Photos by Steven Langhorst.
Deborah Terra Weltman helped writers tap into their intuitive creativity during an interactive workshop Sept. 9. She shared her personal experiences, as well as ideas from Julia Cameron’s 1992 book, The Artist’s Way.
Deborah
finds joy in creative work of any kind, especially work that inspires personal
and spiritual growth. She adores creative problem-solving, magical places,
“treasure hunts,” and imagining from new perspectives. She defined “intuitive
creativity” as “being taught from within” rather than looking outside
yourself for guidance.
“I always wanted to be a visual artist,” she
said, “but I remember thinking I wasn’t good enough, even in grade school.”
Because of that, she didn’t take art classes, which meant she didn’t have
portfolio when it came time for college. “So I got a degree in psychology.
Later,
after taking art classes as an adult at the community college, Deborah realized
she had a particular artistic style. “I remember in a life-drawing class, at
end of the period, it looked like we were all drawing different people but we
were drawing the same model. I thought, ‘How is this possible?’ By the end of
semester, we could recognize who had done each drawing, could easily see their
individual style.”
She built
up a portfolio and got accepted into Webster University, where she earned an
art degree and teacher’s certification. “I focused on creative mindset – we all
need to be able to think creatively.”
Morning Pages
Exhausted,
after a single year of teaching in public school, she went into picture framing
as a way of getting back into doing art while using creative problem-solving
skills. Along the way, she started doing one of Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way
techniques: “Morning Pages.” Each day, you write three pages in a journal, to
clear your mind so creativity can flow.
“I’ve
journaled prayers, to-do lists, written my thoughts on what I was reading.
Usually about three-fourths of the three-page requirement in, I don’t know what
else to write. I do what Julia Cameron suggests for that: I simply write, ‘I
don't know what to write’ over and over until something shows up in my mind.
It’s a meditative practice and something always pops through,” Deborah said. “I
often have the experience of feeling an opening. And when that next thought
comes, I write on that.”
That is
how she become a writer. One evening as she was getting ready to go to bed,
Deborah had the feeling that an idea wanted to come through. “It was the
beginning of a story. That was a nice surprise.”
The other
two main components of The Artist’s Way are the twelve weeks of readings and
exercises in the book and the Artist’s Dates. Deborah found it helpful to do
the work with a group of friends. The eight regular attendees in the first
group took turns teaching, doing one chapter every two weeks. “Each of us had
our own teaching style,” she noted.
The
readings introduced concepts such as “poisonous playmates,” “crazy-makers,” and
"going
sane” -- that’s when you start to do what’s important to you instead of doing
what you “should.”
“From The
Artist’s Way, I learned to be willing to be a bad artist—a beginner,” she said,
adding “after all, not many people are born able to write novels."
Also from
the book she learned to look at jealousy as a way of getting information about
what one wants. “Pay attention – it (jealousy) will tell you what’s exciting
and meaningful to you.”
Similarly,
she suggested relabeling “failures.” For instance, someone in a cooking class
had Jell-O that wouldn’t jell. The instructor said, “Then it’s not Jell-O, it’s
strawberry sauce; serve it on ice cream.”
From the
“time-travel exercise” in The Artist’s Way, Deborah identified old enemies of
her creativity. “I was shocked to
remember my grade-school art teacher who said my project wasn’t good because
green and purple didn’t go together. And years later, in community college – I
was about thirty at the time and not quite as susceptible – my instructor said
‘you can’t do that,’ about my creative idea.
I knew he said that because it was something he couldn’t do.” Later
Deborah learned of an artist who had done exactly what she had earlier
envisioned. It was possible!
Filling the Creative Well
The
Artist’s Date, the third component of The Artist’s Way, brings joy and
creativity together: you go by yourself, to do something you find interesting,
to fill up your creative well. “Some of my Artist’s Way friends had much better
creative-well-filling ideas than I did – like taking a blanket to the park and
lying down to cloud-watch. Others would go to events found in the Riverfront
Times; one loved to go to Disney cartoon movies, even at the risk of being
stared at as the only adult there in the theater without a child.”
Deborah
quoted Julia Cameron, who wrote, “Focused on process, our creative life retains
a sense of adventure. Focused on product, the same creative life can feel
foolish or barren.” And “It is a paradox of creative recovery that we must get
serious about taking ourselves lightly. We must work at learning to play.”
