Ten Minute Tuesday: Talking to Your Critic

Ten Minute Tuesday: Talking to Your Critic

We all have at least one in our head. One critic that doesn’t shut up. He or She is the critic in the stands that Brene’ Brown often refers too. They aren’t supposed to matter because they do not get down in the arena with you. They don’t wrestle with the world and come up dirty. This critic tries to stay above it all. Always criticizing  but never trying. Since this is National Letter Writing month  let’s write  a letter to this critic, Tell this critic what you think of them. See who they are clearly in your mind. Man or woman? Insolent child? Think of this letter as standing up and addressing them directly. If they are a critic that is not willing to get down in the mire with you, do you fire them? Send them on vacation for a while? What do you want to say? I once wrote a letter to this critic firing them. He was a cranky old man in my head. One who was never happy with anything at all. It didn’t matter how good something was, HE did not like it. So I fired him. Now, I will warn you, since firing him, he does not come around as often, though a couple of new ones took his place. But everyone once in a while the cranky old man slips past my defenses and into my head once again like an employee who never gets the hint that he is doing terrible at his job. So I have to fire him again. Here is my letter to the critic in my head and how I fired him.

Dear Critic in the Stands,
I’m letting you go.
I’m saying good-bye to your harsh tones and your sandpaper words
that scrape away
the soft parts of my heart.
I’m turning away from you,
and
Leaving you standing with your arms crossed and
frown lines on your face
while tapping your foot.
This relationship is not working for me.
I do not enjoy having you shred my skin away,
expose the broken bones beneath
while you are up in the stands, keeping your hands clean
and your bones safe.
I have made my list of the ones who matter,
tucked it in my pocket… the loved ones who get down in the mud with me.
So, I will tell you again.
I’m letting you go.
I’m saying good-bye.
Please leave the arena now,
you are fired.
Sincerely,
Susan

Build Your Ultimate Creative Toolbox

Build Your Ultimate Creative Toolbox

Many creative people have their creative toolbox that they keep on hand. They pull stuff, and tips and tricks right out of it. It’s like having a magicians magic hat. The key to a Great Toolbox is to include in it the things that will keep your creative soul going even in those times where you feel stuck or are feeling blah and uncreative.

Let’s start with what I keep in mine.

For inspiration, I have many Artful Blogger, Artful Journalling, and Where Women Create magazines, all produced by the Stampington Company. I love flipping the pages and seeing the beautiful pictures and sharing in others creative adventures. It is my hope one day to be in one of those magazines myself. It inspires and motivates me when I feel stuck or lost on what to do.ultimate toolbox 1

My favorite creative tool is my laptop. It is a MacBook Pro that is nearly four years old. Since I am first and foremost a writer, I find it essential for working on fiction, moving my poems from the written page to being saved and edited, and where I create my affirmation cards. I also use it for collecting my photos. I will give you a secret, I have about 22,000 pictures. NOT KIDDING. I always find reasons to use ones I thought I would never use especially in designing mini stories and affirmation cards. It is also where I create my stationary, my cards, and anything else that strikes me.
Pick your favorite tool! What is it? Keep it in good condition. If it’s something that gets used often, like a sketch book or journal, do you keep a back up so you always have one. My daughter keeps two or three around the house so she can just grab one.

Now onto some more practical, hands on stuff. Even writers need a little something out of scope of traditional writing to feed the creative soul. Here is what I highly recommend and what I keep for creative tools.

  1. Watercolor Paints: you can go to the dollar store and get the watercolor kits or you can go to Joanns and for ten bucks get the watercolor tubes. I use them for creating backgrounds, just playing when my mind has been so full of words, I need something that doesn’t require too much language processing.
  2. Pens, markers, pencils: I will admit to being an office supply junkie. I am fully addicted to new pens and pencils. I love makers, gel pens, colored pencils, Papermate Flair pens, and my fave are Pentel RSVP pens in purple. They just make writing, drawing, doodling so much more fun and interesting. Sometimes, it helps me to brainstorm in different colors to see patterns.
  3. Paper or Card Stock: A writer needs paper, whether hand writing or printing from a computer. If you want to make little notes or cards with writing or doodles, it helps to have sturdier card stock around and a good pair of scissors.ultimate toolbox 3
  4. Another thing that the paper is good for is making Word tiles. Inspired by Susan Wooldridge’s poem crazy. She creates word tiles and has her students draw out so many words and they have to create a poem. But I have also used them to inspire photos, or doodling or messages to friends. I think of word tiles as a great way to get out of stuckness because you have to work within the confines of the words you picked, it brings out the creative self.
  5. Tactile: A great toolbox as something wth texture that you can play with, touch in between or during projects. There is something about the switching of the cerebral writing, organizing to something that is just about touch. It changes our posture, calls on different parts of the brain, creates flow through other avenues. especially when stressed or up against a deadline, having some tactile object like play-dough or clay or even different types of fabric can re-direct us.
  6. TIME! Make sure that you give yourself time to use the tools in your toolbox. Our creative expression is of great importance. Even if you have a job and work forty hours a week, it is essential to our health that we take time for creative expression. I have said before, Brene’ Brown, a well know mental health writer, says that “UNUSED creative expression is NOT benign.” It will manifest itself in agitation, frustration, anger, guilt. A host of negative feelings that eat away at our self-esteem. So being creative helps you be a better you.
  7. Miscellaneous: 1) Music: I know for me when I am working on certain projects I have specific music that I listen to that creates the mood and environment that I want, especially if I am writing and I want to tune out the noise. 2) Add some acrylic paint as well. The colors are brighter and you get different results by blending. It is just a different than watercolors but fun. 3) Ribbons and stickers. These are just bits of whimsy to add to your toolbox. Maybe you only use them once in a while. I love using my own stickers to decorate packages when I send out orders. 4) Glue. All kinds but at least a good glue stick and a reliable craft glue, like Aleene’s tacky Glue. 5) A Journal. Whether you are a writer or an artist, a photographer or florist, keep a journal. They are great in offering us a chance to reflect. Maybe you just have a project journal. That’s ok. Its just another handy dandy tool for your box.

ultimate toolbox 2

10 Must Read Books for Creatives

10 Must Read Books for Creatives

*This post contains affiliate links.

Every creative person has their favorite books they go go when they are stuck in a rut or need a little inspiration. Books become like trusty friends that you can turn to when you need a fresh perspective or need to be reminded of something you have forgotten. The list below is compiled of books or authors that I have come back to time and time again. They are some of my favorites. A few have worn covers and tattered pages while others have been replaced because I felt compelled to hand them off to someone who needed them. A few I keep on my Nook tablet with favorite passages tagged so I can go back over them again. This list is a great beginning creative souls list. Happy Reading!

