Column 9 - Creation In Our World: Keeping It Alive

Column 9 - Creation In Our World: Keeping It Alive

Hello all e-zine readers! Miss me? It’s certainly nice to be back. It’s been a little while. I had to take a breather recently – because life has its priorities, and for a college student the biggest priority is…

No, not drinking! Not for me, anyway.

My biggest priority was to make it through one very difficult second semester with a GPA above 3.4 – otherwise I would lose my honor society status – and then to help run the grand event known as The Rescue; you may remember my discussing its approach two months ago.

But good news, all – my GPA remains exactly 3.5, what I left first semester with. The event was an incredible worldwide success that ended in front of Oprah’s studio live on her show, and after a bit of rest and recovery I have returned.

I wish I could say that for all of my projects. Following The Rescue I began the second draft of my memoir, a recollection of my teen activism during the last two years from one event to the next. Though I have hopes for its future, and want to see how far I can take it, keeping this story alive is difficult. Constantly doing my best to flesh out the details, before even getting to work on the prose, has been an annoyance.

The hardest aspect is probably balancing out my time with friends and house cleaning with my projects.

So I did some research, and I have a few ideas on “How to Keep Those Projects Alive” to share with you as I keep myself plowing forward.

1. “Put your character in an unfamiliar situation.” I guess this works the best for prose – if you have a highly developed character, you can experiment with how they would react somewhere new and uncomfortable – somewhere they dislike, or somewhere they love with someone they dislike, or any other new variable. This can probably work for poetry as well. And for other art forms, well, I can’t speak for them – but maybe you guys can experiment with this idea and see where it goes!

2. “Change your routine.” Try a new environment, try a new time, and see what comes to your mind and fingertips! Even try something miniscule – change the paper color or canvas material. Use a new pen or brush. Go from a lonely setting to a group setting. Basically, if it’s different, who knows? Try it!

3. “Start with a line of poetry.” I like this idea for everything. Use a favorite, very outstanding line of poetry (from a book or a song; because the Lord knows, and this is a separate rant entirely, that good music might as well be poetry), and let it inspire an entire work of art. But inspire doesn’t mean stick to it. It means begin and expand!

4. “Take breaks.” Maybe. If it’s all day project, yes, then do take breaks. Go for a walk, eat a little snack, drink something, sit back, and relax – and then get back to work before you lose the creative feeling. If this will be the only time you get to work on it, work until you can’t!

5. “Have a Comfortable Work Area.” I have nothing else to say!

6. “Take Time Off.” This statement is the only one that keeps me from feeling lazy, but breaks do help rejuvenate the mind and the thought process, so enjoy them. Do new things and bring those experiences back to your artwork.

Those are the top six things I found; and now, I must retire and return to a world of writing for work and for myself.

(Research mostly on How To. com and Resources for Writers. com. These ideas are not presented as my own, merely ideas found and shared.)