfest comes together out of nothing. Most of the year, the "plaza" where it takes place is nothing but an open field. Occasionally, a circus comes to town, but there's nothing but bare ground for a good chunk of the year.

It got me thinking about how, in many ways, the festival is similar to creativity. The first thing we have to do is lay the groundwork. For the Folksfest, this involves quite literally putting down a layer of rocks and setting out the paths along which attendees will walk. People run power cords and water lines. All of this takes place long before a single kiosk or ride arrives on its 18-wheeler.

Writing and other creative processes are, in many ways, similar. Before we can begin to create a new world, we must lay the groundwork. Prepare the stone to be carved, whitewash the canvas, find names for characters and a realistic setting in which to place our stories.

Only after the groundwork is firmly established can we really begin to tackle the fun part--the act of creating something new and different. Something to tantalize the senses and stimulate the mind. And, one hopes, something that the audience will remember with fondness.

How do you begin a new creative project?

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Creative efforts

Today I must play the samurai with my story for Friday's Creativity Challenge (it's a bit long and requires some cutting). But I have been following the creative efforts of others and thought this would be a great opportunity to share them with you.

The FaBo Story is scheduled to continue with chapter 2 (what was outside Remy's tent?)...

Simon and Mercedes are trying to figure out how to kill each other...

Christie has begun a story challenge....

Toby has some original poetry (as do other Poetry Friday participants)...

Roland continues his online story Ghost of a Chance...

and Tahereh continues the Querypolitan fun.

Go see what others are writing, and be sure to write up your post for the Creativity Challenge. Posts should be up by Friday, and you will be able to leave links in the comments of my post to share with others.

And if there are other great stories or original creative work that should be added to the list, please let me know.

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Window of Insight #2: Michael Grant

This window of insight focuses on a non-writer, and, by many accounts, a non-creative (but don't be fooled). Michael Grant is a computational mathematics researcher who focuses on the concept of optimization, which he applies to a variety of topics. Here's what makes Michael creative (all answers are copyright Michael Grant).


1. Please describe the kind of work that you do.

My degrees claim that I am an electrical engineer. But over the course of my college work, I discovered that I was more interested in the computational and mathematical details than in the specific engineering applications.

For my doctoral work, I focused on the field of optimization: the mathematics behind selecting the best choice among a family of alternatives. Whether the challenge is to find the highest performance, the lowest cost, the most efficient use of resources, or the lowest risk—any time the notion of “best” can be expressed mathematically—optimization is the method. Not surprisingly, optimization has applications in a wide variety of fields, including engineering (of course), the applied sciences, business, and finance.

My work these days takes several forms. I teach a graduate-level course in optimization at the local university, and I give seminars and lectures in academic and corporate settings. I develop and maintain software that is used by a variety of researchers around the world that makes it easier for them to use optimization in their work. And I apply optimization and related concepts to a variety of engineering problems.

2. How does the creative process fit into your work?

I think it is fair to say that people typically associate creativity with, well, the creative and aesthetic arts: music and dance, visual arts, fictional writing, and so forth.

But at its most basic, creativity is simply the act of generating concepts and works that are new and original (at least to their creator). And in that sense, it is clear that creativity can be found in many technical fields as well, and engineering in particular. Any time I am developing the first solution to a new problem, or a new and better solution to an old problem, I am being creative.

Constructing a new piece of software certainly can a creative act, depending upon how much latitude the programmer is being given to accomplish it. But in the case of my most popular software, CVX, I created not just some new code but also a new methodology: a new way of thinking about or approaching the problems it is designed to solve. So there was creativity involved not just in its construction, but in its very conception.

Creativity enters into the teaching and communication as well. Every student or audience member approaches the material with a different background, so I must often invent new ways to explain or demonstrate particular concepts.

3. Where do you find sources of inspiration?

I try to keep up with the latest developments in my field by reading a lot of papers and speaking with colleagues. I typically have a number of problems percolating in the back of my mind, each stuck in limbo waiting for the right new idea or concept to come along that enables me to solve them. I would love to say that I always invent that critical missing piece on my own. But frequently, perhaps more often than not, I will find it in other people’s work and adapt it to my purposes.

4. What role do you feel that creativity plays in your life (in your work and beyond)?

I think I’ve addressed how creativity is involved in my work. But of course I think creativity is useful and even essential in a vibrant life outside of work as well.

