Feeling shocked and grateful that The Further Adventures of Jack Lime has been selected as a finalist for the Canadian Children's Book Centre John Spray Mystery Award. Thank you jury members!
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'd like to talk a little about "enemies of your creative self-worth," which is a phrase that Julia Cameron uses to describe people you've interacted with in the past who have helped build up your doubts and negative beliefs around creativity. A lot of us have got those people in the past who were generous enough to share how uncreative we were and how silly it would be to pursue producing anything artistic. I'm not going to name any names, but I've had a few key people in my life who have tried to belittle my creative ideas. When I'm up late at night, trying to write and coming up with nothing but a big load of poop, it's their voices that start floating through my head.
"Your ideas are so lame."
"About a million other people have already done that."
"I'm so much more creative and talented than you are."
Those are the kinds of things that they whisper to me, usually with a smirky kind of voice. And yes, I still get those voices rambling around occasionally, but I've learned to turn the volume down. One of the best strategies to squelch those voices is by facing them head on. Cameron suggests writing down a a detailed story of a time you faced one of these art stomping monsters. Really get into the sensory details of the confrontation, get into the nitty gritty details. I've done this activity and it's incredibly cathartic. I realized the silliness behind it and silliness always stomps away fear. I think at the core of most creative blocks is fear and the only way to get rid of fear is to face it. Give it a try, I did and it helped a lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment