I'm currently obsessing over Arwen Donahue's work. I especially adore her new graphic stories at The Rumpus--here's one posted just today, "The Hungriest Color."
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Arwen Donahue's Sensitive Storytelling
I'm currently obsessing over Arwen Donahue's work. I especially adore her new graphic stories at The Rumpus--here's one posted just today, "The Hungriest Color."
Monday, July 22, 2013
The Storialist Turns Five
Today, I celebrate five years of posting every weekday at The Storialist. It feels like a significant milestone, especially now, just one and a half weeks from the release of my book (yay!!).
If I could go back to July of 2008, when I first started The Storialist, I’d tell myself: “Hey, you only have to write every day for four years, and then your book will be accepted for publication! One year from that, anyone (including readers of this blog!) will be able to hold this book, and read it in their home, on the bus, in the bathtub, or before falling asleep. All you have to do is make the commitment to write every weekday for five years, and this will happen.”
Honestly, I might have been scared off by the sound of that (the amount of time and work). But now, I want to say it to you, all of you artists and writers and makers. All you have to do is make a commitment to your work, to sharing it and becoming an active member of your community, and to being open to how you will grow and change.
A hard lesson: nothing will happen before it can happen. We are impatient for results, for success, for a limited view of what we think the end is.
But then we miss the process. We miss the failures, the shifts, the wonderful results that are unpredictable because they look nothing like books or awards. And when we are immersed in process, our goals change.
I have valued so much connecting with readers, with fellow creatives, with artists and thinkers of every genre. To live attentively, and to be able to throw inspiration to one another across the weird, friendly abyss that is the internet....I feel so fortunate and grateful for this.
Thank you for reading! Keep making what you make. And please share it with me (and others!). If you haven’t yet jumped in to the project that is calling your name--now is the time.
Today's poem is sparked by an image from....guess who?
Previous anniversaries:
July 2008
July 2009
July 2010
July 2011
July 2012
If I could go back to July of 2008, when I first started The Storialist, I’d tell myself: “Hey, you only have to write every day for four years, and then your book will be accepted for publication! One year from that, anyone (including readers of this blog!) will be able to hold this book, and read it in their home, on the bus, in the bathtub, or before falling asleep. All you have to do is make the commitment to write every weekday for five years, and this will happen.”
Honestly, I might have been scared off by the sound of that (the amount of time and work). But now, I want to say it to you, all of you artists and writers and makers. All you have to do is make a commitment to your work, to sharing it and becoming an active member of your community, and to being open to how you will grow and change.
A hard lesson: nothing will happen before it can happen. We are impatient for results, for success, for a limited view of what we think the end is.
But then we miss the process. We miss the failures, the shifts, the wonderful results that are unpredictable because they look nothing like books or awards. And when we are immersed in process, our goals change.
I have valued so much connecting with readers, with fellow creatives, with artists and thinkers of every genre. To live attentively, and to be able to throw inspiration to one another across the weird, friendly abyss that is the internet....I feel so fortunate and grateful for this.
Thank you for reading! Keep making what you make. And please share it with me (and others!). If you haven’t yet jumped in to the project that is calling your name--now is the time.
Today's poem is sparked by an image from....guess who?
Previous anniversaries:
July 2008
July 2009
July 2010
July 2011
July 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Inspiration, in Eight Minutes or Less
Never fear--no infomercial here. I wanted to share this video of one of my favorite writing activities with you.
In this video, the unflaggingly delightful Lynda Barry will steer you through a brief (but crazily effective) exercise. I’ve used a variation of this exercise with my writing students (and I always participate, too). The power of writing to help us to unpack our memories (whether sensory, emotional, or just the logistics of a scene) is astounding.
The activity also reinforces a lesson I constantly repeat to my students (and myself): what we notice matters, and what we all notice about even the most similar scene is strikingly varied.
Too often, we dismiss our own observations as insignificant. There is so much value to being attentive to the world around us, and attentive to our own reactions to this world.
To start: write a list of ten random words (you can write them on index cards or slips of paper, or just as a list on a sheet of paper). Don’t overthink this.
And now, over to Lynda Barry, Champion of Creativity and Goodness.
How was this activity for you? Anything interesting come up? Which tutorials, activities, or prompts are most helpful to you?
In this video, the unflaggingly delightful Lynda Barry will steer you through a brief (but crazily effective) exercise. I’ve used a variation of this exercise with my writing students (and I always participate, too). The power of writing to help us to unpack our memories (whether sensory, emotional, or just the logistics of a scene) is astounding.
The activity also reinforces a lesson I constantly repeat to my students (and myself): what we notice matters, and what we all notice about even the most similar scene is strikingly varied.
Too often, we dismiss our own observations as insignificant. There is so much value to being attentive to the world around us, and attentive to our own reactions to this world.
To start: write a list of ten random words (you can write them on index cards or slips of paper, or just as a list on a sheet of paper). Don’t overthink this.
And now, over to Lynda Barry, Champion of Creativity and Goodness.
How was this activity for you? Anything interesting come up? Which tutorials, activities, or prompts are most helpful to you?
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