Telling Herstories: The Broad View

Cycle 4.2 Critique--Group Ears, Eyes, Voice, and Heart

We want to do good and help our sister writers. We join groups to do just that. When like minds come together with the same purpose—intent on trust, kindness, and truth—everyone benefits. How do critique groups produce virtuous rather than vicious circles?

Caption: Wizard & Elf Bring Gifts

Doing Good

·    A good match between writer and group encourages writing.

·    Thoughtful critique makes work stronger.

·    Beyond the individual piece by the individual writer critique offers the entire group lessons in effective writing. What is good writing? How do we do it?  How do we communicate beyond ourselves? Discerning critique opens our eyes to new ways of thinking and confirms what we’ve already intuited or believed.

Who are you as a group?

Know what kind of group you are. Here are a few possibilities.

1)  Witnessing—Story Circles  “encourage and facilitate story-sharing” without analysis or correction. Susan Albert in “Writing From Life: Telling Your Soul's Story,” says: We are mutual presences, simply, and in that attentive being-with, that delicate, careful listening, we help one another bring forth—ourselves." (p.12)

 2) Listening Back is a term I coined as an alternative to “feedback”. How can you be useful and specific in your comments while creating a cozy, supportive environment? Clive Matson’s “syngenetic workshop” (having the same origin) illustrates a version of listening back.

 Clive’s Crazy Child process is based on the writing itself. Group members take notes on the piece they’re hearing and reading in order to repeat memorable lines exactly; clearly and positively they say why these work. The author also takes notes and speaks only at the end. (Clive’s complete process is on Pp. 16-17 “Let the Crazy Child Write.”)

 3) Craft-based or genre-based groups focus on developing writing skill in more detail. Such groups may be directed towards refining work to present to the marketplace.

How to Critique?

Be a Girl Scout: trustworthy, kind, and truthful.

Trust.  Act and speak so that each writer in the group feels that her work is respected.

Kindness. You would never say to a new mother “What an ugly baby!” Remember that the writer is showing you her literary baby.

Truth. If your group is one that gives feedback, make it specific, honest and respectful.

 Kindergarten Rules: Structure

Choose someone to facilitate the group. You might choose to rotate this role. The facilitator keeps the critique on track and redirects unhelpful feedback. A timekeeper is useful as well.

Set up levels of feedback.  These levels provide readymade goals for each person’s turn. Ask the writer what she wants and address only that. For example, does she want her piece to be witnessed as she reads it? Does she have a specific question about craft (perhaps pacing or length)? Is she open for a broad band response? Grammar and nitpicking is off the board.

 What did you like? The humor? Beautiful language? Skillful structure? The idea behind it? Specific passages? Be specific.

 Follow up with concerns and suggestions. Is the writing clear? Is the language appropriate to the genre? Where and how can she improve her writing? Be specific.

Manuscripts at the ready. When we have the written words in front of us, we can more easily be helpful and specific. Small changes can be noted in the margins. These copies go back to the author at the end of the critique with names at the top.

Note it! In addition to individual notes on the manuscript, appoint a recorder to capture group responses and suggestions during the discussion.

Anything else? Have you addressed the writer’s questions? The writer may want to follow up on comments.

With practice and attention your critique group can, as Denise Levertov says, allow each woman “to say or sing all that she can, and to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to  her in language”.

How does the writer contribute to a good critique? Tune in next month. 

END NOTES

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below.

See the Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from“Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

Cycle 4.1 Art of Critique

      EcoArts Walk, Lake County, N. California. Reflections.

I once cried during a critique.

It was an MFA upper-level course in visual storytelling taught by two eminent photographers. I had petitioned to get into the course, arguing that my life experience fulfilled the lower-level entry requirement. I’d gotten in, participated, and then blown it by crying during a critique of my work. Before the next class the instructors ambushed me at the top of the stairs and strongly suggested, to the point where I felt threatened, that I drop the course.

