Blank pages can be daunting.
I love to write, but there are times where nothing comes
out right.
Depending on the day, I may keep my head down and push
through, throwing elbows in the faces of distractions. Sure, sometimes the
result of this is akin to that of a kid smashing her hands into the keyboard.
But letters get on the page. And sometimes, in rare moments of kismet, they
form words!
Sometimes, though, I need to amp up the ol’ creative
energies before I can take on the great white beast. There are a few tried and
true activities that I fall back on when I need to give my brain a little more
running room.
- Art
I’m a big fan of making artsy
things on canvases. Sometimes I use them as big scrapbooking pages that get
hung on the wall. Other times I try to actually paint something more complicated
than the turkey handprints I used to do. Now, I’m not a great painter, but for
me that’s kind of the point. It takes a lot of focus for me to make something
that’s not macaroni art. So much so that I can’t focus on both the canvas and
the story.
- Movie Game
From time to time, when I need to
distract the old brain pan, I ask the Roomie to give me the names of two actors
who have never been in a movie together. Once I am so armed, I must connect
those two individuals using an ACTOR A was in MOVIE 1 with ACTOR H who was in MOVIE
2 with ACTOR B formula. Depending on the randomness of the main two actors,
this can go on for awhile. It’s not necessary that I discover the shortest
possible route between the two, just that I manage to connect them without
looking anything up or using a movie or actor that I can’t quite remember the
name of (No “you know, the guy who looks like that other one, but isn’t, but
was in the movie with that girl,” allowed).
- Casting Call
Roomie and I are musical geeks. As
such, we have whiled away many the moments by casting entire productions using
our friends. A lot of discussion goes into who is going to play which
character. Sometimes we go for the obvious choices, other times we cast against
type. Regardless, it always prompts me to think about friends I’ve known for
years from a new perspective. And has led to some Voila! moments when I’ve found new ways to view my characters.
Each of these activities forces me to give them the bulk of
my attention and energy, but a tiny part of my creative mind always manages to
sneak off. She army crawls into the darkness, breathes a sigh of relief, says
“Finally. I can’t get anything done while she’s hovering over me,” takes out a
large broadsword and starts hacking away at the Gordion knot that is my story.
And then when I’m all done with whatever nonsense I’ve been focusing on, she
sits back smugly and says, “I fixed your problem. Boomsa.”
So, what do the rest of you do when you need to get out of
your mind’s way?
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