Certainly, family life benefits tremendously from creativity. My wife is probably better about this than I am, but we both strive to find creative new ways to teach our daughter new ideas and behaviors. I’d like to think I apply creativity in how I treat with my wife as well; at the very least, we can agree that it would be nice if it were true. :)

One interesting outlet for creativity I’ve enjoyed lately is my work at church. I volunteer one or two Sundays a month to work on the light board, a bank of levers and buttons that control the house lights, spot lights, and decorative stage lights. As with many contemporary church settings, the feel is at times reminiscent of a concert! Along with the objective technical aspects like making sure that the singer or pastor is adequately lit, I have the opportunity to be creative in the selection the colors and patterns to follow the mood of the service.

5. What is the most challenging part of the creative process for you?

I often find it hard to finish a project and send it out to be consumed, used, and critiqued. I’m always finding something I can improve, tweak, rework, re-cast… Of course, what good is a creation that cannot be shared? My challenge is to set aside that urge to perfect and just get the work out there. It seems to me that this challenge would be more intense with the creative arts, because once a work is out there it often cannot be revised. In my case, I frequently have the opportunity to improve upon my work after people have had the chance to try it out. It is good for me to remember that.

6. What is the most rewarding part of the creative process?

Certainly, the accolades and encouraging words of others are among the most important rewards. But more than these are the implicit accolades that come when people use my work to further their own, citing my software or papers in theirs. I recently had someone incorporate the use my software into a textbook. I think that means I am immortal! :)

The “Eureka!” moments that come when I make a new discovery or solve a particularly vexing problem are intensely rewarding as well, and I’d say that they are the reasons I love to do research versus straight-ahead development.


7. At what point do you feel that you have succeeded with a creative endeavor?

I think it is when the external rewards come in that I discussed in the previous question. I certainly acknowledge that a personal satisfaction in the quality of my work is important. But truthfully, the very purpose of my core work is to enable others to solve problems that they would have been unwilling or unable to do without it. So without the positive feedback from others, I could not be certain I had succeeded.

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Thanks, Michael, for the insight. As for immortality, that's Creativity with a capital C: what a lot of creatives secretly crave. ;-)

Poetry Friday: The Haven of Words

I have been reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book, Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. In it, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi discusses Creativity (with a capital C): the sort that changes the world. He's not interested in personal creativity, rather the type that creates memes that spread new ideas and concepts from person to person, generation to generation. The type that changes the world.

In Creativity, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi reflects on a series of interviews with world-changing creatives and innovators. They provide a wealth of insight into their personal creative processes (the ultimate window of insight).

One of the people interviewed was Hilde Domin, a Jewish German poet who lived in exile for three decades with her husband. Forced to move from place to place, learn new languages and customs, it was not until she was free to return to Germany that she discovered the poetry within her.

In her interview, she says, "One evening, [following the death of her mother] I started writing a poem. I didn't have the idea that I wrote, but I started. It happened to me. Like, you know, falling in love. Or like being run over by a car. It happened. I had the language and I needed writing, so I wrote." (p. 244 of Creativity)

Dr. Csikszentmihalyi explains further, "This flight into a world of symbols saves the writer from the unbearable reality where experience is raw and unmediated. When painful experience is put into words, the poet is relieved of some of her burden." (p. 245)

The power of poetry is an extraordinary thing. It rescues the poet from events that could be life-shattering. At the same time, readers of the poem are provided with a window into the poet's soul, into the rough emotion found there. (See a nice reflection on the power of poetry by Simon C. Larter.)

The original poems are in German, but Elke Heckel and Meg Taylor have translated them into English. One of my favorites:

The Golden Rope
Nothing is as fleeting
as an encounter.

We play like children
we invite and reject
as if we had forever.
(read the rest of the poem)

What's your favorite poem? How does it affect you?

Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Amy Graves at The Art of Irreverence.

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Joined the Creativity Challenge, yet?  Last day to post your work is June 30. New word prompts will be up at the beginning of July.

June Creativity Challenge

I had forgotten about the Creativity Challenge, but after a bit of positive feedback regarding my first attempt, I've decided to bring it back. It's a good exercise in creativity for writers, poets, illustrators, artists, photographers, and other creative people, and the more people who participate, the more fun it will be (so spread the word).