To sit back and observe critique as a sociologist, anthropologist, or psychologist can be an entertaining pastime—as long as it’s not your own work on the table. I’m surprised there aren’t plays, comic strips, and situation comedies based on the stereotypical types that surface during critique: the Ding-Bat, the Sonorous Voice of God, the Professor, the Meanie, the Raconteur.

 Unfortunately, critique—peer or professional—is rife with possibility for misuse, misunderstanding, and misery. In the very worst situations there can be a scoring of points that turns the critique into a virtual blood sport. The writer’s work takes backseat to the critiquer’s social and personal agendas. Small wonder that some writers dread the very word.

Critique. For myself, I dreaded it. I hated it. I learned from it.

Fortunately, after the disastrous experience in the photography class, I had the joy of encountering a teacher, Betsy Davids, who fully understood the meaning of critique and its purpose. She regarded critique as a form of appreciation, a time of joining with the piece and giving back to the artist who created it.

During critique she grew quiet and made the piece the object of contemplation. She then took the class on a tour of what she saw and how she responded to it. She responded to each element—texture, color, shape—and how it affected her feelings and body. Her response to our artwork was fully considered and intimate.

Betsy was there for us, not to make herself more grand. She was there to help us and to know our art and art making more fully. If there were goofs, gaps, or gaffes in our work, she knew how to point these out gently. Her responses inspired us to go back to the work and try to improve it.

Although Betsy was critiquing visual art, her process would have been equally beneficial for writing. Good critique focuses on the writing—not the writer, not the critiquer. Its purpose is to help the writer make her own work stronger. Ideally, there’s no place for chest thumping or ego massaging or denigration of the writer such as in the experience I related above.

Oh, and how did that incident turn out? I’m proud to say that I held my ground with the two professors, stayed on in the course, and earned an “A.”

In our next post (4.2) we’ll talk about how a group can best benefit individual writers.

_____________________

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below.

See the Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from“Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

Cycle 3.6 SUCCESS YOUR WAY OPE (Other People’s Expectations)

Janet overcome with Wild Book Happiness!

Our families and the mainstream culture all give us their own definitions of success. These glimmer in our minds. If we are not measuring up to these expectations, we are drug down. Any external definition of success guarantees unhappiness. We need to find our own tailored definition of success.

This individual definition is especially important in the arts and in our writing. Go to a party, and say you’re a writer. The responses you get in the United States are shaped by popular culture and run like this:

“Would I have read anything you wrote?” (In other words, “Are you famous?”)

“Do you make money doing that?” (In other words, “Can you make a buck off this? Did it make your fortune for you?)

These types of conversations can leave us feeling that if we haven’t appeared yet on the Oprah Winfrey Show, or made the New York Times Best Seller List, that we are wasting our time. Without fame and fortune, where is the glory? Gotta think big.

Maybe not. Sometimes, when we are following a passion, it’s better not to define success in terms of OPE (Other People’s Expectations). What are your expectations and desires? Thinking on a small to medium scale, might prove more productive.

Open Sez Me

Each of us has our own set of opportunities. We can improve our chances of creating our version of success by asking these four questions:

·       How do you define success?

·       Are you willing to work to get it?

·       How would you recognize it if it walked in the door?

·       What would you do if you had it?

 Defining Success, Your Way

 Do you need to make money from your writing? Do you need an audience? If so, how big an audience do you need? What purpose does your writing need to serve?

 Here’s is a sample writing success definition based on the prompts above.

 1)  Writing success for me means being able to write regularly as I continue to refine my craft. Writing is important for me, but I don’t count on it for my livelihood. I write mainly for myself (or family and friends or critique group and writing buddy).

2)     I’m willing to set aside time to write at least an hour a day, even if it requires effort.

3)     If it walked through the door, my writing success would wear a handmade shawl I knit myself. I’d be progressing in my craft. I’d be learning new things about myself and the world around me.

4)     If my writing success came true, I’d be satisfied that I was doing my best, and content with my progress.

 Grow your definition as you do.

