Creativity & Writing Tips

Poetry has a weird reputation; people are both fascinated by it and afraid of it. We want to know: what do people write in their darkest moments, in secret places. We want to decode the language of the senses and emotions and visit other worlds. We want to lurk in the smoky, dim spaces of people’s minds. But we don’t know how. Do we need a special code word to enter? Do we need to know something before we can know something? Is this an invite-only type deal reserved for those who wear dark, horn-rimmed glasses and hang out in cafes? Would we be looked upon as imposters if we dared sneak into the world of poetry?

One of my objectives as a writer and teacher is to make poetry accessible to everyone who seeks it.

Why? Because we need poetry for at least these 5 reasons:

1. “Poetry gives you permission to feel.” ~ James Autry

What you end up sharing is the whole, complex human experience rather than simply stating facts. You can state your visit to the doctor, the serial tests that followed and the resulting diagnosis as ‘things that happened’ or you can explore them, invite others in on the journey and truly experience them with poetic language. The latter fulfills your human need to feel and forms the foundation for a place of healing.

2. Poetry helps you tap into that intuitive part of you that knows things; when you write, you may be surprised by the wisdom that spills onto the page. This is useful in healing yourself and others who have the opportunity to read or hear your work. The more you practice writing, the stronger your poetic voice becomes and the more easily these revelations write themselves.

3. If you have ever attended a poetry reading, you may have noticed that at points during the recitation of poems, members of the audience have a physical reaction to what is being read. You may hear gasps, mmmmm’s, aaahhhh’s, and other reflexive sounds. These are declarations of sharing space. When we listen to one another, we create an intimate world where we visit each other’s hearts. This type of connection creates a community where joy and healing can take place. Isn’t it comforting when you realize you aren’t alone in feeling something?

4. When I talk about poetry as healing, I don’t mean it will shrink your tumour or cure your addictions. I do mean that it will heal your spirit in a way that gives you the strength to deal with physical illness and problems. Think of it as building the terrain that makes it possible to navigate tricky situations. Or a creative tool for helping you see things in a light that lead you to feeling whole again.

5. If you need a friend, poetry will never fail you. What is it that you seek in a friendship in your darkest hour? Or in a moment of great triumph? Or even those times when you don’t have something extraordinary to say, but you want to say it anyway? Someone who will listen and who makes you feel…like you exist. Like you’re known. Like you’re understood. Writing words on paper will do that for you; it will be your companion when you need one.

Are you more fascinated by poetry, or afraid of it? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments!

It’s amazing how the more we take a little dip in the creativity pool, the more inspiration pours in. And that inspiration can seep into many areas of life: parenting, career, relationships…I definitely see an increase in ideas when I take the time to practice thinking outside the box.

Today I’m sharing what is basically a game that will set you up with countless writing prompts for daily 15 minute creativity breaks (kind of like the ones I share on the Let ME Out!! Facebook page). Totally suitable for teachers, parents, students, writers, and anybody who wants to play with their imaginations!

This can be put together over a number of days/writing sessions depending on your energy level and available time. If you are doing this with school-age children, I highly recommend doing this in small chunks.

Ok, so let’s create character sketches, settings and phrases as the components of the game.

Character Sketches

Grab some paper and answer the following questions to create a character:

1. Is your character male or female?

2. How old is your character?

3. Describe your character physically. Think of details like hair colour/type, shape of eyes, clothing…be as precise as possible. You never know when certain physical characteristics can be dropped into a story to make things interesting and visualize-able!

4. Where was your character born? Do they have an accent?

5. Name at least 3 unique qualities about your character. These can be quirks, idiosyncrasies, a significant event they have gone through that has shaped them in some way. This step is to help you dive a little deeper into your character’s life.

Repeat these 5 steps for at least 5 characters. Each character should be on separate paper.

Settings 

Now we’re going to come up with 5 different settings on 5 separate pieces of paper, by answering the following questions:

1. What is the name of the city or town? (It can be real or fictitious).

2. What time of year is it?

3. What time of day is it?

4. Name a specific location in the city or town. (eg. DeeDee’s Diner) Add about a paragraph describing this particular location.

Phrases

Phrases can be things the character (or a secondary character) says, thinks or overhears. Or the phrases can be part of the prose that must be worked in word for word. Come up with at least 5, on separate pieces of paper.

Some examples could be:

1. “Do you have a pen I could borrow?”

2. “What’s there to do around here?”

3. The moonlight created shadows.

4. A loud bang startled her.

5. This wasn’t rocket science.

And now for the really fun part…

Make clear piles separating the character sketches, settings and phrases. (You can put them in freezer bags or brown paper bags or shoe boxes). Randomly choose from each pile until you have a character, a setting and a phrase in front of you.

Set a timer for at least 15 minutes and incorporate the ideas into part of a story. The end result could be just a stretch of the creative muscle, or it could be the beginning of a longer story.

Whenever you have 15 minutes for a creativity break, you can add to either the character sketches, settings or phrases, or you can grab one of each and work them into a few paragraphs.

If you have any questions, or want to comment on this activity, I’d love to hear from you! Contact me privately or leave your thoughts below!