The challenge is based on an exercise from a drawing class I once took (long, long ago, in my pre-creative-desert years). We had to incorporate three completely unrelated things in our compositions and somehow make them work together.

Please see the Challenge Rules before beginning. All posts must be completed by the end of June. Post a comment with a link to your blog/creative work in the comments. If you don't have a blog, email your final product to me at anpstevens [at] gmail [dot] com, and I will post it for you.

Without further ado, here are three words to get your brain jiggling for the month of June: elephant, moon, cushion. Have fun!

Nurturing the muse

I have been wondering, lately, where my muse was hiding all those years when I lived in a creative desert. I think it was afraid of the TV.

I've never been one to watch TV for hours on end, but I was in the habit of having it on for "company" when I lived alone. Later, after I met my husband, we used to eat dinner in front of the venerable boob tube. I am embarrassed to say that this persisted until we had kids.

Looking back, it's really no wonder my hobbies and creative pursuits fell by the wayside. My muse had been beaten into submission by an onslaught of visual and auditory stimulation that was (for the most part) anything but stimulating.* Numbed by the programs, my poor brain couldn't come up with a creative thought. Didn't need to, when the advertisements told me what I should eat, drink, and wear.

Yes, I'm being snarky, but I really think TV had a lot to do with my time in the creative desert. Why? Because when we moved to Germany, we got rid of the TV** (in reality, it is sitting in storage in the US and we are paying ridiculous amounts of money for a giant, out-of-date paperweight we will never use again—free TV anyone?).

When we got to Germany, my muse peeped its tousled head out to look with sleepy eyes at the world around it. It saw all kinds of wonderful and began to knit those little strands of detail together to make a tapestry. One that tells a story. Several, actually.

Now, my muse seems to have a bit of ADD, but maybe that's from all of those TV shows. I'm still nurturing it. It's shy, but it gets a little bolder every day.

What's your muse like? What kinds of experiences stimulate your muse?

* some shows are very thought-provoking, but I think it is easy for us to be lulled into a sense of complacency by the vast majority of programs
** we do have a TV, but it's not connected to anything but the DVD player, which we use about once a week

Getting it Right

I recently completed yet another journey around the sun. To celebrate, my husband took me to the "biggest show in Berlin" better known as Qi. The show is a mixture of Vegas-style revue, Ice Capades, and Cirque du Soleil rolled into one (yes, they bring out a skating rink mid-show).

I really expected amazing things. As a former dancer, I love watching good dance performances. And for the biggest show in Berlin (with equally sizable ticket prices), you would think the performances would be out of this world.

Oh man, was I disappointed.

I understand that in order to be creative (as was required to create this show), you need lower your expectations for yourself. If you expect to create a masterpiece when you sit down, you will block your creative efforts. You need to allow yourself to start small, make mistakes, learn as you go.

That's all well and good, but when you have reached the point at which you are performing in front of hundreds of people each night and charging them for the privilege, you sure better bring your perfectionist self to the stage.

The former dancer in me cringed as the dancers repeatedly failed to hit their lines or perform any of the moves together. Nothing looks worse than sloppy dancing, and this performance was sloppy. To put it mildly. No one was impressed by the end of the first half of the show, and I seriously debated whether I wanted to see the rest.

Fortunately, the second half was an improvement, thanks largely to Duo Iroshnikov. Unlike the rest of the performers, these brothers hit every move with precision and accuracy. Here is a video clip of the performance we saw (performed at a different venue).



Pretty amazing effort. It shows the importance of bringing your perfectionist to your performance. Perfectionism may inhibit the creative process, but once you have created a final product, it's time to bring your perfectionist self back to the table.

How do you see the role of perfectionism in the creative venture? In your personal creative process?

Tools of the mind

"The more of you that gets involved — the body, the emotions, everything — the more you get out of it in many ways because it changes the brain. Nurtures the brain. The social nurtures the brain. The joy nurtures the brain. The physical activity nurtures the brain. And it also nurtures your physical health. You're going to be more physically healthy if you're socially connected, if you're physically fit, if you're using your mind actively." 

The above quote is by Adele Diamond, a researcher studying developmental cognitive neuroscience at the University of British Columbia. A friend of mine sent me a Speaking of Faith transcript of an interview with Prof. Diamond titled Learning, Doing, Being: a new science of education. Diamond offered fascinating insight into the methods we use to educate our children and how those methods affect their performance on tests, their development of a life-long love of learning, and their ability to be creative and solve problems.