Put in your first definition in the washing machine and see how it spins. As time goes by, your definition of writing success my evolving to adapt to changing circumstances and desires. Keep current with that personal definition.

If your definition lags behind or is out of sync with your life, you will also be unhappy. For instance, the sample definition above may need to include the wish to increase your outreach to a wider audience. Include that. Or, your audience becomes more defined as you focus on particular topics.

Keep in touch with yourself and stay true.

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below.

See the Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from“Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

 

 

Cycle 3.5 Mission Possible

Photo: "All the Difference," by Janet Riehl, driftwood, 2007 EcoArts Sculpture Walk, Lake County, N. California

Being on a mission directs our attention and effort. A mission blesses us with confidence. 

Here’s my story. Of course I’d read and felt fear of failure over the years. But it wasn’t until I began my book Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary (2006) that I came into a new relationship with fear of failure and longing for praise and success.

The big difference for me was the sense of mission that directed this project.

I felt I needed to write this book, not just for myself and my family, but for anyone who had experienced sudden loss.

As a reader commented in August (3.4), often what stops us is our fear that if the truth were known, no one will accept us. Even we won’t want to acknowledge our own true selves. Having a mission overrides this potentially paralyzing fear. Accomplishing our mission becomes foremost, more important than any fear.

When I wrote, I just wrote. I felt nothing had to be perfect. In the drafting stage I felt I could do no wrong. I wrote with the door closed. Only a few trusted writing friends read the emerging work. They were filled with only encouragement at this emotionally fragile stage.

The lack of criticism freed my writing and allowed the story poems to remain simple and direct with no need to impress anyone, including myself.

My sense of mission did knuckle under briefly at the point when I had to sign off on the last proof before publication. The door to my innermost thoughts would be fully flung open.

What if my family was mad at me because of the story I told? What if readers judged me as a person for the truths I bared? What if lovers of literature laughed at my attempt to write poetry? My stream of fears of being judged unworth became endless.

Luckily, at the moment terror struck, I was visiting my longtime friend Stephanie Farrow in New Mexico. She held my hand and said, “Janet, you have to let it go now. You’ve done everything you know how to do. The book must make its own way.”

To overcome our fear of failure, we need the armor of a sense of mission.  We need supportive relationships to bolster us during the process of creating and releasing our work to the public.

Ask yourself:

1. What is my mission?

2. Who can I count on to support me?

With a mission and a supportive network in place, your project becomes Mission Possible. You can surmount your fear of failure. You can do it.

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis, Missouri in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below. If you’d like to see previous articles in this series, go to http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

1) Buy our new audio book “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music” at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/janetgraceriehl.

2) Catch-up on Janet’s internet audio book tour at http://is.gd/2LB5p.

Cyle 3.4 Fie on Fear! Success & Failure: Two Sides of a Coin

Toss a coin. Success or failure? Which side do you want the coin to land on? Most of us would cross our fingers, arms, legs, or even our eyes in the hope that the coin lands on success. We’ve learned to think in terms of polar opposites: black/white, funny/serious, good/bad, Yet success and failure trot together side-by-side, not as a tag team with one in front and the other behind.

Fear of failure and fear of success also move together. If we fear failure or success, we pit one part of our psyche against another, sabotaging our creative expression. By examining and learning to work with the fears in our creative lives, we can move forward more smoothly. We need to practice treating them as friendly neighbors rather than enemies.

American mainstream culture puts a premium on success. It conditions us feel that if we fail--if we don’t measure up to what society defines as success--it means that we’re unworthy. In America success means bigness: “Big profits.” “I hit it big.” “She’s HUGE (as in a phenomenon)” Buying into this belief is a surefire road to creative sabotage.

What are your personal fears about failing? Take time in a quiet place to reflect on this. Make notes on what you discover about your beliefs. You don’t have to share them, so be honest with yourself.

Now take a look at your fears of success. Do you feel overwhelmed by the idea of being successful beyond your wildest dreams? Does the thought evoke fear that you’ll be unmasked as an imposter? Again, reflect on this question and take notes on what emerges.

Compare your lists of failure and success. You might find that they aren’t as different as you thought they would be. So toss your imaginary coin again and visualize it landing on its edge. No finger-crossing necessary!

In our next post (3.5) in our Fie on Fear! cycle we’ll discuss finding new ways to relate to our fears. We’ll then close this cycle in our third post by helping you define your own success. Why not make success safe, comfortable, attainable?

In this "Creative Catalyst" column for the SCN blog, we present each theme cycles in three posts: first, a keynote, followed by two posts to develop the theme. Our first cycle defined working creativity and regular practice. The second 3-part series looked into creative cycles. Our third cycle set the groundwork for working productively with fear. Our fourth cycle delves more deeply into our creative fears.  See the Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity.

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below. If you’d like to see previous articles in this series, go to http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

1) Buy our new audio book “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music” at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/janetgraceriehl.

2) Catch-up on Janet’s internet audio book tour at http://is.gd/1zIwQ.

CYCLE 3.3 Fear Finds Choices

 JAIL BREAK from Keys to Freedom site installation by Janet Riehl at Mad Art Gallery, St. Louis inside the old Soulard jail.  From 2005 national exhibition, juried by Judy Chicago. “Contemporary Women Artists Exhibition XIII,” sponsored by Women’s Caucus for the Arts.

We’ve been talking about fear. What does it want? What does it need? What can it offer us? We’ve noted that when we take the bold step of dialoguing with fear, we can discover those answers and use them to help us achieve our writing goals.

Once we better understand our particular fears’ motivations, we’re ready answer a second set of questions.

1.  Assessment. Where am I now? 

2.  Goal/aim. Where do I want to be?

3.  Obstacles. Where do I get stuck? What gets in the way?

4.  Action plan. How do I get there? What do I need to develop? (See “Creative Catalyst” archives: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity)

As we did in our last post (3.2), we’ll use the situation of “Helen”, a stay-at-home mom who wants to write more, to illustrate.

1.  Assessment. Helen fears that if she takes steps toward her goal of writing more her family will suffer.

2.  Goal/aim. Helen wants to live a balanced life with the freedom to give to both her family and her writing practice.

3.  Obstacles. Helen gets stuck in several ways, some internal and some practical. Emotionally, she is fearful and perhaps feeling guilty. Mentally, she is caught in either/or thinking; adding more weight to one side of the family/writing balance beam means upsetting the other side. Practically, there are a host of tasks to perform to keep the children well cared for, her husband happy, and the household running.

4.  Action plan. Helen needs to do further analysis of her situation and planning. This is what we’ll focus on in this post.

At a family meeting Helen tells her family what she wants to do (write more) and why. She also tells them upfront that she’ll need their help. Together, the family members list what they perceive to be their needs. Even the youngest children participate.

Helen then analyzes the list. What do others expect? What is absolutely required? Everyone needs to eat, of course, and the kids need clean clothes for school, for example. What would be nice but isn’t necessary? Cooking a gourmet meal every night would be nice for the family but definitely not necessary, particularly with young ones at the table.

At this point Helen asks herself the key question, “What matters to me?” She puts Writing! up there at top of the page, before she starts listing family answers.

Finally, Helen engages in the process of identifying trade-offs and identifies other areas, which can do double-duty. For example, if she bikes with the kids, she’ll spend time with them, provide exercise for all of them, and save money on gas.

Once she takes the first steps, it begins to dawn that “We might have more choices than we think.” Helen continues to brainstorm ideas to expand the envelope of possibilities. She puts more structure into family life. Importantly, she continues to talk with her family, making them an integral part of the process.

Helen discovers that more flexible thinking sometimes yields unconventional shortcuts. Meal preparation, for example, is an area where she’d like to spend less time. What if there were ways to cut the number of food shopping trips? Could she simplify her menus? Could she roughly plan out her menus for the entire month and shop from that plan? She could try using more fresh produce toward the beginning of the month and more sturdy produce like cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and celery toward the end of the month. That would allow her to stack the refrigerator and larder to access the fresh produce first. This may seem a little radical, but if it helps Helen reduce time on a family need and open up time for her writing, it makes sense. Writing keeps it place high on the list.

_________________

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque. July’s post, third and last in this cycle considers: “Can we negotiate with fear?

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below. If you’d like to see previous articles in this series, go to http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

1) Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

2) Follow Janet’s internet tour for her new audio book during June and July. Click BOOKSTORE for calender, reviews, videos and Treasure Chest clues that give you a chance to win a free "Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poems and Music."

CYCLE 3.2 How to Use Fear—Or, The Road Runner vs. the Coyote

Roadrunner icon courtsey: http://www.cartoonspot.net

Our May post (3.1) ended with our heroine (you, dear reader) dangling from the cliff of fear. Your precarious dilemma? Do you confront your fears, or do you stay far away from the cliff and stuck in your comfortable, although dissatisfying, patterns?

In 1948, animation director Chuck Jones created the best chase scenes of all time with the Road Runner cartoons. When Wile E. Coyote chases Road Runner to the cliff, Road Runner scurries off to the side of the ledge with a cheery “Beep, beep!” On his website, Kevin McCorry points out that “Nothing happens to Wile E. Coyote that Wile E. does not initiate. Road Runner can only harm him after the chase has already begun by suddenly beep-beeping and startling Wile E. into various dangers, such as falling off a cliff or a jump upward which hits his head.”

It makes more sense creatively to be Road Runner rather than Wile E. Coyote. Be prepared, savvy, clever, and brave. Don’t let fear propel you over the cliff; put your fear to work.

Let’s look at a case study. “Helen” is a sister member of Story Circle Network. She struggles with balancing roles of family and work, a classic situation in modern life for many women.

Helen is a lover of words and an avid reader. To the question “What brings you to life?” her answer is, quite simply—writing. She loves attempting to craft feeling and meaning with carefully chosen words. She reads books slowly, because she frequently runs to her notebook to write down new ideas.

Helen is also the mother of five children, ages 7 to 18. She has spent most of her life at home with her children but returned to the work force as a substitute teacher 3 years ago. She now finds herself at home again after education cuts. Now she is trying to figure out how to organize her time to devote more of her day to her writing.

Helen’s fear is that if she pursues her love of writing, she won’t fulfill her obligations as wife, mother, and homemaker. She sees herself teetering on a balance beam with her domestic role on one side and her role as a writer on the other. There are days when Helen wonders why she bothers. What makes her think she has anything to say? Why would she want to take away from her family for something so selfish?

Helen’s dialogue with fear went something like this:

Helen: Fear, what do you need?

Fear: I need to know that we are not letting down our family. I’m afraid that our family is suffering because of the writing.

Helen: Fear, what do you want?

Fear: I want to figure out a way to do both without feeling guilty.

Helen: What are you offering, Fear?

Fear: I’m pointing out that this is our chance to figure it out.

Helen continued her dialogue with her fear. She put forth ideas, listened when Fear brought up potential pitfalls, and explored alternatives to find a better balance between family and writing acceptable to both her and her fear.

As a first step Helen is experimenting with setting intentions as Noelle Oxenhandler suggests in The Wishing Year. Her intention is to make the time and space to sit, writing her way back home. She is also using our Creative Catalyst post on creating a writing practice (See our archives at http://is.gd/zfY8.) As her experiment progresses and the situation changes, Helen will need to go back to her dialogue to resolve new issues.

We are our own best experts on our desires and fears. There is no one more capable of resolving the tension between the two. Like a diplomat in an international skirmish, offer to shake hands with your fear and work out a compromise. Don’t set yourself up to be the hapless Wile E. Coyote, plunging headfirst over the cliff. Better to be the problem-solving Road Runner. Beep-beep! 

_______________________________________

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque. July’s post, third and last in this cycle considers: “Can we negotiate with fear?

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below. If you’d like to see previous articles in this series, go to http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

1) Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

2) Follow Janet’s internet tour for her new audio book during June and July. Click BOOKSTORE for calender, reviews, videos and Treasure Chest clues that give you a chance to win a free "Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poems and Music."

3) Comment on www.womens.memoirs to have your question chosen for "Memoir Moment" as Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler interview Janet on a live call-in.

Cycle 3.1 Fear, the Friendly Enemy

 Image: “Keys to Freedom” site installation by Janet Riehl at Mad Art Gallery, St. Louis inside the old Soulard jail.  From 2005 national exhibition, juried by Judy Chicago. “Contemporary Women Artists Exhibition XIII,” sponsored by Women’s Caucus for the Arts.

 Upset stomach, shortness of breath, a general feeling of malaise. Are you coming down with the flu—or experiencing fear? It’s an emotion that can mimic the symptoms of illness. Fear can also go beyond the physical and wrestle us into a creative hammerlock.

 As writers, we can’t afford to allow fear to strangle our creative flow. We must learn how to provide ourselves with a sense of safety that keeps us from abandoning our creativity. It may sound strange, but we need to transform fear from an enemy into a friend. See if the strategies below can help.

 1) Learn to track your fear. What pattern does your fear display? It can travel the route of a tiny tickle of uneasiness to anxiety to panic to outright terror. Identify the progression fear normally takes for you. It might run through every stage from A to Z, or it might stop at one of the intermediate stages.

 2) Analyze your reaction to fear. What thoughts and emotions come up when you experience fear? Do you feel helpless? Notice your physical symptoms. Identify how they impact your writing. Do you procrastinate by doodling on your writing pad or playing computer solitaire? Do you abandon your writing altogether?

 3)Take a look at how you relate to fear. For some of us, the feeling of even mild fear compounds itself. It sets off the fear cycle, making it accelerate and intensify. At the extreme, fear can cause creative paralysis.

 4) Find the key to unlock fear’s handcuffs. Whether or not you’ve used them before, your inner toolbox has the tools to unlock the handcuffs fear has clamped on your creativity. Physical and psychological exercises are simple tools any of us can use. They can help us moderate fear and even come to appreciate that our “enemy” can have friendly benefits.

Your Tool Box To Make Friends With Fear

 Learn exercises to keep your body and breathing in balance when fear arises: stretch, practice yoga, walk, or run.

One of my favorite releases for tension, frustration, anger, or fear is the woodchopper exercise from Polarity Therapy. Click here for full description of the woodchopper. Make sure you do it briskly and with convincing sound as you come down.

 

Negotiating with Fear

 One of my favorite tools is to negotiate with fear. It may sound strange but engaging our fear head-on diminishes its power and makes it possible for us to convert it into an ally.

The first step is to tamp down your emotions and consider your fear as neutrally as you can. Understand that fear is a legitimate—and indispensable—element of our human make-up. It is doing its best to protect and care for us in potentially risky situations. It’s doing its best to keep us safe, both physically and psychologically.

 When you feel ready, start a conversation with fear by asking it three simple questions: What do you want? What do you need? What do you have to offer? Write down your questions followed by fear’s responses. Continue the dialogue until you discover the reason for your fear’s recalcitrance and how to ease it. You may be surprised at the circuitous path your conversation takes and where you and your fear finally end up.

 Here’s a sample dialogue:

You: What is it that you want, Fear?

Fear: I want to keep us safe. If you take too many risks, we’re going to hurt ourselves. You want to climb out on that limb with that project, but what if we fall out of the tree? We could really get hurt.

You: What do you need, Fear?

Fear: I need you to listen and understand me. I’m scared. Even fear has its fears, you know. It would be awful if people made fun of us. I don’t want us to look like bloody fools. I want us to be respected.

 You: What do you have to offer, Fear?

Fear: I know how to keep us safe.

 And the dialogue continues. . . .

 Once you know how to identify your fear in its early stages, don’t ignore it. Respond to it right away. Remember that you have the tools you need to change your relationship with this powerful emotion. Like learning to master any tool, the more you use it, the more skillful you become. With practice you’ll learn to take advantage of fear’s energy instead of allowing it to choke off your creativity. You’ll be happier overall and more fluid in your writing practice.

__________________________

In our second post in this cycle (3.2), we’ll explore how to use fear productively. Our last post in the series encourages you to define your own success.   

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below. If you’d like to see previous articles in this series, go to http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

Cycle 2.3 CYCLES: THE RHYTHM METHOD

Woman Carrying Water," by Leslie Frances, Innisfree, Lake County, Northern California, clay sculpture

*****     *****     *****     *****     ******     *****    *****     *****    

I got rhythm, I got music. I got my [work].
Who could ask for anything more?

by George & Ira Gershwin

Runners know it as “hitting stride.” Musical combos know that the drummer drives the beat. Painters know that rhythm and recurrence are the guidelines of good composition. Dancers know that without rhythm, they’ll fall. Actors, storytellers, and comedians know that it’s all about the rhythm of pacing and timing to reach the audience. The heart knows that a syncopated rhythm spells trouble.

Creatives know that to come to terms with the cycles that surge through our lives, we must study our rhythms. Only then can we learn how our rhythms are formed and the most skillful way to respond to them.

In this final “Cycles” post we’ll discuss two of these skillful means. The first exercise is linear and logical. This is our left brain at work. The second exercise draws strongly on our emotional and intuitive worlds to include our right brain.

Method 1: Logging Your Day (Left Brain)

Logging or simple listing is a familiar activity if you’ve tried to manage your time better or sought to recall what you put into your mouth. Don’t make logging any harder than you need to. Nothing fancy, okay?

1) List what you do each hour or short chunk of the day. Were you writing? Answering email? Reading? Researching? Playing solitaire? Watching television? Walking? Eating? Washing the car? Paying your bills? Chatting on the telephone?

2) How much time did each activity take? Keep track without judgment.

3 ) Choose a time to review the log. Study the list and analyze what category it falls into. Survival (like paying bills and eating)? Mindless procrastinating (like playing solitaire because you are bored)? Relaxing or resting to recharge (like walking)? Creative forward movement (like writing, reading, researching)?

4) Notice which activities gave you pleasure. Which ones moved you further and which hindered your goal of being a working writer?

5) How do internal and external factors affect your rhythms? Do your inner and outer worlds mesh or snag each other?  Without enough exercise, or sleep, or emotional satisfaction, or good nutrition what happens to your mood, health, and creative productivity?

 6) Shift your schedule. Decide which activities you’ll stop doing or start doing. Which ones will you do more of or less of?

Method 2: If you are conflicted: Cross-Hand Dialogue (Right Brain)

You’ll find the complete description of cross-hand dialogue in Lucia Capacchione’s fine book “The Power of Your Other Hand: A Course in Channeling the Inner Wisdom of the Right Brain”  (http://www.luciac.com/books/bookpages/PowerOtherHand.html)

Briefly, here’s how: 

1)  Assemble these tools: large paper (butcher paper or newsprint is good) and crayons. These are optional, but allow you greatest freedom.

2)  Draw a line down the center of the page. On one side you’ll write with your dominant hand (the hand you write with and use most actively). On the other side you’ll respond with your non-dominant hand.

3)  Choose a question you want to know more about. For instance: I feel in conflict over the things I must do and my writing. Help!

4)  Pose the question with your dominant hand. Reply with your non-dominant hand and so forth until you come to a resolution within you.

5)  When you write with your non-dominant hand, write boldly. Don’t be concerned, even if you can read it then. You can use what I call “inter-linear translation” later by going back and clearly printing what’s written. But knowing what’s written isn’t what’s most important. You know it in your gut. Writing with the other hand draws forth strong emotions, thus making your conflict more clear and the resulting resolution more possible.

Make friends with your rhythm and don’t sabotage it. In entering new territory by setting a new goal or solidifying a new habit, be patient. Slow progress works. Eventually, the rhythm method keeps your creative life in balance.

*****     *****     *****     ******     *****     *****     *****     *****   

This third post is the last one in “Cycles.” See: 2.1 Creative Cycles (February) and 2.2 Creative Cycles: Balancing Act (March )to read the complete series. See the Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

Column written by Janet Grace Riehl of St. Louis in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow in Albuquerque.

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog in the comment section below.

Go to www.riehlife.com to sign up for a free download of a 10-minute audio from “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.”

Cycle 2.2 CREATIVE CYCLES: BALANCING ACT

 

"Woman Carrying Water," by Leslie Frances, Innisfree, Lake County, Northern California, clay sculpture

See Creative Catalyst archive at: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/creativity/

As you gaze at the highest point of the Big Top, you see the tightrope walker. She navigates the wire that’s barely visible from the bleachers below. There’s tense silence—and then a gasp as she loses her balance, swaying over the precipice. And then a sigh of relief as this mistress of the air rights herself. She regains her stability with deft use of her balancing pole.

Writers and artists require a balancing pole too. We've discussed in previous posts how we’re in constant creative flux. Our creative cycles move inward and outward. They can make us well centered or unstable, much like the tightrope walker, who loses her footing from time to time. Daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonal, our creative rhythms require conscious balancing.

A writer’s precipice isn’t as visibly dramatic as the tightrope walker’s. It’s invisible: a holding back and restraining of our talent. But creative energy demands its turn in the spotlight. It shouts out for the freedom to perform. Not releasing all that we have to do and say and be in the world can leave us teetering.

Self-awareness allows us to hand-knot a resilient safety net. With practice and experience, we perfect using the balancing pole to correct the inevitable “wobblies.” For some, the balancing pole is physical activity, for others a spiritual practice or community volunteer work. Whatever it may be, we must seek out our personal point of balance. We don’t want to falter too close to the precipice.

In terms of our creative practice, we need to balance cycles of being out-in-the-world time with in-the-studio times.

I became aware of this creative cycle when I was in my 20s and living in West Africa. A Ghanaian man, who was growing into himself as a writer and painter, became my dear friend. He taught me how to fully engage in out-in-the-world time and then the in-the-studio time. We shopped in the outdoor markets, reveling in the red of tomatoes and the rust-colored chili. We soaked up the old men’s songs and stories drinking millet beer. We took simple adventures—night walks or sitting on our metal roof under the stars. In short, we delved as deeply as we could into the life surrounding us.

Following all this, we returned home to rest and digest. We consciously processed all that we'd seen and learned. During these downtime days, insights about our experiences emerged. We could see how to craft our out-in-the-world time into fruitful in-the-studio time. We had followed an outward path and were now able to branch off onto the inward, art-producing path. I was incredibly fortunate to have this example early in life.

In midlife, I experienced a period I call “When the Art Came In.” Creative energy was unstoppable; it welled from every pore of my being: visual art, storytelling, composing, and writing.There was no way I could not create!

The creative strategies I’d learned in Ghana were just as effective in California. I blocked out painting days, giving myself a personal painting retreat in effect. (At this point I was painting in addition to writing.) To prepare, I cooked soups and stocked the refrigerator. I paid bills, returned phones calls, and made other practical arrangements. When I started painting, then, I could give myself fully to the sacred space of image and story. In-the-studio time was devoted solely to my art. Out-in-the-world time was transformed into tangible work.

When I have smaller chunks of time, I use the same principles so that I'm fully there. It’s how I’ve learned to handle the outward/inward cycles of creativity. It’s how I’ve crafted my balancing pole.

Your balancing pole is no doubt quite different. What it looks like, though, is immaterial. What matters is that it can guide you from the gasp of slipping to the relieved sigh of stability.

If you have comments or questions, please join in the dialog below or send me a private message at www.riehlife.com. Column written by Janet Grace Riehl (St. Louis) in collaboration with Stephanie Farrow (Albuquerque).