The idea of flow in writing is usually associated with ‘being in the flow’, that wonderful sensation when words and ideas synchronize, when your concentration is totally focused, making you lose all sense of time, when everything seems to come blissfully together.
Movement offers writers a different way of looking at flow.
For example, these two contrasting types of flow give interest and energy to movement and written narrative alike: Continue reading
What is your favorite writing moment?
Mine has to be when I’m writing in response to a prompt (could be some detail in a story I’m working on or something entirely new) and I feel that special tug. Something has grabbed me, something that intrigues me, that seems meaningful, even if I’ve no idea what exactly or why. All at once I’m alert, curious to see what’s going to happen, energized, happy as a clam on its favorite rock when the tide is in.
Sometimes this happens after I’ve been free-writing, going with whatever wafts through my mind. Other times it happens when I’ve been concentrating on details of the prompt itself.
Once in the flow, both kinds of focus are needed to keep going: Continue reading
What’s a writer to do when winter just goes on and on and it’s March and there’s still snow on the ground and minus temperatures? Take up fencing.
As a movement artist-educator I’ve always believed that changing and challenging your usual ways of moving is an effective and pleasurable way to energize yourself and boost your creative thinking.
Fencing is certainly making my brain sizzle. And there’s the bonus of getting writing advice too!
1. Don Protective Gear Continue reading
I watched a mother pass sample pots of dry teas to her young son in a local tea store. Oranges, he said, sniffing at the tin his mother held out while at the same time continuing to tease his little brother. Grapefruit. Vanilla. Mint. He got them all. I thought about writing and the sense of smell.
Smell for Narrative Energy
In Edinburgh last year, I was entranced by the installation “It Happens When The Body Is Anatomy Of Time” by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The fragrance of spices, cloves, cumin, turmeric, pervaded the room, bringing the visual artwork – lycra ‘skins’, the stitching details, the colour and lighting – alive, and making the installation a sensual and exciting experience. Continue reading
Winter is the traditional time for storytelling but by February many of us story tellers and writers in colder climes are feeling the effects of battling the freezing winds and icy sidewalks of a long, cold winter: hunched, tense shoulders, neck ache, cabin fever.
Here are five suggestions to help you rise out of the slump and re-energize. Continue reading
Sorting through the boxes and folders of lesson plans, lectures and articles I wrote during my years of teaching creative movement and physical theater, I found my notes for a discussion on ‘creative thinking for creative movers’.
A perfect reminder for the beginning of a new year – for movers and writers. Continue reading
When I broke my wrist a couple of weeks ago, two people on the same day warned me to be sure to treat the pain. The body remembers, they told me.
As an ex-dancer I’m a firm believer in body memory. It’s a wonderful feeling to let one’s body take over and remember the movements of a choreography. And who hasn’t moved in a particular way (or smelled or tasted or heard something) and have a previous occasion – where we were and who we were with – leap to mind?
But here’s something very weird: I’m convinced (in retrospect) that a week before I broke my wrist, it saw the future.
Suddenly, out of the blue, Continue reading
I liked to make sure my little dog Brandy walked on several different surfaces every day – grass, packed earth, tarmac, mud, gravel… Needless to say, people thought I was nuts but I felt the sensory stimulation would keep him lively and perky. He did live to eighteen!
This exercise, based on the same idea, is a great way to ground yourself before any kind of creative work. I particularly like to do it before sitting down to write or when I’m stuck.
You can use any images, words or ideas that came to you during the exercise in your writing (free write, first draft, insert a new image/idea into something you’re already working on). Or you can simply use it to connect with the ‘now’, to be present with yourself and slip away from your controlling inner editor (or any outer editors for that matter). Continue reading
Fanny Fanny
by César Baldacinni
Feel like it’s time for a change in your writing? Looking for portals that might lead you to different kinds of stories or different styles of writing from your usual? Try this exercise!
The exercise has two parts. The first – how to write this exercise – comes courtesy of Montréal poet Blossom Thom*, the second – the prompt – is from me.
You will need plenty of paper (I’d suggest good sized paper, not an itsy-bitsy notebook), and a pen or pencil.
But first, a warm up to power up both sides of the brain!
Warm Up
Clasp your hands in front of you. Note which thumb is on top. Open your hands and clasp them again, this time with the other thumb on top. Clasp and re-clasp your hands, alternating thumbs on top, as fast as you can.
Now do the same hand clasping exercise behind your back! Faster!
Part 1: Get Ready…
Using pen or pencil, you will write with Continue reading
Here is the second in my series of movement/breathing/writing exercises.
in the same breath
with bated breath
breathing down his neck
catching her breath
taking a deep breath
out of breath
holding her breath
under his breath
How did this work for you? I’d love to know. Please let me know in the Comments box below.
Susi Lovell 