C.M. Barrett's Blog, page 7

How to Crush Your Creativity: Say "I Know."

This is an especially powerful way to crush creativity. When I KNOW, I can't learn.

In one of its most devastating forms, I KNOW equals prejudice and bigotry. If I KNOW that someone of a particular religion, sex, gender, race, age, or any other category is a certain way, or age, I prevent the ability to see anything unique and individual about that person. I can't find points of identification and communication. I lose any opportunity for a relationship with him or her.

KNOWING closes doors on opportunity, possibility, and creativity, not only in terms of the big areas of prejudice but in more immediate ways.

If you know your kid isn't going to clean her room no matter what you do, you walk into the designated health hazard day and in your mind begin to compose the dialogue for the same fight you've had for months (worst case scenario: years). You expect difficulty and resistance, and your child fulfills all your expectations because you KNOW she will.

KNOWING not only shuts the door on relationship growth with family members and friends, it can prevent you from expressing creativity in your preferred artistic pursuit, whether it's a career or not.

This happened to me all the time when I was learning to paint. I wasn't happy if I didn't achieve a near-photographic representation of whatever I was painting. That's how I KNEW it had to be.

At the same time, I wanted to be more imaginative, abstract, and exciting with my painting, but that meant taking risks. My message to myself was, " I'm afraid to change. The unknown frightens me. I have to stay with what I know."

When I Don't Listen to Myself

When I make the decision to stay safe by KNOWING, I don't listen to myself.

Our intuition and inner wisdom is always giving us new possibilities for thoughts and action. It might say, "Use that color," "Try treating your child like a human being who's interested in sanitation?" The protective self says, "Scary, unknown, dangerous, no."

To live creatively, though, we need to step off the familiar track. Creating is making something new, and sometimes that involves risks.

To do something new, you can't say "I know." Remember that "I know" equals "No." Solution

Start by noticing how often you say or think either "I know" or "No." Then do something small, a minor deviation in your routine. Listen to your intuition and do at least one thing it suggests.

Keep a record of your yes votes, and see if your life gets more interesting.

Martin Luther King Day

Probably one of the most inspiring speeches given in the past several decades is the "I have a dream" speech.

In my continuing musings about goals, plans, resolutions, and intentions, it occurs to me that dreams make the top of the list.

Nothing is more inspiring than a dream that pulls you toward it, leaving all your resistance, fear, and petty concerns behind.

Have a dream today—and every day.

New Year's Intentions

This year I realized that the words "resolution" and "goals" didn't excite me. I wanted a word that had movement and energy, so I chose "intentions."

I also wanted a theme. I could have laboriously worked one out. Fortunately, my writer's group, Artistic License, has a member, Marilyn, who's a tarot expert. We've been critiquing the book, and the process (plus her brilliant and lucid explanations) drew me into a deep interest in tarot.

I decided to choose a tarot card that could be a key phrase for the year.

Here's my card.

Ace of Wands: I am inspired.

This felt totally right. Thus, my overall goal is to increasingly act out of inspiration. In making choices, I will ask myself, "What inspires me?"

This will guide my writing choices, promotional and networking choices, and, most of all, life choices.

I intend to publish a book of advice for cats, for which I am the lowly conduit. The book is currently entitled Cats in Charge: A Guide to World Domination I am targeting April or May for publication and have compiled a list of bloggers/web sites whose owners review books about cats.

In August or September I will publish Book 4 of A Dragon's Guide to Destiny, Book of Sorrows.

I will continue to work on a novel called Dystopia in Drag, intending a 2014 publication.

I thought the dragon series was over, but to my surprise, I got ideas for a fifth book. This one will be called (I think) The Rainbow Dragon.

As far as life choices, I realized that conscious intentions led to mindfulness, which leads to being in the moment. I couldn't ask for a better guidance system for this year.

A fellow member of Artistic License, June Diehl, has also posted her intentions and tarot card selections. It's a terrific post, and you can read it here..

New Worlds to Gain

As I noted in a previous entry, I'm beginning to set goals for the new year. Before formally doing so, I take time to imagine what I want. One thing I know is that an individual's life doesn't change until (s)he can imagine a different way of living.

In thinking about the future, I realized I could learn from my fictional characters. In the series, A Dragon's Guide to Destiny, each main character is challenged to imagine a world very different from the one they know.

Melancholy Druid knows he's the Dragon of Destiny, but he is sure he'll fail to accomplish his purpose, in part because all humans have it in for him. Learning to trust a few humans and his own abilities will move him closer to his goal, but can he take that risk?

Tara, the Chosen Kitten, harbors a similar mistrust of humans. She also fears giant dragons. Can she imagine a world in which large and small, human and feline, can join forces?

Human Serazina has unlawful psychic gifts that could lead to her incarceration in the World for the Chronically Crazy (and that would be only the first of coming attractions). Although she must exercise those gifts for her world to be saved, she will have to risk her life to do so.

Phileas, Guardian of Oasis, lives in the tightest mental straightjacket of all, imprisoned by a rigid tradition of mental superiority that suppresses his emotional intelligence. Though he realizes that these limitations are jeopardizing the people he's sworn to guide, he fears that a world in which emotions are fully expressed will be one of chaos.

Like Druid, I often doubt my ability to succeed. I also, like Tara, sometimes question the willingness of others to cooperate in the fulfillment of my dreams. In earlier years, I felt that my gifts and talents were unrecognized by society, and I regularly check to see if this belief is resurfacing. Likewise, I know it takes commitment to keep the creativity flowing.

