This is what we do - enable, inspire, care.

Feeling inspired

I have had one of those weeks that reminds me why I do what I do but also reminded me of the importance of these moments to any writer or creative person.

It started last Saturday when I did an Open Day at the University of Winchester. I had a room full of aspiring students, eager to study Creative Writing. I watched their faces as I spoke, their smiles got wider and wider. They were buzzing by the end. Some of their parents, however, looked a little glum as they came in. They are usually the ones who cannot see the point of CW degree. I watched though as they also started to smile, their shoulders dropped and they began to relax as they realised what their darling child might be able to do with their degree. Mission achieved.

Then during the week, I was listening to my third-year students talking about their creative pieces in my metafiction module. They literally blew my mind as they came up with all these incredible projects. They really did think 'outside the box'. I watched their faces as well at the end of the session as I spoke to them enmasse about their projects, they were glowing. It is so satisfying to be able to facilitate this sort of creativity.

On Thursday I met up with the wonderful Imogen Cooper and many of the other editors from the Golden Egg Academy. We spent a joyous few hours discussing writing, editing, the industry and books we love. I left totally inspired and reminded once again how joyous it is to work with so many amazing and knowledgeable people. I always learn so much just by listening and talking to them. Earlier in the week, I had spoken to one of my Eggs that I am mentoring and I am seeing another one later today for an editorial surgery. Talking about their work and sharing ideas is so satisfying. Seeing that light bulb moment as they suddenly have an idea of what they might be able to do next or they really get what you are saying. It is a moment that always sends a thrill down my spine.

All this has an impact on my own creativity and writing. I know I am lucky in the jobs I do, I am surrounded by creative and inspirational people. As writers we need this and I am aware that not everyone is as fortunate as me. This is where it is important for writers to become part of communities. I know at The Golden Egg Academy we have a fantastic writers' community that is incredibly supportive. Another great source of support and community is the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. It is in fact their conference this weekend. Watch on Facebook and on Twitter - follow #scbwicon17 to find out what they are up to. Critique groups are fabulous for support too - I have been part of a SCBWI one for many years. Having people around you - either virtually or IRL - that you can talk about your writing, books you are reading and your moments of inspiration is priceless.

Having support like this feeds a writer's creativity. It enables them to be inspried and allows them to ride through the rough times because everyone closes rank around anyone who is having a tough time, giving virtual or real hugs. It's someone for them to lean on while filling them with words of encouragement. There was some of that this week too. A few friends were having hard times for various reasons, up against tough deadlines or getting difficult rejections. I tried to be there for them because I knew that is exactly what they would have done for me and because I wanted to protect them and make sure they were ok. And because this is what we do. We enable, we inspire and we care.

The song seemed a little obvious this time. Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr singing 'With a little help from my friends':

Creativity - where do your ideas come from?

Where do your ideas come from Ness?

Where do your ideas come from? As writers, this is a question we are so often asked and, I am sure if you had a group of writers together they would all come up with many different answers. We all have our own ways to feed our creativity ensuring that those ideas keep flowing.

For example, Flight came about because I am passionate about the Second World War as both my parents were part of it and I was brought up listening to their stories. Plus I asked a question, I wanted to know what happened to the Spanish Riding School during the Second World War. I asked Google and some wonderful snippets of information came up including details of Operation Cowboy. The seed of a story began to grow and grow. It soon formed into the story that is now Flight.

I believe this is from National Geographic

For me, a lot of ideas come from questions like that, or from pictures such as the image on the left, which was the one that inspired my PhD novel, Ham and Jam. Ideas might also come from past events in my life or memories. While a previous novel Disjointed was based on something I was interested in at that time - cannabis psychosis. Working on that inspired my PhD.

All of these things are reliant on one thing and that is being curious. A writer must want to know about the world they live in. As Csikszentmihalyi suggests 'sustaining high levels of curiosity is the starting point of creativity.' Being curious therefore leads to increased creativity enabling you to write more.

I have a notebook where I write down all my ideas as they come to me so that when I have finished a manuscript I can look at this book to see what I am going to work on next. This is because ideas don't wait for you to finish a book. They can come along at the most inconvenient moments so it is important to have somewhere to store them.

I like to feed my curiosity and creativity by doing different things and occasionally challenging myself. Listening to music, going to the theatre and art exhibitions. Watching people, reading newspapers and watching the news - you'd be surprised how that can trigger ideas. Going for walks where you just allow the brain to just wander as you do. Often when I do this, ideas float to the surface. This is all about looking after you as a writer and nurturing yourself and your creativity. Giving those ideas the freedom to grow. This is an important part of pre-writing. Make sure you remember to include some activities that are going to feed your creativity.