Prof. Diamond argues that we need to reevaluate the way we teach our children. That education should emphasize activities that help foster a love of learning and promote problem-solving skills. In particular, she argues that we need to increase the exposure of children to activities such as music, dance, storytelling, sports, and play (all of which have been on the decline in public schools), and reduce our emphasis on memorizing "content." Details are forgotten, but knowing how to find the information you need and apply it in a novel situation is a skill that serves us every day of our lives.

"[T]he schools are tending to think, 'Oh, my god. We don't have time for play. And we don't have time for the arts…. And we have to focus on the academic content, because you're going to get tested at the end of the year and we have to make sure they do well on these tests.' But our research and others' is showing that if the children have more time to play, they do better on these academic outcome measures than if they spend more time in direct academic instruction.

[T]hings like the arts or sports or any of these other things, they develop your cognitive skills dependent on prefrontal cortex. Like sustaining attention, like being able to hold information in mind. They speak to your social aspect because you're part of a group.... Which is terribly important to doing well. They also use your body and we know that if you're physically healthy, your prefrontal cortex and brain work better, specifically your prefrontal cortex. And leading a sedentary life is terrible for your brain health or your cognitive health."

Here we have a researcher arguing that we are taking our educational methods in the wrong direction. That we need to bring back physical education, music and art classes, and give children time to play. Depriving them of these activities in favor of academic instruction actually hurts their ability to perform well on standardized tests. Not to mention their ability to deal with problems they encounter later in life. Sure, pursuit of a career in the arts may seem superfluous to most people, but every single one of us needs to be able to interact with others and handle difficult problems when they arise.

Interviewer Krista Tippett explains that Diamond's research focuses on executive function, "... the brain's capacity to coordinate the many kinds of mental activity that are involved in any human experience and certainly in learning, from how we focus to how we feel. Executive function enables us to take charge of our responses and actions."

Executive function involves three fundamental aspects:

• inhibitory control "You need inhibitory control to stay on task when you're bored or when you meet initial failure. You need inhibitory control to focus in on something in the environment so that you're not overwhelmed by all the other things around."
• working memory  "It's holding information in mind and playing with it, and you need working memory for anything that unfolds over time. You also need working memory for creativity because the essence of creativity is holding things in mind and disassembling them and putting them together in new ways"
• cognitive flexibility "It's being able to switch your perspective or switching the way you're thinking about things, being able to think outside the box. And of course, that's also an aspect of creativity." 

 Taken together, these three aspects allow us to be more creative people, better planners, and better problem solvers.

 I have written before about the effect of exercise on mental function and creative problem solving skills, and on the importance of giving children (and ourselves) time for free play. The information here may seem paradoxical, in that free play is often lost in pursuit of extracurricular activities, such as sports, music, art, or dance lessons. I think the solution, however, is to return those activities (or at least a good subset of them) to schools. They needn't take up all of our children's after-school and weekend time. As Diamond argues, they should be integrated into the learning process. Everyone will benefit.

How do you think education should be structured to best serve children (and future adults)?

A creative frame of mind

Creativity is not just for artists, in fact there is currently a tremendous amount of research into creative problem solving. Individuals (and teams) who are able to find new, innovative ways of approaching problems tend to be more successful in the business world. This is relevant for children, too. Who doesn't want to be able to solve problems that might ordinarily seem overwhelming? Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone could turn their mountains into molehills?

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that our emotional state may help us to do so. In their 2005 study, Friedman and Förster found that individuals primed to an "approach" state (in which they were actively seeking something) tended to use the right hemisphere of their brains to a greater extent. Individuals primed to an "avoidance" state used the left hemisphere more.

What does this mean? The right hemisphere is generally associated with creativity and the left with logic. Although logic is an important component of problem solving, use of the right hemisphere allows an individual to "see the big picture," getting a global view of things. This is part of what allows them to view problems from new angles, which can allow them to circumvent the problem (or block, if you are an artist). This evidence suggests that when we approach a situation that requires some creative thinking, we should prime ourselves to be in an open, "approach" frame of mind.