  1. Creativity for Life by Eric Maisel: Eric Maisel is a creativity coach in southern California. He works with artists to help unblock creative walls. In Creativity for Life,  he provides examples of how he coached some of his clients and then asks the reader to participate in finding their creative goals with exercises and questions at the end of each section.
  2. The Artist Way by Julia Cameron: This is a must go-to for a beginning artist. The Artist Way is the first in a series of books meant to connect the artist with their spiritual nature to be in their art more authentically. I have read and re-read this book many times when I needed an artist pick me up. She incorporates many exercises to help the creative soul along.
  3. Billy Collins (any of his poetry books): My favorite is Sailing Around the Room and Other Poems. However, he has many and they are all great. His poetry is real and honest; he pulls from ordinary world around him to create his excellent writing. He is two-termed Poet Laureate of the U.S.
  4. Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd: Carol Lloyd takes the creative person on down a path to discovering what they want from their passions. Each chapters asks the reader questions about their craft, the life they want, and other important details  so they may create their own lifestyle beyond society’s norm.
  5. A Creative Companion by SARK (or any SARK book): Another must read for the creative being. A quick read, SARK inspires with her bright colors and handwritten pages. This a fun and lively reminder for the artist to slow-down, open their eyes, and see the world around them with their creative soul.
  6. poemcrazy by Susan Woolridge: A great book to read on poetry. This takes all the mystique out of poetry and breaks it down into the idea that anyone is capable of writing poetry. It is manner of learning the skills. Susan Woolridge does just that in this delightful, easy to read book.
  7. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg: A “bible” of writing culture. Natalie Goldberg talks about getting to the bones in writing. A zen teacher, artist and writer, she incorporates her teachings through examples in her book. A lot of insightful information for the creative person.
  8. The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guilbreau: Here is the non-conformists BOOK! If you do not want the standard 9-5 every day lifestyle then this is the book for you. Chris tells you his story and how he went from dropping out of college to the entrepreneur that he is today. He has also been to every country in the world and incorporates some of his genius traveling hacks in this book and on his website.
  9. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp: Twyla Tharp got to where she is by one thing: she made her creative outlet a daily habit. She practices her creativity every day. It is woven through out her book that even when one feels as though they cannot create, they should continue the habit of creating to stay conscious of their art. She is a no-nonsense writer with many excellent ideas.
  10. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
    A must have writers book. Anne Lamott dives into the creative side of writing but this book is also a great guideline for other creative beings. The philosophy of “bird by bird” is a concept that can be applied to any creative project that may seem overwhelming.

 

 

Jim Steinberg: Following the Scent of Story

On a writing retreat a year and a half ago in a place called the Lost Coast, on the Mattole River, I met writer, Jim Steinberg, author of two short story collections and the novel, Boundaries. Jim is a quiet man with a friendly disposition. He is warm and welcoming and was always up early writing away, drinking coffee with one or two of us early birds. This last year at the retreat,
as we were chatting while I was laying out all the breakfast stuff, he said to me that he was just going to have his coffee. “Breakfast is a social affair,” he told me.
That to me, sums him up well; friendly, thoughtful of others around him, and when writing, his nose is to the keyboard, following the scent of his story line by line, scene by scene.
Why do YOU write? What motivates or inspires you to write?

I write to scratch itches. I feel the impulse rising from within, wanting attention, so I want to scratch it. I follow impulses telling me there is a story that is waiting.
In my writing, I follow the words of Richard Ford, author of Independence Day, “I want everything I write to be useful.” My writing is serious fiction; I want to say something useful to my readers. I want to connect to them.

Writing is how I communicate with the world, like a long-term conversation between writer and reader. In writing, it is my hopes that I may also inspire others to have the grist to be creative and find their story.

As a teacher, I was getting by but knew it would to learn more about storytelling. I enrolled in a summer institute at Humboldt State University: the Redwood Writing project for teachers who teach writing.

During the course, I fell in love with writing stories. Eventually I turned one assignment into a work of fiction that now appears in my second short story collection: Last Night At The Vista Cafe, Stories.

2) In discussing “the genesis of a story” you said it is something “seeking a place of greater repose?”

a) What does this mean to you?
b) How do you begin?
c) What is it to “follow your nose?”

When I am responding to an impulse, it is a chance to visit, or revisit, memories. In this way, I settle them. I put them to rest within me, in a better relationship, making my peace with whatever emotional or psychological aspect that came to the surface. I pull the essence of the failed marriage or relationships, childhood experiences, or from mediation experiences, to spring into the fictional story. It never looks the same as the real experience, and the fiction does not rely on the actual account, but the greater truth that needed to be settled, is allowed to be expressed and peace made.