June was a bullet train. It was a fun ride but I am looking forward to the slower-paced, long days of summer. I talked to the kids yesterday about ‘the plan’ that will allow me to work and give them some independent free play time, and they seemed excited about it. Mostly I think they are happy that there is so much play in store for them. But I have to give them props. These kids have always been amazing cheerleaders, coming to my poetry readings, celebrating big and little accomplishments and listening to my ideas with such patience and interest, even when I am sure a lot of it was going over their heads. In fact, THEY have taught ME so much about what it means to celebrate someone else; everyday I hope that they feel I am doing the same for them.

When I came to them with the plan and said we would need to work together, I knew they would be fine with it, but still it made me feel grateful…I just don’t take it for granted that we’ve grown together this way.

Looking back over almost 8 years of motherhood, I see such huge changes in me. Maybe you’ve noticed them, too, if you’ve been reading my blog long enough. I used to feel like I was swimming upstream, ‘fighting the shackles’ that were keeping me from being…I don’t know…I don’t know who or what I was trying to be. And I think it was the not knowing that had me feeling like I wasn’t being or doing…anything. When really, what was happening was some of the greatest shifts of my life.

I’ve softened. I’ve shifted focus, perspective. I’m much quicker to say, that’s not as important to me as this moment, right here, with my family. And I am so grateful that this realization has come to me while my kids are still this young and I hope the awareness only grows.

But wait, that’s not what I meant to blog about today! But I’m not deleting it. I am, however, going to tell you about one of the great experiences I have been blessed with on this authentic and creative journey.

For the last almost 5 years I have co-hosted a free, drop-in writing group in the South Surrey/White Rock area. The group is called Word Whips by the Water and is an initiative of Pandora’s Collective. On the first Wednesday of every month, from 6:30-8 pm, at the White Rock Public Library, my friend Karen and I share writing prompts with the crowd that shows up. Everyone has 15 minutes to write to each prompt, after which sharing is encouraged, but not required.

So, for today’s #3ThingsThursday, a linkup hosted by Pink Chai Living, The Write Balance and Love Laugh Mirch, I’m going to give YOU 3 things to write about! If you’re a blogger and would like to link up, please visit any of the hosts’ websites!

Grab a piece of paper, or open a Word doc, set your timer for 15 minutes and write poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction to any or all of the images below. You don’t need to use the words I give you, but you can if you wish.

1. Palm trees in Anaheim, California

2. The embers of a campfire

3. Looking up at pine trees.

feature image courtesy of stockimages from freedigitalphotos.net

Those of you who have been around long enough may remember that I used to give you a ‘task’ every Tuesday to stimulate your creativity. Just a little something that could be done in a short time to remove some of those cobwebs from your creative channels. From that, Tuesday Tasks: 52 Activities Designed for an Entire Year of Creativity was born and is now selling online and in stores.

One of my personal favourites is what I call the Feelings Poem, an exercise I did when I was in grade 6. This morning I had the pleasure to go into my daughter’s grade 2 classroom and facilitate a mini poetry workshop using this poem. As an introduction to poetry, I asked the students to list reasons why people write them. Basically, the responses centred around:

– because it’s fun (YES! Enjoyment! It’s so important to do things simply because they are fun!)

– so we can tell people things (YES! Express ourselves – super important to be able to do this!)

– so we can make people happy (YES! Invoke feelings in others! I went on to explain that we can make people feel anything with the words we use…what a great lesson in kindness and a preventive measure for bullying.)

I also talked about the uniqueness of poetry: how even if two classmates decided to write on the same topic, their poems would be totally different because each of them is special. And that is SO AWESOME!

Poetry helps us describe things in a way that other people can relate to, even if they haven’t had the same exact experience as you. It’s like using words to paint a picture in other people’s heads. With an older group of kids, more time and without my toddler in class with me, I would have loved to go into more of a lesson on poetry. I’m realizing just how much I have to share about writing as a therapeutic tool of self-expression.

Here’s how the lesson went:

1. First we brainstormed a list of emotions: happy, sad, excited, surprised, worried, nervous, grumpy, scared, jealous etc. This is a great thing to do with children of all ages, but keep in mind that the younger ones will have a more limited vocabulary for their feelings. I wouldn’t spend too much time on this part for now – your child will be working with one emotion that he or she knows a lot about.

2. Next, each child chose an emotion and wrote it down in the first blank (see template below).

3. Then I asked everyone to close their eyes and think about the word they had just written – even imagine feeling it. I asked, “What colour is this feeling?” The colour went in the next blank.

4. We moved through the template, line by line, so that I could give a little prompt at the beginning: Think about the feeling you chose: if it had a smell, what would it smell like? etc.

5. The ‘And reminds me of _____’ was a bit tricky for this age group. I prompted by asking them to think of a memory associated with the feeling.

6. The last line should begin with the chosen feeling.

I’d love it if you’d try this with your child and then give me feedback on how it went. (Be sure to tell me how old your child is). Also, please do this yourself! It’s really fun and will let you stretch those creative muscles!

Stay tuned for more exercises and videos for kids and adults that will release your creative and authentic Self. To be sure not to miss anything, please sign up to receive my blog posts straight to your inbox, and receive a free mini e-book! Thank you 🙂