One of the aspects of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way involves ridding yourself of your negative perceptions... of your inner critic, that little voice in your head that tells you that you cannot do something. She also recommends figuring out which people in your life play a similar role and minimizing contact with them. The inner critic and critical friends and acquaintances act to put us into an avoidance state. When we listen to their criticisms, we fear the potential outcome of a creative effort. We are sure, before we even begin, that we will fail to find the way to the other side of the mountain blocking our path. When we go into it with this point of view, we are guaranteed to fail.

But when we recognize those voices for what they are and tell ourselves that we can, it does, in fact, put us in a mental frame of mind that allows us to surmount the problem at hand (remember the Little Engine That Could?). Scientific research supports the anecdotal evidence, by demonstrating that individuals are better at solving problems when in an "approach" state of mind.

When we think we can, we quite often can. Perhaps not in the way we originally envisioned, but that's what creative problem solving is all about: finding an innovative solution. Maybe the mountain really is a molehill, and we can step right over it. Maybe it's a steep mountain that requires some switchbacks before we can reach the summit. Or maybe there is a valley to the side that provides a better, easier alternative for reaching our goal.

This ties in to the role of exercise in creativity, since physical activity has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, two factors that elicit avoidance behavior. So find a way to relax... go for a walk, do some yoga, meditate, watch a movie... these should all help to get the creative, problem-solving juices flowing.

Finding inspiration

The creative process requires input; without it, there can be no output. This is the reason Julia Cameron recommends taking time to "fill the well" with ideas, sights, sounds, conversations, scents. They act as tinder for the creative spark.

So where to turn for inspiration? Anywhere, really. Some of the most delightful ideas come from the most unexpected places...  something lying on the ground, a walk in nature, a ride on the subway, a piece of music, someone else's artwork, newspaper article, blog post, or novel. Yes, reading deprivation can help ignite the creative process, but so can reading. As long as you aren't using it as a distraction.

Pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi based his composition, Le Onde, on Virginia Woolf's book, The Waves. It is an extraordinary thing when someone can capture the feeling created by one art form in a completely new medium.



Can you hear the waves? I close my eyes and picture myself standing on a beach.

Music also serves as a powerful source of inspiration. Berlin artist Christine Düwell finds inspiration in music, listening to the piece as she creates and incorporating the sheet music from the piece into the artwork, itself. (I love all of her work but am particularly a fan of the Linien in der Vertikalen series).

I would imagine that writers often find inspiration in music and other forms of art, although I have only once seen a writer acknowledge such an influence in their book (according to the acknowledgments section of both Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer found tremendous inspiration in music by Muse). So I leave you with their latest single, perhaps it will provide some inspiration.

Reading deprivation

I think I have mentioned that I am working my way through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. The book is broken down into weeks, with various tasks to complete that help jump-start your creativity.

I just finished Week 4, which had the most difficult task, by far: reading deprivation. That's right, a whole week of no reading. No newspapers, no blogs, no books, not even work-related reading, if you can help it (though I had to cheat a bit, there... I teach online courses, and email is the only connection I have with my students, I couldn't really skip that for a week). The idea is to hear your thoughts, to "fill the well" as she calls it, by paying attention to what's going on around you, rather than allowing yourself the distraction of reading. It is incredibly difficult to do.

I am someone who drinks in words. If there are words in my line of sight, I read them. Graffiti, advertisements, books, newspapers, websites, anything. Not in English or German? Doesn't matter, I still try to sound out the words, to see if I can decipher their meaning. I am surprised by how often I am able to do so. To spend an entire week not reading was very difficult. I found other things to do to fill the time, mainly cleaning (after the plumber created a 40cm x 40cm hole in the wall of our kitchen, coating the room with dust in the process) and mending (which had been piling up and I am relieved to have finished).

But the most difficult part for me was right before bed. I read in bed, every night, and not being able to do this was downright painful. The first couple of nights, I found myself lying there, thinking how much I wanted to read something... anything. It was anything but productive. But by the third and fourth  nights, I found that I could move beyond my desire to read and get to my thoughts. I had a few ideas pop into my head, ideas I was able to implement later in the week (I am creating a blog from the perspective of the characters in my story, more on that to come...).

Now that I have reached the end of the week and am allowed to read again, I can say that it works. Reading deprivation is not an easy process, but it does free your mind and enable you to focus on things that are immediately relevant to you.

