Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and
pupil are located in the same individual.


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Witch of Words

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection." Anais Nin

'For all writers, writing is a brave act. It is especially difficult when the writer is young, for then she is searching for her own voice, seeking a comfortable framework, comparing herself to other masters, and justifying time spent at this activity to others. Creative-writing teachers have their own ideas about what should be written and are often not so acute in perceiving the student's uniqueness. The English novel is usually taken as the standard for demonstrating literary method. Writers also face rejection slips and so building confidence becomes an endurance test'

Indeed, Anaïs Nin can be described as a witch of words. Very early she sensed the magical power of words to produce states of being, such as ecstasy, languor or dread. Her ambition was to transform the ugly realities of life into beauty, as the beast in fairy tales becomes the handsome prince after achieving a certain wisdom. She desired to distill the pure from the dross, and writing was her charm. Through writing she can inhabit other worlds for herself. Writing is a drug of the imagination. It casts spells on others, putting them into new worlds with her. Dreams can be lived out. The magic of words has also a healing effect. By writing she can examine her wounds privately and confront all the loose ends of her daily life, the unspoken but very present psychological currents. The act of creation itself is a balm, a tonic. The work of art is the witch's marvelous gift to the world. It is created from intense living and contemplation. Life itself is the witch's cauldron. The writing witch uses words to transform, heal, and teach wisdom. Her fresh awarenesses about the meaning of life for men and women have the capacity to change their lives.




Another way Anaïs Nin casts a magic spell is her ability to influence others by wishing them to be busy at their own creations. Countless people have testified to having experienced this. She inspires people to make creativity a way of life in the sense that the Balinese mean it when they say, Art is doing anything well.'

* sourced from http://www.anaisnin.com/booktastings/stars/part1.htm

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Quote of the Day

“You don’t have to be a genius to be a writer, you just have to have the passion to do it.” - Julio Zambrano


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Beginnings...

Empty blank white pages…waiting…expectant, for you the daunted writer to mar them with the black letters that you feel are ever so important.


Beginnings are hard. As it is with this blog, and the first post. But here I am, laying words down sentence after sentence, getting that oh so hard first post out of the way.


Let me start out by saying this -I am a distracted writer.




I start projects and then meander off course as daily routine and life. I can’t quit though. Writing is as necessary to me as eating. The un-finished novel I have stuffed in a drawer has a little piece of my soul in it and what sort of person would I be if I just left part of soul in a dirty drawer?


I want this blog to be a place where I can find the inspiration, motivation or plain old instruction to get myself going again. I want it to get me to my work sooner and with greater courage and confidence, but not to substitute for the process of writing itself…



You don’t need to be a writer or artist to struggle with goals that seem beyond your reach and a lack of appreciation from others- it’s just a little more pervasive in the art making world. Writing takes self motivation and can be a lonely and overwhelming undertaking. So that is why this is not just a personal journal, but a blog. Because your comments and input are important.




Not all writer’s went to creative writing workshops but they did have each other’s inspiration and critiques to feed off. Hemingway denigrated the idea of writing schools, but he had in Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound arguably the two best teaching editors in Western letters. Faulkner sought out Sherwood Anderson, Robert Lowell spent a summer with Allen Tate, and we have Famous Pairs: Coleridge and Wordsworth, Melville and Hawthorne, Eliot and Pound, Joyce and Beckett. So please, join me on this journey of inspiration and honing of our craft as writers.

It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.


-Virginia Woolf

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Useful Websites

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam (funny!) http://rinkworks.com/fnovel/

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