Let me give an example of “following my nose.” In my short story collection Filling up in Cumby and Other Stories, there is one titled “Highway 47.” It began as a story of a man unhappy in his marriage about to get stuck on a highway in a snowstorm. Inside a cafe, a young boy sets the table for the man. His mother owns the restaurant. The mother reluctantly offers up her hide-a-bed, and the story turns toward two strangers deciding whether they are going to have an affair. However, the story takes a turn when he begins talking to the child, who had no father, during the evening. The friendship that develops between the man and the child, rather than the dreamed about affair, becomes more important for the man than what he was dreaming of.

Character, setting, a conflicted situation, or the emotions from real life become a springboard into entirely fictional people and storylines. I want to give free rein to my imagination. A once famous writer, I forget who, said “write your stories as if everyone has been dead for one hundred years. Good advice for discovering the emotional truth of a story. I find the emotional truth by pulling the fiction from my imagination.
This is what I mean by following my nose. I allow the characters to determine and change the path of the story. It’s their story.

If you ask how I begin, I sit at the keyboard with my impulse, start writing and see what comes. I don’t outline, write a synopsis or do character sketches. I give the story the room to breath as it needs to.

My novel Boundaries is a blending of two stories that decided they needed to be the same book. They are incidents from from two different experiences. The first was a law case I had when practicing law in the 1970’s in Colorado Springs, working for a legal service that served impoverished clients. The second was a chance encounter I with a woman I met in a restaurant on the north coast of California during unusual circumstances in the 1980’s. The client in the first experience was very powerful and influenced me greatly in the case and in my practice. The woman in the restaurant really got my attention. I combined them into a single character. In doing so, I created a story about a lawyer and a client having a very unusual relationship.

3) Please tell me a bit about your video series on your blog. 

There are twelve videos in total. Ideally one comes out each week but son has graciously been helping me during his free time, so we do our best to get them out. They are conversations between myself and poet Bob Davis. They are conversations on what it means to be human, meant to bring the writer and reader together on the same conversation. We talk about the genesis of story, writing to explore the story, revision, and allowing the story to happen. Here is the list of topics:

1. Genesis Of A Story
2. More On Genesis Of A Story
3. Take A Ride On Your Work
4. I Love The Exploration
5. A Theme Discovered: “Highway 47” – (a short story)
6. A Theme Discovered: “Uncle Eno’s Bad Day” – (a short story)
7. Always Fiction, Always True: “An Apple Totem” (a short story)
8. Genesis Again: “Boundaries,” A Novel
9. A Crystal Memory
10. Revision
11. Reading Stories Aloud
12. Writing Or Reading? What Do You Prefer?
4) What kind of conversations would you ideally like to have with writers and readers?
What are your favorite topics of discussion with other writers and with readers?

I want to create a virtual salon or cafe for writers and readers to discuss fiction in the same way you may sit in a coffee shop with a writers group or a readers group and discuss topics related to story. Writers and readers are all storytellers, and we can give and take from one another in a conversation that includes both. I want conversations about the flesh and bones and bumps and scars that I think serious stories should include.

5) What is it for the story to have “real flesh and bones with bumps and scars?”

It is to examine what really hurts people. I write about characters who struggle with misfortune and difficult experiences. For example, characters who dwell on a moral edge, making the wrong choices for perhaps honorable reasons. I stay away from stereotypes, writing instead from the perspective that not everything is pretty. I want to expose their wounds to the reader, allowing them to watch how the character deals with them. It is my hope that readers will see the characters with an “unconditional positive regard”, keeping them open to compassion and empathy towards the character.

6) Tell me a bit a you next novel, Third Floor.

Third Floor is the story of fraternal twins, Rachel and Joseph. It begins when they are seven years old. There are issues between the two parents, and in an effort to escape the nighttime fights, Rachel creates a retreat on the third floor. One night Joseph joins her when he discovers she isn’t in her room. They continue to hide out there. Rachel is very strong, and Joseph relies on her strength. I am hoping to tell it in seven-year increments, but in following my nose, that may change. Eventually the twins will be separated and will come together when their father is ill. At least that’s what I expect thus far. I never know for sure! To know the rest, you will have to wait until it is published next year.