Each of us may have different limitations in our ability to imagine a different world, but if we want our lives to accommodate our deepest desires and dreams, we need to imagine worlds that our new selves can happily inhabit.

I used to live in a world where my novels lived only in my computer. Before that situation could change, I needed to imagine a world in which they were published, read, reviewed, etc. Without these mental architectural drawings, I had no way to begin.

Now I'm thinking it's time for me to make the stakes as high for myself as I do for my suffering fictional friends. That's going to call for a lot of imagination.

And some inspiration. If you're considering setting some high-stakes goals, you may benefit listening to the music that helped me write this blog.

Both are by John Lennon

Mind Games

Imagine

Happy New Year!

Indie Book Festival

Big Dragons Don't Cry is part of The Holiday Book Sale from Dec. 28 to Dec. 31.

Click here to check out the titles available.

Today's hottest fiction ebooks are on sale for .99 from Dec 28-Dec 31 only! Mystery, romance, fantasy, young adult - there's something for everyone ...

... including the chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Holidays to All

I was thinking it's too early to make New Year's resolutions. The truth, however, is that it's never too early.

Another truth is that I haven't made any yet. However, I'm a member of a writers' group to which I've belonged for over 12 years, and one of our traditions is to make individual lists of resolutions and share them with the other members.

This is called keeping us honest.

It means that for the next few weeks, I'm going to be thinking about and writing down what I plan to accomplish for the coming year. I have two possible ways of looking at this project. One is to make goals I know I can achieve. The other is to dream big.

Dreaming big appeals to me. It calls forth the best in me, including resources I might otherwise allow to lie dormant. It has risks, though, as dreaming big always does.

The principal risk involves how I deal with what I could call failure, i.e., not achieving everything on my list. I can beat myself up for that, and I'm pretty good at it. I can also accept that not every dream gets fulfilled according to a timetable and believe that setting one in motion is its own reward.

I think I'll vote for Plan B.

To be continued.

Giving Thanks

Whether or not you are eating turkey today, you might enjoy the following story:

"When Turkeys Give Thanks"

In no particular order of importance, I'm grateful for:

The turkeys, deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and other animals who visit my back yard

My family, whether biological or adopted, and especially to Joyce.

Long-time friends in my writing group, Artistic License: Marilyn, Faye, June, Julie, and Sharon. I just celebrated my 12th anniversary in this group.

Indie Writers Unite! This group has made all the difference in the world to me as a writer.

My readers. I may never meet you in person, but I so appreciate your support. You help me to fulfill my dream.

Special thanks to my imagination, without which life would be boring.

And thanks to you who are reading this blog. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope your life is full of reasons for gratitude. And the same goes for those of you who don't.

Returning to BlogWorld

I wish I could say I took a long summer vacation. The truth is that I had dental surgery, I'm fine, and I'm not going to say one descriptive word about it. If you're at all like me, you may have an imagination that can supply painful details, and I wouldn't inflict that on anyone but myself.

Instead, I'm passing this message by George Carlin. It's been around the Internet a lot, but I think that in this election year, it's especially timely.

After the 2008 election, Irish standup comedian Dylan Moran, while doing a show in Australia, noted that after being elected, Obama spoke seriously about working together and being realistic about what could be accomplished, and people looked at him and said, "No, you do it."

The message below, by another comedian who knew how to be serious, reminds us that so many of the biggest issues today, not only in the U.S., but worldwide, will remain no matter who gets elected.

When I think of the vast amount of untapped creativity in this world, when I contemplate what a brilliant environment we can make for ourselves if we use the full resources of our hearts and minds, I know it's not up to whoever we elect anywhere. It's up to us.

A Message by George Carlin

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways ,but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?

George Carlin

Life is Fiction

Since way before the beginning of this blog, I have considered it important to make the point that everyone is creative. For those who doubt, just look at this major literary work called your life. When we realize we're the authors, it gets easier to write.

The article below, from The New Yorker magazine, transmits the message with far more elegance than I could.

Everything is Fiction

I hope you enjoy it and go on to write some scenes in which you, the hero/heroine, triumph.

Circles of Friends: Maeve Binchy

On July 30, 2012, Irish author Maeve Binchy died at the age of 72. Her books, translated into 37 languages, sold more than 40 million copies. More importantly, she was probably Ireland's best-loved author. She was certainly one of my best-loved authors.

Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982, which happened to be the year of my first visit to Ireland. I bought that book in an Irish bookstore. I was discovering the thrill of buying books unavailable in the U.S., and this wasn't the first one I read. Only when I got home did I open it.

Though much of the novel takes place in England, it has plenty of Irish scenes, particularly set in the Dublin area. In my visit to Dublin, I had seen Dean Swift's church to the birthplaces of Yeats, Wilde, and countless settings for Ulysses. Dublin seems to live and breathe great literature.

In reading Binchy's novel, I discovered a different Dublin and a different Ireland, the home of people, who, while they had a lot of problems, cared about each other and came to solutions. In many ways, her novel Circle of Friends, which was made into a movie, was her breakthrough work. In a greater sense, though, all of her books are about circles of friends who help each other through the rough patches of life.

This quote from her describes her far better than I could:

"The happiest moments of my life are connected with family and friends. There is a great comfort about being with people who knew you way back when. There is a mental shorthand, an easy-going feeling that life doesn't have to be explained or defined; we are all in more or less the same boat. To have a community around you in a changing and unstable world is invaluable and nothing can beat the feeling that there will always be people out for our good."

Though I never personally met her, I will miss her greatly.