The added bonus, for me, was that no fewer than seven books found their way into our home within 48 hours of starting my reading deprivation. It was difficult not to be able to look them over right away, but if a little "fasting" brings on such bounty, I might just have to try it again soon!

The power of exercise

Creativity is not typically associated with physical exercise, but perhaps it should be. My last post got me thinking about the importance of exercise in stimulating the creative juices.

In the midst of a long, cold, snowy winter, with limited opportunity for physical exercise, I found it difficult to get to those days of punctuated writing. I was getting frustrated. During a talk with my husband (in which I vented my frustration), we began to see that the act of being active was the key to my punctuated break-throughs. It became clear that exercise, even just walking, seemed to be a trigger for me. I started walking home after dropping the children off in the mornings, and, sure enough, the creative spark returned.

Curious about the potential effects of exercise on creativity, I did a little research and came across an article on the Effects of Exercise on Cognitive Creativity. Here are the rather amazing results (from the abstract):

The potential effects of aerobic exercise on creative potential were explored both immediately following moderate aerobic exercise and after a two hour lag.... The results supported the hypotheses that creative potential will be greater upon completion of moderate aerobic exercise than when not preceded by exercise (immediate effects), that creative potential will be greater following a two hour lag time following exercise than when not preceded by exercise (residual effects), and that creative potential will not be significantly different immediately following exercise than after a two hour lag time following exercise (enduring residual effects).

There we have it. It's not just me... physical activity boosts creativity in others, as well.

Physical exercise has been shown to be beneficial for a wide variety of reasons: improved brain function (including the ability to plan, organize, and multitask) and improved mood, not to mention the oft-cited reasons of weight control. Now we have evidence that it also boosts creativity and problem-solving abilities, and not just over the short-term. Perhaps more writers and artists need to focus on doing their physical exercises in addition to their creative ones.

The need to play

Setting up play dates with other kids is getting to be a real challenge. Scheduling around tennis, swimming, art, music, and other activities makes it difficult to get two children together for an afternoon.  I'm referring to the activities of my child's friends.  Their parents ask when we're free, and I always have the same response: we're always free.

What? No tightly scheduled series of character-building activities designed to make my child the perfect candidate for Harvard when he's older? Well... no. So what on earth do we do every day, anyway? Most of the time we play. Legos, Play-doh, drawing, story-telling, pirates, train-set... you name it, we play it.  My oldest is allowed one structured activity through the kindergarten (we are in the process of switching from music to art), but beyond that, we don't "do" those kinds of things. Not yet.

I was feeling a bit guilty about not providing the opportunity to do more structured things until I came across an article in Scientific American Mind recently: The Serious Need for Play.  Okay, it's actually from Feb/March of last year, but I just read it.  Have I mentioned that we have a major time delay in getting our magazine subscriptions to Germany? We do.  So here's my new, old news: people need to play.

According to the article, unstructured play has been shown in a variety of studies to be extremely important in social and mental development. Playing a game that has set rules doesn't count. Neither does playing a musical instrument. We are talking about free play, about giving children time to let their imaginations take over, to explore unseen (previously unimagined) universes and to create worlds with rules of their own. Even better if they can do that with other children, as this helps them hone their social and communication skills.

Free play allows children to become more creative, to be better problem-solvers, and to reduce stress. It allows us greater flexibility, which can help us to feel comfortable when we encounter new situations.  Play is not just part of being a child, but an essential part of learning how to be an adult. Animals of all kinds play when they are young... there must be a reason for it.

That's all well and good, but does the lack of free play have detrimental effects on development?  It appears that the answer is yes. One study cited in the SciAm Mind article found that

...kids who enrolled in play-oriented preschools are more socially adjusted later in life than are kids who attended play-free preschools where they were constantly instructed by teachers. By age 23, more than one third of kids who had attended instruction-oriented preschools had been arrested for a felony as compared with fewer than one tenth of the kids who had been in play-oriented preschools.  And as adults, fewer than 7 percent of the play-oriented preschool attendees had ever been suspended from work, but more than a quarter of the directly instructed kids had. [emphasis added]

Powerful findings, to my mind.  And a good reason to continue limiting the amount of time our children spend in structured activities. Parents need to put aside their concerns regarding free play and, like a writer does with his/her writing time, schedule it into the week.  Doing so allows children to grow up into adults who can not only manage, but also thrive, in an unpredictable, complex world. And finding time for free play as adults is equally important, to reduce stress and enhance creativity.