7) What is your favorite, no holding back meal, and where is one place in the world you would like to travel to?

Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and molasses and green beans. That’s comfort food for me.

Once I wanted to travel to Kiev or Lithuania where my family is from, but now I want to go to the Scottish Highlands. It’s a landscape with a history that fascinates me.

 

coffee with Jim on the SquareJim Steinberg has been a lawyer, blacksmith, middle school teacher of English and Social Studies, college teacher of Criminal Justice, hippie, and director of basic law enforcement training at a community college. He now divides most of his time between his loved work as a mediator (thirteen years in a small private practice in his home and in tribal courts in Northern California) and his greatest love of the last two decades, writing fiction. He has published one novel, “Boundaries,” and two short story collections: “Filling Up In Cumby And Other Stories,” and “Last Night At The Vista Cafe, Stories.” His current project is a second novel – “The Third Floor,” a story about twins, a brother and a sister.

Jim’s stories have appeared in Clapboard House, The Greensboro Review, The New Renaissance, Sensations Magazine, Cities and Roads, The Lone Wolf Review, The Bishop’s House Review, Voices From Home – A North Carolina Prose Anthology, and Best Of Clapboard House. He writes his stories to scratch the itches that rise up from within him, to answer the impulses that ask him to visit and lay them in greater repose. When these impulses arise, he finds himself at the beginnings of trails he knows he will follow with minimal planning and no synopsis, plot, timeline, or character description. He jumps right in and finds the stories, making each a discovery for him, the first reader.

Jim is a Fellow of the Redwood Writing Project of Humboldt State University and a founding member of the Lost Coast Writers’ Retreat, a week-long gathering on the Mattole River on the remote Northcoast of California. For the last fourteen years he has described this time in a close knit writers’ community as his best week of every year. He believes that writing stories is the best way he can get his hands around experience. He believes that the world would be a better place if everyone wrote stories because they all have them, and they are all worth passing on.

You can talk with Jim about writing stories on his blog: “Follow Your Nose Fiction, A Blog About Writing By A Guy Who Writes.”

Christine Musser: The Wandering Writer

I first met Christine nearly fifteen years ago as we both entered Vermont College in Montpelier. She came with a big smile, and a bubbly personality that lit up the room. Her love of history was so deep that she would sleep with history books stacked on her bed, reading until she fell asleep. She lives life full of passion and brings that passion to her writing, her photography and now her teaching.

Christine can often been found wandering through her favorite places in Pennsylvania. Her camera is her companion; she always has it on her. Her pictures often posted on her Facebook page of the beauty she discovers. Let me tell you what makes her so special. She is a great friend. Always there to talk to and willing to fly to California to surprise me for my 40th birthday. Friends, and such passionate people as her are priceless.

How did The Wandering Pen came to be?

I have wandered since I was a child and still enjoy doing it. I like to explore and learn new things. I like to write about places I’ve been; I mainly did this in my journal then decided I would blog about the places I’ve been to.
What inspired you?
It was probably growing up on a 92 acre farm where roaming was endless.

Where do you wander? What are some of your favorite places to wander for photography and/or writing?  

I wander often to rural areas; I love the country & the mountains. I am also drawn to water; such as the Conodoguinet Creek (Native American name means water with many bends) or the Susquehanna River; named for the Susquehannocks who lived in South Central PA in the late 17th century. These are places I like to photograph, as well as old barns and rustic looking buildings.

Where does your love of history come from?

My love of history comes from my love of family. I am a believer that history needs to be told or learned in order to understand who we are. I believe that family history is important. And in learning family history you can’t help to think about the periods of time our ancestors lived in or their struggles during those periods.

Where do you see your path leading you in the future of writing and teaching?

Both. I believe they are intertwined, at least for me they are. For me writing is teaching. I believe teaching will inspire me to write.

I know you were a history major and love history but did you also always want to be a writer? 