PS the puppy above is the latest member to join our family and belongs to my son and his partner. Welcome Beaumont (named after my mother's dog who was a huge part of my children's lives as they grew up). There is such a story there too...

I love this song so much and it seemed a perfect opportunity to share it: Limerance's Shine On 

#amwriting - nurturing your creativity

The joy of writing

Last weekend I spent the weekend at Rhosygilwen. The most wonderful manor house in deepest, darkest Wales surrounded by fabulous writers as I was part of a Golden Egg Academy Retreat. Imogen and I were there on hand to listen to any concerns when required plus I had written some writing exercises, which I left strategically around the place. All designed to stimulate if you were feeling blocked. We also got to hear from Janet and Penny from Firefly Press, whose talk was truly inspirational reminding us of the importance of the reader.

Being there reminded why I love writing. The creativity just flowed from these incredibly people. On Sunday morning they shared their work. The stories being told were truly wonderful and so eclectic. All this inspiration and creativity even managed to inspire me and I got some of my own words down. Something I hadn't managed to do for quite a while as I had been snowed under with work. Instead I had been doing a lot of thinking and mulling over my new story. It hadn't felt ready to start yet. But then suddenly on Sunday the first paragraph flowed out of my fingers.

Writing is such a strange activity sometimes. Only a few weeks beforehand a character had walked into my head and refused to be ignored. I thought they wanted to be part of short story, but no they weren't satisfied with that and they made sure I knew it. They wanted to be part of my WIP. They were a teenager and they had a suitcase that they would not put down. It went everywhere with them. You could not take it away from them. They became quite agitated if I tried to ignore them too and the only time they became quiet was when I realised where they fitted. They were actually staying at the foster home my main characters end up at in my WIP. They were going to be integral to my story. Who knew? Where had they come from? Unfortunately the WIP is going to have to be written in snatched moments as I have another book that has a more pressing deadline. But it is there bubbling away as I am sure you all can understand.

Being on the retreat reminded me of the importance of being in contact with other writers. They understand what you are going through. You don't need to explain anything to them. This contact is another part of feeding your creativity. I always talk about the importance of nurturing this essence by doing things such as reading, not just children's books, but reading adults novels, taking yourself outside of your comfort zone, reading poetry, going to the theatre, art galleries and watching films plus the TV as well for good drama and comedy. It all informs your writing. I always carry with me a copy of Jen Webb's tiny book of prose poetry Gaps. It is perfect to read to unblock your mind when it is full of other people's words or if I just need to escape for a moment. As well as surrounding yourself with a supportive community is as vital part of this.

I hope during the holidays you all get a chance to write or spend sometime thinking about your stories.

Thank you to everyone on the retreat. It was amazing and there were many beautiful sunrises...

Creative Head Space

Edvard Munch 'The Scream'

I was in a meeting on Friday discussing a symposium we are running in June and then a chapter that I had co-written that we were going to change into an article. I was listening to the words being spoken and at the back of my head their was a mini-me doing a very good impression of this Edvard Munch picture. For the briefest moment I thought I can't do it. My head felt like it was going to explode and I just didn't feel like I had the words to make it work. I had no head space left. I am sure I will but it made me realise how difficult it is to write, to be creative all the time when you have so many other pressures on you.

I know I am not the only one and am sure many of you can empathise with that scenario. I was discussing with IC it yesterday and I know she experiences the same thing. In both my roles I am constantly giving feedback on other people's work. I spend most days reading and I have to dig deep to find constructive feedback. It takes energy and head space. But I am also a writer and I need head space to be able to do that too. If I am honest and I can't find the time or head space to write it has an impact on my well being. I start to battle with the big black dog. He is a friend at the moment and I know it is because I have not had the time to release my creativity.

Again I am sure I am not the only one. It is important that you allow yourself the time and space to write. It is almost like giving yourself permission to write too. To even acknowledge that you are a writer sometimes. It is something we say to our first years when they join the university - you need to call yourselves writers. It is quite a hard thing to admit particularly if you have not been published. What gives you the write [sic] to do that?

