A funny thing happened on the way to self-actualization: I learned another secret about great writing.
The dot-connecting came 10 days into The Great Hypnotherapy Project, a 30-day
marathon I'm collaborating on with my friend, L.A. hypnotherapist Greg Beckett, and blogging about on my own.
Now after years of acting, years of therapy and--well, just years, I'm fairly comfortable with baring my soul in public. But the speed at which I had to cover this material, along with the extreme intensity of the work itself, did something to my writing: it made it better.
At least, that's what one of my longtime critic-fans said after reading the
first week's entries. In his words, my writing was less "tricky" and more compelling: somewhere between passion and exhaustion, I'd connected
with my truth, which made it easier (and far more interesting) for a reader to connect with theirs.
I'm not advocating the rest of the world devote three hours daily to being hypnotized and writing about it. But why not approximate this condition of toned mental readiness before sitting down to write? Here are a few possibilities:
1. Morning Pages
From Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way come these daily ablutions for the brain. Morning Pages both clear out the crud and reconnect you to your Bigger, Smarter Self so you can focus on the truth, not your facility with gerunds or business-ese.
All that's required is to fill three pages of lined notebook paper by hand first thing in the morning with whatever consciousness you happen to be streaming. Over time, Morning Pages work some serious juju-magic, but even superficially, they work really well to get your fancy-pants self out of the way.
2. "Timed Exercises"
Natalie Goldberg's variation (from Writing Down the
Bones)
is more like the series of quick sketches an artist will do to limber up before "real" drawing begins.
To do them, set a timer (start short, work up to longer) and write whatever nonsense bubbles up until the timer beeps. At their most basic, Timed Exercises serve by burning off the craziness, but trust me, your subconscious often comes up with some pretty amazing and highly-usable nuggets when you're not pushing it to do so.
3. An actual, physical walk
One of the best ways to loosen a mental bottleneck is to get the blood moving. Put the thing you want to write about in your head as you get your shoes on, then let
it go while you walk walk walk.
Don't forget last month's tip: bring a notebook and a pen with you, as you never know when those thoughts or words will be jarred loose.
Finally...
4. Trust your infrastructure
The above stuff works because you already have the words in you: you are master of your domain, pasha of your purview. You even know the best way to share that information. These trickety-tricks are about getting yourself out of the way and in the moment--about reconnecting with the spark that got you fired up about your passion in the first place.
Have any more ways you get yourself out of the way? Hit "reply" or click on the email link
below.
I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe to prepare unbridled creativity!
