Showing posts with label Creative Connections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creative Connections. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Creative Connections - Messy Writing

Oct 2007 Rocky Mountains 4

My fingertips are stained purple and red from experimenting with alcohol inks. Turquoise paint from redoing the hall bath rims my fingernails. My dining table is covered with newspapers, the inks and paint, brushes, and the glass bowl that I've ink painted a glowing transparent plum color. Creativity is messy.

Writing used to be messy. Think of wastebaskets overflowing with balled-up papers, the ink-stained fingers of authors, the splurts of fountain pens on manuscripts and desks. Now writing is cleaner, no correction fluid to drip white dots on my hands,no flowing ink, not even typewriter ribbons to change. I can type and backspace, delete, change wording, correct spelling, play with fonts and colors. My hands and desk stay clean.

I wonder though if these tidy words marching across the page between clean margins are not misleading. The words are not actually perfect. They may not look it, but they are smeared, misshapen, blemished. They need polishing, crossing out, moved around. And I realize that writing is still a messy process - even if my hands aren't usually ink stained.


Lauri Griffin is a published short story writer who is currently revising some longer works. She holds degrees in educational psychology and gifted education, and is the instructional coordinator for a a literacy program. Lauri is fascinated by the many different ways our brains learn, and by the creative process. Visit Lauri's Reflections, for more thoughts on creativity, writing, lifelong learning, and parenting. Read more!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Creative Connections - Encouragement

Golden Bell 2008 089

Last week I went on a three day field trip with my 5th grade twins to a conference center in the Colorado mountains. One of the highlights of the trip was the zip line. Some kids didn't hesitate to climb the tree to the platform, jump off the edge and travel hundreds of feet on a zip line down the mountain. Some cried a little, others bit back their tears. Almost all the kids conquered their fears and made the jump. Their teacher had told them what to expect and emphasized how strong the ropes and harnesses were. As the kids climbed the tree and made that jump the other children and parents cheered. I kept thinking how rare that kind of encouragement is. These kids were taking a literal jump out of their comfort zones. No one was telling them to be careful, to consider the consequences, to consider the odds of success, to play it safe. Instead their names were chanted, and they were told "one step at a time", "keep going", and "you can do it".

And yes, that's one of my sons in the picture. And I cheered for my boys even though I was nervous and worried. They looked so tiny when they were at the top of that tree. It would have been safer for them to stay on the ground, but not nearly as thrilling.

Encouragement shouldn't be rare. Let's spread some around. Encourage somebody today - maybe not to jump out of a tree - but to take their own creative leap, to do something new even if it's scary.

Lauri Griffin is a published short story writer who is currently revising some longer works. She holds degrees in educational psychology and gifted education, and is the instructional coordinator for a a literacy program. Lauri is fascinated by the many different ways our brains learn, and by the creative process. Visit Lauri's Reflections, for more thoughts on creativity, writing, lifelong learning, and parenting. Read more!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Creative Connections

Oct 2007 Rocky Mountains 4

Old Friend, New Writer

A friend of mine recently decided she wants to write. I have mixed feelings about this. Most of me is excited to have another writing buddy, and I'm proud of her, for doing something she wants to do, for dreaming big, for mining the creative depths. I have no doubt she will be a talented writer. She has a flair for storytelling, and she's incredibly intelligent and well read.

And yet a small part of me thinks, "don't do it". Because from my own experience, and from talking to other writers I know that the next couple of years are going to be hard ones for her. She will struggle with her own identity. She will find some ugly things in those creative depths. Wrestling with them will make her stronger, but it's tiring, and messy, and scary. Writing takes time. Something will have to give. Those decisions about what gives and when are not easy to make and are often loaded with guilt.

People she trusted to support her will let her down. She will spend too much time wondering if her writing stinks, or if those trusted people are jealous that she's pursuing her goals or are worried about what she write, or maybe they can't imagine that she has anything interesting to say, or maybe they just aren't interested in her at all. She will learn to keep the writer part of her self safe, but only after a lot of painful bruises.

Others will surprise her with their interest and support. And I want to and will be one of those people.

Lauri Griffin is a published short story writer who is currently revising some longer works. She holds degrees in educational psychology and gifted education, and is the instructional coordinator for a a literacy program. Lauri is fascinated by the many different ways our brains learn, and by the creative process. Visit Lauri's Reflections, for more thoughts on creativity, writing, lifelong learning, and parenting. Read more!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Creative Connections

Oct 2007 Rocky Mountains 4

Creative Car Time


School starts back next week, which means a lot more time in the car for me, not only driving but waiting for the end of school and practices. My creative project time is already quite limited. So as I'm buying school supplies for the kids, I'm also stocking the car for me so that I don't waste those waiting hours. Tiny notebooks are a must for capturing snippets of inspirations, remembering things to do, and jotting down the name of a song that captures my interest. Full sized notebooks or legal pads are better for journaling and real writing. A clipboard to write on is helpful too. For editing I like different colored pens and sticky notes. I've also got a few soft drawing pencils because drawing something small, in detail, helps wake up my creative brain. All of these supplies easily fit into a canvas bag, and actually have me looking forward to some of those hours of waiting. If my car just came with a coffee maker....

Lauri Griffin is a published short story writer who is currently revising some longer works. She holds degrees in educational psychology and gifted education, and is the instructional coordinator for a a literacy program. Lauri is fascinated by the many different ways our brains learn, and by the creative process. Visit Lauri's Reflections, for more thoughts on creativity, writing, lifelong learning, and parenting.
Read more!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Failing with Style

Creative Connections
from Lauri Griffin

Have you seen the "Meet the Robinsons" movie? What struck me most was how failure was celebrated. In the movie, Lewis is a young orphaned boy. He's also an inventor, albeit a relatively unsuccessful and discouraged one. (People tend to cower and run when he turns his machines on). When he time travels into the future he spends time with a wonderful, eccentric, and creative family. He tries to fix their automatic peanut butter and jelly spreader, but instead of repairing it, he makes it explode. Think blobs of peanut butter and globs of jelly covering the dining room and everyone in it. Lewis starts to apologize, but is interrupted by cheers. People raise their glasses and toast his failure with comments about how completely and messily he failed. They saw failure as a step, not something to apologize for, or be ashamed about.

And failure can be a step to success, or maybe to revision, or maybe to something we can't see or imagine until we go through that mess. We don't usually applaud our failures though. We brush them under something, hide them away, hope no one noticed or saw. I think it's part of our instant culture that we expect instant results, instant success. So here's to failure, to effort, to another try, and to wherever it takes you.

Lauri Griffin is a published short story writer who is currently revising some longer works. She holds degrees in educational psychology and gifted education. She writes for a parenting website and is the instructional coordinator for a a literacy program. Lauri is fascinated by the many different ways our brains learn, and by the creative process. Visit Lauri's Reflections, for more thoughts on creativity, writing, lifelong learning, and parenting. Read more!