The Shortest Path to Creativity

If you’re in Charlottesville next Friday, come join me at this lovely event as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book.

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Hi Friends.

I’ve had guests in town all week and I’m a little hungover today and it’s raining raining raining and I don’t feel gloomy at all, I feel loved, and loving, but also, I have low energy. Still, I had this little flicker of a flame in me that would like to be creative. I wondered to myself: How do I get to that creative place quickly? How do any of us get there?

The shortest path for me is to pick up a book of poetry from a particular beloved stack and open it to any page and just start reading it again. Often I end up reading the entire book from start to finish. At the very least, I sit with it until I have a little something to say. The clarity of the poet’s communication directly impacts my own voice. I like to read poets who are telling me a simple story of their own, inviting me into their world.

Today I was reading Mercy by Lucille Clifton. I was fuzzy and then I read a few poems and suddenly I was clear-eyed again. This is a writing habit I have, I realized. It’s not about sitting down and churning out the words. (There are other habits involved with that though!) It’s about knowing how to soothe and then focus my brain so that I can arrive at the place where I can begin again.

We can shut ourselves down sometimes—or the world can do it to us. It’s not our fault. It’s not anyone’s fault. Laying blame is boring and a waste of time. Assess the damage and then move on to the solution, which is whatever you need to do to get yourself feeling ripe and ready to create again.

I just want to end all this by saying that we need you to be creative, to be exploring your thoughts and feelings, and to be a part of the collective voice of people making their art and trying to communicate with the world. I just know something good will come out of it. I don’t want to think about the alternative, which is silence. I only want to think about the chorus of voices. I only want to think about you telling your truth. I only want to think about you singing your own song.

Now, think about it: what is your quickest path to get there?

Jami

p.s. This week’s donation went to Doctors without Borders.

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on twitter and instagram.