I know some people like to have a routine where they write every single day for a set amount of time. Others write when they can. But as I said in my previous post you have to do what works for you. I have tried the write every day scenario. It didn't work for me in that instead it just created additional pressure in that if I didn't manage to write every day I felt more of a failure. What I do do now is write frantically in short bursts when uni finishes and snatch moments when I can during semester time if inspiration grabs me. I try very hard not to feel guilty about it. This is not always easy. You need to work out your own strategies that allow you the freedom to write and the head space to let those words.

In the meantime semester has finished... there is marking to be done, a validation document to be written, manuscripts to read, a book to be written, a chapter to be converted to an article, a novel to rewrite, a symposium to organise, workshops to run...and...and...and...and...and...and... breathe, don't panic.

But I had some good news about the chapter breakdown of the novel yesterday - the story is working - so the creative juices are beginning to trickle their way into my head space. I am not going to try and force it until my head empties out a bit and the black dog shrinks from the Great Dane that is sat beside me to the small Beagle that I can cope with.

This is a new sound track to my life. It is one of my favourites. I listen to it a lot as it seems to fit in to this particular moment in time. It is Josh Ritter - Change of Time 

Creativity is making connections

I have been reading a  book by Jonah Lehrer entitled Imagine How Creativity Works. (Canongate, 2012). It, as you can see by the title, explores creativity and some of the processes. It is about 'the ability to imagine what never existed.' I have since found out that it has been discredited as a book. Even so, one point that resonated with me was the idea that just before inspiration arrives we can have a crisis or hit a brick wall. It is at this stage, when we are giving up, that the solution will appear. The example that is used to explain this idea relates to Bob Dylan and his experience leading up to writing 'Like A Rolling Stone' (See below to listen to it). He had given up music because he felt burnt out and was planning on writing a novel, but the song took over and just had to be written. What a success it proved to be too! This may or may not be true but was an interesting example.

It is an intriguing story and one that I could empathise with on a basic level. I often see it happen with my students, particularly when working on their dissertations. On a personal basis though, in the summer when I was trying to rewrite Trafficking I had a real crisis. I couldn't work out how my story was going to end - what was the denouement? I got so frustrated and angry I was ready to throw my lap top across the room. Instead I decided my laptop needed to be saved so I 'walked away,' I decided to read a good book for a bit of escapism. It wasn't even a piece of young adult fiction. It was everything my story was not. But it was whilst reading this unrelated book that the answer came to me  in the form of a 'what if' question that answered all my problems.

I know I am not the only one to experience this and I am sure I have spoken about similar ideas in the past. I could probably fill several pages of examples and I am sure you can all recognise these moments in yourself. I actually believe it goes beyond this. You can have these answer moments but you have to be able to make the connections. Creativity is as much about connections as it is about inspiration. It is about making the links which allows the narrative to flow and to keep the readers' attention. These connections need to move from your brain to the page and then to the reader. They need to be able to understand what you are saying. Adam Phillips, the psychologist, believed that stories are all about making the connections and that these connections can help you understand the world. As a writer, therefore, you need to get them write [sic]. Happy writing everyone.

Here is Bob Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone.'

Creativity 2

Today is a crimson day. Rage or passion....same thing at times?

I love Rothko's work for the colours he uses and the simplicity. As with his painting it can often be said of your writing that less is more.

Tomorrow I am doing a session with third year students on where they think creativity is based - in the work or in the person type of thing? It should be interesting as they are a good and very vocal group.

Creativity and criticality are something I am passionate about and I hope to write an article with my DoS - in the not too distant future - based on a model we have created where creativity is embedded with a critical methodological approach. (Very loose description). This works alongside/through the idea of the gyre that I have already spoken about in previous posts. The creative feeds off the critical which in turn feeds off the creative, a continuous process and like ontological and epistemological stances feeding off each other. Pedagogically, for me anyway, I see this concept as a way of getting students to understand the idea of creativity with an academic slant - with my other hat on I would suggest it is a prime example of research informed teaching. This also allows me to justify to those doubters who have trouble with the validity of a creative writing PhD. I can talk ontological and epistemological stances till the moon turns crimson.