As David Elkind (child development expert at Tufts University) says,

Play has to be reframed and seen not as an opposite to work but rather as a complement.  Curiosity, imagination and creativity are like muscles; if you don't use them, you lose them.

As someone trying to recover my creativity, this sounds like a wake-up call. Let's not allow our children to lose their imaginations as they grow up. Here's to finding a little time for free play each week....

Creativity Challenge

I started this blog in the hopes that blogging every day would structure my "real" writing efforts, but it hasn't been working. Time to restructure and to issue myself (and anyone else interested) a creativity challenge.

Just what does that entail, you ask? This challenge is modeled on one of my favorite assignments from a drawing class I took in high school. We were told to find three separate, unrelated items and incorporate them all into one drawing. In that instance, one of the three had to be ourselves (it was a self-portrait assignment), but for the Creativity Challenge, there is no such restriction.

To meet the Creativity Challenge, I (and anyone who wants to join me... please join me in this!) must write a short story based on three randomly selected words. I will post the words for each challenge and, a day or two later, will also post my resulting story. I would love to see what others come up with for the same words. And I'm open to comments (and constructive criticism) on my own stories. 

With the rules in place, let's begin our first challenge with: crab, pirate, candle (don't ask where I get the words, it all comes from conversations or things I see at challenge time).  Let's get creative!

creativity

So why did I start this blog, anyway? After many years as a scientist and professor of science courses, I discovered that I have lost my creative edge (anyone surprised by that?). I am terrific at reciting things I have memorized (and good at memorizing them), but I have a difficult time coming up with new ideas. In contrast, my children come up with wonderful, fantastical stories on a regular basis. I used to do that! Where does that imagination go?

I read an article, well, more of an interview, really, in Scientific American Mind about creativity ("Let Your Creativity Soar", June/July 2008), and the interviewees had some interesting things to say. Consider this statement by Robert Epstein (researcher on creativity):

"When children are very young, they all express creativity, but by the end of the first grade, very few do so. This is because of socialization. They learn in school to stay on task and to stop daydreaming and asking silly questions. As a result, the expression of new ideas is largely shut down. We end up leaving creative expression to the misfits—the people who can't be socialized. It's a tragedy."

I used to be creative. It lasted through high school, even (and I don't think I qualified as a "misfit", I socialized reasonably well). I used to play the piano, draw, paint, dance, and write.... Until I went to college and had to declare a major. Yikes!  I narrowed it down to my two favorite subjects, English and Biology.

I chose biology. Why? Rather ironic reasons, it turns out: I decided that with an English degree, my only career option would be teaching, and I'd have to write all of the time. Instead, I got a biology degree, went on to graduate school (wrote all of the time), discovered that I love teaching and left the research bit behind to work at a teaching college. As for that writing bit, I found it to be less enjoyable doing the (substantial amount of) writing for science papers than writing just for fun.

But how do I get the inspiration for creative writing (or painting/piano playing/dancing) again? Once you've lost it, how do you get it back? The people interviewed in the aforementioned article noted that people must work at creativity:

"I think if we want everyone to have a way to be more creative, we have to convey the message that they have to work at it; creativity isn't necessarily going to come naturally." (John Houtz, psychologist and professor)

Robert Epstein and Julia Cameron (poet, playwright and filmmaker) agree that people need to take several steps to bring out their creative side: capture ideas (by writing or recording them, as soon as you have them!), by challenging yourself with new problems to solve, broadening your exposure to thoughts and ideas and surrounding yourself with interesting people and places (Julia Cameron suggests taking a weekly "outing" to expose yourself to new things).

This blog helps me in several ways, first by broadening and challenging (I am a very private person, by nature), second by forcing me to write (capturing my ideas). I hope that daily writing (blogging) sessions will carry over into my attempts at writing stories for my children, so that I can be more productive at that, as well.

As for how to help my children retain their creativity? I bought a tape recorder. Every time a story begins (which can take place anywhere, at any time), I turn it on to capture the wonderful imaginings of my children. They love to hear themselves telling the stories, and we illustrate the stories and make books out of them. I hope this small act will help to feed their imaginations as they continue to grow and develop, making them better problem-solvers and more creative people as they age.