elan vital, sometimes called “the life force that makes things make themselves” was a term coined by “French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book Creative Evolution, was translated in the English edition as “vital impetus” … see more on our dear friend WIKI …

i like this concept of a vital creative life force, this “current of life” in a literary, poetic if you will, context. it goes further than your typical inspiration or your run-of-the-mill muse, it is an actual force, an energy that flows through you and can then make the writing make itself.

… and upon quick google search, Elan Vital is also the name of a pretty funky art gallery in Maui, click here, to see some painted creative life force energy …

it’s a happy meditation on a nice summer evening.

enjoy!

ok now for a quick writing prompt to get your midweek juices flowing -

- grab a book, a favourite if you want

- open a page at random

- read a sentence at random

- use this line as your starting point and just go….

or, if you are really lazy, use my selection randomly selected from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist:

“Well, then , why do we need all these books?” the boy asked.”

that’s from page 80, third paragraph, Harper Collins, 1998, if you need to know.

ok now go write… i expect you to hand in 50 pages by friday you know!!!!

it’s eleanor roosevelt and marion dickerman, circa 1935, in the white house master bedroom. they looked unimpressed i think. just imagine what they were talking about?!?!

photo cred goes to the white house museum, for full post click, here

As you might have gathered, I like quotes. I like that there’s always a tasty maxim to use to any given situation, and it’s an easy way look smart but not actually have to think or anything….

So, here’s a quote for this Creative Blog Post:

“For a creative writer possession of the “truth” is less important than emotional sincerity.”
- George Orwell

Well, my immediate thought for this one is that to the creative writer – emotion sincerity IS the truth!

Perhaps a little solipsist, yes, but who else but the writer believes in her own thoughts above everything else.

Too deep? Doesn’t have to be.

Ask yourself, what does this mean for you?

And now write it!!

(for foto cred go – here!)

when i talk to writers, novice and professional alike, about their writing, one thing always rings clear – no one is certain they have what it takes to be a writer!! everyone has doubts!! but sometimes i think we let those doubts get so huge they get in the way of our successfully writing anything.

it’s the romanic image of the writer, is it not? that tortured poet a la elizabeth barrett, locked in her third floor bedroom wrestling her feisty, elusive muse. i wonder how much of that image is pure bs. i wonder how much writing could actually happen if we just believed in ourselves and left the self torture to the masochists.

whilst i pondered this (i have a tendency to use words like “whilst” when i think of elizabeth barrett), i found these two quizzes online, one is short and sweet, click here, and one takes a few thoughtful minutes and digs a little deeper, click here. it’s an interesting thing to do, to say the least – one of them said i “had a reasonably high sense of self esteem,” the other said i was whithering on the floor nearly incapacitated with my inability to just believe in myself – actually it said i was “low” and that “a change in mindset could make all the difference in the world.”

what’s neat is that each of them, and any article i found on the subject, attributed poor mental outlook with poor personal output. low self esteem not being just about feeling bad about yourself, but also about doing bad, or less, work.

specifically, ”You seem to experience some doubt about your own abilities, occasional feelings of inadequacy … if you believe that you cannot do something, your belief causes you to think and behave in a way that leads to your eventual failure. Although your self-esteem is generally healthy, and some insecurity is normal, it certainly can’t hurt to give your confidence a boost.”

elizabeth barrett may have written some decent poetry, but she spent half her life suffering from debilitating agoraphobia and addicted to opium. she was eventually “saved” by marrying fellow poet robert browning and whisked off to the italian coast, to live life, to be happy, and be doing so she arguably, WROTE BETTER POETRY!

while an army of robert brownings are not likely to whisk us off like the suffering damsels we are – you neither boys – they say, if you name it you claim it, and if you know you’re only really beating yourself up for nothing then you can stop right? well, old habits die hard, but maybe, just for today, you should just BELIEVE you can do it, and see what sort of magic-like writing might come out of that…

i’ll do the same, if only for today … but first i got to put some ice on my eye. that muse of mine sure has a mean right hook!!

i think this picture is funny ’cause it’s what i say to myself every time i’m knee deep in the editing process and feeling low self esteem!

hopefully, it can help you write something marvelous. because you are the best, and you should just write something right now!

more on this topic next post.

a pretty little list of rules for you.

it reminds me of the best writing advice i ever heard -

the secret to writing is here…. all you need is a.i.c – arse in chair!

who cares if it’s good, who cares if its even legible,

be like michael jordan and JUST DO IT!

and have fun,

i didn’t get any calls from my co-workers/lotto pool buddies or from lottery officials, so i’m thinking i didn’t win. hmph!

but hey, what i did get is a good idea for this week’s creative writing prompt – winning the lottery.

i don’t know about you but it’s always a good source of fantasy material for me.

oh the places i would go.

oh the things i would get.

oh the restrictive force of materialism, or lack there of.

let’s all think of all the good things we would do if we won the lottery –  it’s really an exercise in what we would do if we felt we had freedom, if we felt we could do anything.

now pick one of those things and imagine it, see it, feel it. what would it smell like, what would it feel like, for you, for your loved ones.

i know what i would do.

i know what it would smell like.

now you go….

isn’t  that nice?! writing is healthy! writing makes you feel good! so go write about something hard and feel better!!!

i know it’s not always that easy, especially when you’re tired, grumpy, or got a bad case of the mondays,

but maybe if you are not dancing in the rain right now you can remember a time when you were truly happy?

some time when you were blissed out and smiling your face off?

think about it.

what caused it?

or who? wink wink!

what made it so great?

and what happened after?

write about it.

show it.

and don’t worry, be happy.

~ sorry – had to say it.