There is a problem with trying to fit creativity neatly into a box and that is creativity isn't neat, predictable or obvious. It comes in many formats - music, poetry, sculpture, prose or in fact anything you make using your hands. But being a former business woman I would suggest that there is a lot of creativity in enterprise (and I am not talking accounting here), to be successful in business you need to have the vision, the understanding of something that can be as intangible as a business plan, for example. They are created of words and numbers all put together in a certain order in exactly the same way as the novelist writes their novel or the poet conjures up their poem. It is all couched in creativity just some aren't as willing as others to see the fact. The ones that scoff at it are normally the ones who criticise doing a creative writing degree suggesting it is a soft subject. What they don't take into consideration are the transferable skills that any CW student will be able to add to their CV after completing their degree. Admittedly there is the obvious one - they will be able to write - but also they will be used to working to tight deadlines (both time and word counts), they can analyse, research, summarise, edit, manage their time, learn to think both creatively and critically and use both to great effect, work as a team and on their own, manage projects and most importantly have confidence in their worth. Any employer should be very pleased to employ a student of creative writing as they will have gained an adaptable, innovative, enthusiastic and conscientious member of staff.

The moon has turned crimson, time to stop. This is Bert Jansch singing Crimson Moon.

Creativity

Is this a piece of art? If it had the name Jackson Pollock then you would all say 'yes, of course.' But actually the signature in the corner is mine. It is something I did a few years ago. At the time it was my idea of how creativity is perceived. And to some extent I still agree with myself, however, I see it more as a beginning. It represents that spark of an idea. It is vaguley connected but basically all over the place. This randomness is smoothed out by research. It could be the background research that gives your writing depth and credibility. It could be the reading of books that are similar or have had a direct though probably unconscious impact on your writing. I don't consider this smoothing out as a straightforward process, as any research undertaken so further sparks of idea are inspired as can be seen above. I would suggest that it only reaches that totally symmetical gyre as you reach the end of the process. At the risk of repeating myself - this is my own personal chaosmos - out of chaos (the picture above) comes order (see below):

I told my students last week that this week we are going to discuss where creativity is based. Is it in the work or in yourself. Some bright spark suggested the pen which I suppose is not totally wrong. As though we are discussing where it might be based I would suggest there is no answer as I think is creativity is everywhere and sometimes we try to look too hard for answers. I'd rather just accept the fact it exists and not analyse it - or is that just a cop out?!

This rather randomly leads on to how many times I have to justify the fact I am doing a creative writing PhD. The usual comment is: it isn't a 'normal/proper' (fill in as you feel appropriate) PhD is it? Why not? It involves just as much, if not more (pause for screams of anger), research and analysis so what makes it not normal or proper. OK I am going to stop there as I may get into rant mode and this not what my blog is about.

I am still struggling with my writing which is distressing in itself. I have got find a way back to it, I have all these ideas in my head but when it comes to writing all that gets in the way is just the technical stuff and not the story. How do you get over that? Is that the disadvantage of making something like creative writing an academic process? Or, and something which I believe more, the fact I study the subject means I should be able to find a way through. Wish me luck!

endless rhythms

There is a picture called Endless Rhythms by Robert Delauney and painted in 1934. It reminds me of the gyre in the previous post, this concept of never ending and constantly evolving ideas that are self perpetuating. This is what a writer does. You get one idea which sparks another and then another fuelled by research, experience and moments - those beats in your life which leave an indelible imprint on you.
But this is where it gets to be a problem - for me anyway at the moment. My writing was flowing, I ws loving writing and happy with what was coming out (for a firstish draft) but then along comes this rhythm stick that was stuck through the spokes of my writing bicycle and now I have gone flying over the handlebars and come to a grinding halt flat on my face. The writing has stopped, the flow is a mere trickle that evaporates the moment it hits the air and I don't know how to get that feeling back. And all becuase of rhythm. I need to find it. Maybe I will, maybe there will be an epiphany and someone will tell me what it means but in the meantime I will have to hope that the Chinese New Year re-ignites my rhythm.


This is a performance of Chinese Drums for Chinese New Year and an alternative rhythm of life.

The real reason

I have set this blog up partly as part of a module I am following/using for a research informed teaching project I am doing. I am looking at ways to encourage creative writing students to engage with the concept of research.But in the main it will be a place for my musings. I am currently doing a creative writing PhD and sometimes all my ideas of my creative and critical processes get confused and need straightening out - hence chaosmos - out of chaos comes order. I intend to use this blog as a metaphorical 'ironing board' (secret I love ironing slightly damp white sheets that smell beautiful and look crisp at the end - sorry I digress). A chance to put my ramblings down to see if I can come to some sort of conclusion.

One of my thoughts is the idea that creativity and criticality form a gyre, a never ending process that continuously develops and evolves: (see picture above) It is one of the many things I will be contemplating through this blog along with rhythm (as previously stated) and whatever else happens to come to mind as I try and complete my PhD. However, please be assured I am not arrogant enough to assume I will achieve any answers just might be able to see things clearer.