Writing recovery

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creative block, free form, Musings, working it out, writers block

It’s disconcerting when you wake up one day and realize that the ideas in your head just won’t flow out any longer. The words back up, the concepts log jam, and you’re stuck with things to share, and no way to do it. The harder you try, the worse the jam becomes until there’s a dam in your mind.

Periodically the spillway opens, and you get a little trickle out. It relieves the pressure, but does nothing to clear the backup. Sooner rather than later you stop trying, and walk around in a perpetual state of frustration and anxiety. The paradox is a pain to deal with. You need to write to clear the block, but nothing wants to flow out. You need audience feedback to help you figure out what works and what doesn’t, and you can’t find an audience.

You write an awful lot of crap. The apartment floor is littered with half hearted attempts at doing something. Nothing sounds right, nothing helps, and everything just sucks.

Until one day, you finally see a little crack in the dam. There’s something new trickling out from a different spot. It’s not the spillway, it’s a flaw in the dam. That’s where you move to, trying to see if you can pry that crack open. Just a little bit. Just enough to get the ideas moving again.

Keep pushing.

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We have met the enemy…

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365, Musings

Pogo by Walt Kelly, from Earth Day 1971

We meet no ordinary people

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365, Musings, Quotes

Jimmy V- Words to live by

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jimmy v, Musings, Quotes

To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special. — Jimmy Valvano

The best day

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365, Musings, Quotes

My awesome bubble

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365, life, Musings

We all have an awesome bubble. It’s that place where for just a little bit, you know how totally, freaking amazing you really are. Too often we let others pop that bubble of bliss. We believe it’s wrong to accept how cool we are. It’s somehow inappropriate and egotistical to accept our awesome.

It’s not. You are amazing. Period end of sentence. You do things that others can’t even imagine. Embrace that. Don’t let others take it away from you. Be awesome. Make a difference in the world around you.

Today I’m living in my bubble and loving every second of it.

How about you?

Thinking of Paris in the fall

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europe2013, life, Musings, travel

Credit Sharon Santoni

So after a good bit of contemplation and discussion it looks like the maternal unit and I will be doing Europe again this year. I started out wanting to hit Ireland and knock that off the bucket list. But after discussion it sounds like Mom is more interested in museums, specifically London and Paris. I have been to both places, but didn’t spend much time in either. Going to Paris gives me the chance to dust off my French which has several advantages. I’ve struggled picking up German and Spanish. French, especially conversational French I know. So there’s a major confidence boost potential there.

I greatly enjoyed my month in France in high school. This allows me to go back as an adult and look at things with more maturity and depth. Plus I’ve got a yen to get some awesome pictures. And it’s also fun to think about being somewhere for fall. We don’t get fall in Austin. We get less summer.

So time to order up some travel books and start planning. Paris awaits!

Comfort, Change, and Catalysts

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365, life, Musings

Change and comfort are polar opposites. Where you have one, the other can’t exist. This is part of the reason it’s so difficult for people who need to have things in their life shift. After a period of time, the pain that inspires change becomes comfortable, and then familiar. Humans like comfort. It feels good.

Change does not feel good. It causes both physical and emotional pain. Without a willingness to push through the pain and discomfort, you can’t achieve a state of change. Just like a chemical reaction, things in your life have to reach a boil, you have to have some sort of significant reaction to manifest change. Change requires a catalyst.

This is why major life events can help prompt a change. The event acts as a catalyst and sparks a reaction that starts the change. It’s up to you to keep the reaction going.

Life becomes easier

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365, Forgiveness, life, Musings, Quotes

Forgiveness is as simple as it is complex. Giving, asking, and accepting are all about you, and rarely about the other. It’s a gift in any form. One you realize that it’s about you, and where you are in life it’s easier to live with the moments you didn’t get it, give it or accept it.

Art and the fun of a creative block- not.

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art, creative block, deep thinks, life, Musings

Producing art, be it something considered art in a conventional sense or something less traditional is not always easy and effortless. There are different points in time where you run into walls and just can’t get past them. These “creative blocks” are mocked by those who haven’t hit them, and are the subject of a great deal of discussion by those who have hit them.

My art has always been a combination of words, images, ideas, and fitness. Yeah fitness. My best stuff comes when my fitness is at it’s peak and the energy just flows. When one element goes off, it throws the rest of it off. Looking at it scientifically, it’s probably the hormone release that happens after a good workout that helps to contribute to the creativity. On a less scientific angle, there’s moments of clarity that pop in when I workout that just feed the little creative imp in my head and send it scurrying off to generate something new and awesome. For a variety of reasons, the poor little imp has been getting hammered over the last few years, leading to a gradual decline in my general art production.

The fix for a creative block is to just stubborn through it and keep producing. For me that means putting stuff out there, even when I’m not sure it’s any good. Step by step, and piece by piece you find a way to move things forward. It’s not fun. It’s always hard to put something out there and know that others are going to look at it and poopoo it. That’s the nature of the internet these days.

Art requires you open yourself up to the world. That means you are open to all the slings and arrows as well. Without the openness, without the share, the art you produce goes nowhere. There’s no connection, no communication, and no joy.

So I continue to share, because it’s so worth it when you touch just one person. Maybe today that person is you.