I have always been a writer. At times I feel cursed because writing is something I have to do. I think it picked me rather than I picked it.

Was writing something you fell in love with later?
No, writing and I have a love- hate relationship.
My love-hate relationship with writing is because there are many times I want to call it quits with my writing, but like a stalking lover, it won’t let me be. I have to write, even if it’s just writing in my journal. Writing is in me. I am always thinking about writing and what to write.

What influences your writing and your photography?

Everyday living really. The media, family, and people. My photography can influence my writing, but it’s not at the foundation of it.

 I notice a lot of your photos are local to you. Is this where your heart is?

A lot of my photos are taken within Pennsylvania; mainly because that is where I’m at most of the time. I do have places I really enjoy shooting like the Susquehanna River along Fort Hunter and the Rockville Bridge.

What are your current projects?
Currently, I am working with Silver Spring Township on their own book narrative. This will be different from what I published with Arcadia,  which was more of a pictorial history with photos used from private collections. The new one will be mostly narrative with some photos of historical buildings in the township.
The book, Silver Spring Township, can be found at here.
It can also be purchased via Arcadia, Whistlestop Bookshop, & Amazon.

I am revamping my website, and in October I will start substituting at local schools. I am also working on another book of my own.
I’m keeping the subject confidental, but I found the topic while working on my book for Arcadia.
Where does the love of history come from?

My love of history comes from my love of family. I am a believer that history needs to be told or learned in order to understand who we are. I believe that family history is important. And in learning family history you can’t help to think about the periods of time our ancestors lived in or their struggles during those periods.

Where do you see your path leading you in the future of writing and teaching?

Both. I believe they are intertwined, at least for me they are. for me writing is teaching. I believe teaching will inspire me to write.

Do you think the Bosler story was a spring board into your other projects? That it was a good place to begin this journey?

The Bosler story took me out of my comfort zone. My drive to tell the Bosler story took me to Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota; where otherwise, I probably would never have gone to those places. The one hold up with the Bosler story I need to do further research and that needs done in Sioux City, Iowa and I am just not sure when I will have the opportunity to go there. I will more than likely need to spend a month there. Back to your question about the Bosler story being a spring board, yes, it was a catalyst to where i’m at now.  I haven’t completed the Bosler story, but it’s always on my mind. Just the other day i received an email from someone inquiring about the Carlisle Boslers. I go back and forth with whether or not to move forward with the Bosler book

The last questions are just FUN ones. What is all your all time, no holding back, favorite meal/food and where is One place you want to travel to that you haven’t yet?

It has to be something that has black beans, salsa and hot peppers and really messy – like Mexican Quinoa.
Petite syrah (thanks to my friend Laura bringing the wine in September to Vermont) with pepper jack cheese.
Where to travel to? That’s an easy one – the south of France.

Below are a few of Christine’s beautiful pictures. 

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2015-10-01Christine Musser holds a bachelor’s degree in American History from Vermont College at Union Institute & University. She has also taken history courses at Shippensburg University towards a master’s degree in Applied History. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) approached Christine in 2011 to use her article, “Preserving Memory: National Holocaust Memorial Museum Controversy”, in the Advanced Placement (AP) exam booklet. In March of 2013, she was approached again by ETS for permission to print additional copies of the article. Her article is currently referred to in AP English classes. Christine published Silver Spring Township for Arcadia Publishing “Images of America” series ; a pictorial history of Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. She has published several articles online and in print. Christine has participated in various historical events and an archeological dig at the Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Currently, she is a member of the Silver Spring Township Conservation & Preservation Committee. Besides her interest in history, Christine also loves photography and to travel. Contact information: the_wandering_pen@yahoo.com
You can also find her at the following:

Author: Silver Spring Township
Facebook Page: The Wandering Pen
Twitter: The Wandering Pen
Blogs: The Wandering Pen, Happenings Around Cumberland County, PA, Happenings in Christine’s World
Photography: The Wandering Photographer

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