Shirley
MacLaine’s 2001 book The Camino about
walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago trail across Spain particularly
intrigued Deborah, but she didn’t move forward on the inspiration until the
year she was to turn sixty.
Deborah
wrote morning journal pages regularly. “One day as I was I was doing my morning
pages it came to me that if I didn’t do the Camino walk that year, I probably
never would.” This thought was followed
by a response from beyond Deborah: “…and your life will be forfeit.”
“I went “huh?” – I was pretty freaked out …
but I kept writing pages, thinking about ways I could make this trip happen.”
She asked her Artist’s Way group for help and they had good ideas. “At some
point, I realized I’d have to do fundraising and would have to ask for help.
One night, after an Artist’s Way meeting at my home, I saw that one of my
friends had left a check on my pillow with ‘pleasant dreams of the Camino’
written in the subject line.”
“Before
the Camino, I had so many fears, such as ‘Will my body be up to the task of
walking twelve to fifteen miles per day?’ I didn’t have anyone to ask, so I
used a technique called automatic writing to dialogue with my body about what
it needed to be able to do the Camino,” she said. “I do think answers came from
within me, as well as some from outside of me – some answers spoke to what I
would experience while on Camino... experiences that had yet to happen.”
Deborah
demonstrated the technique she had used to dialog with her body, automatic
writing, also called direct writing. She described it as a way to access what
some might call the subconscious or a higher source.
Automatic Writing Exercise
Exercise: On your
paper write: “Q” for QUESTION. Then write a question that has some meat to it
(what if, why, how…), not a “yes” or “no” question.
Write “A”
for “ANSWER”, then close your eyes. Take a breath, let it out. Then in your
mind’s eye, visualize a gray screen. Don’t try to remember your question.
When a few
words come into your mind, write them down,
then close your eyes again and go back to the gray screen.
Keep doing
that until the flow of words stops. Then ask, “Is there more?”
When the
flow of words is complete, then, and only then, look at what you’ve written.
“Instead
of hearing words, you may see words as if written on a chalkboard, or you may
have a feeling in your body … sometimes the first answer will offer another
question,” she said.
Another
way to access creativity is JOURNEY WORK. Often you use a rhythmic sound
like drumming to take you to another place with an animal ally or a teacher to
learn a lesson or understand something specifically. Some people when
journeying have dialog with animal allies or teachers, but Deborah said she had
physical experiences. For instance, on a journey to a sacred pool where salmon
swam, suddenly she realized she could see from both sides of her head like a
fish instead of through forward-facing human eyes. She hopes to be able to use
this insight in her creative work.
She
described two ways to access DREAM WISDOM. On a notebook by your bed,
record the date, then write: “I will remember my dreams.” When you wake, you
may remember “a corner” of a dream, which can act as a thread to help you pull
the whole dream back.
Another
way is to record the date and then: “In my dreams tonight, I would like
guidance on …”
In the
morning, write down what you remember. It may not always make sense right away.
Dreams are symbolic and may need translation, but symbols are often universal.
Using them may add another level to your writing
“If you
are journaling or writing dreams, you will begin to notice synchronicities in
your life,” she said. “For instance, you
may see a bumper sticker on the car in front of you at the same time the radio
announcer says the same words.”
You may
also want to pay attention to symbols in your body. For instance, constipation
may indicate fear of letting go, pains in neck may refer to specific people, or
you may be itching to get away. “If it’s meaningful to you in some way, it may
work in your writing, too.”
Other
techniques to open creatively may included:
·
MEDITATION: in a meditative state, ask for
guidance from a favorite author. Or, see if story ideas come.
·
Consider
story titles which can be important, can sell the work.
·
Critique
groups can provide useful input. Julia Cameron says that good criticism is that
which is greeted with an internal “ah ha” and which leads to a new and valid
path for your work.
·
You
can create a “RANDOM IDEA Card Deck.” If you get stuck in your writing,
pull a card. See if what you’ve written brings up ideas that will work in your
story.
Round-Robin Storytelling
Exercise: To illustrate this technique,
Deborah gave everyone a notecard and said to write down a situation. The notes
were placed face-down in the center of each table. The participants were
divided into groups to do “ROUND-ROBIN” Story-Telling. One person
started a story, told it for a short bit and then “threw” it, perhaps in
mid-sentence, to the person on their right. Whenever a person felt stuck as to
where to take the story next, they could pick up a “situation card” for
inspiration.
Deborah
also told the true story of two bestselling authors who discovered they had
independently come up with the same story idea -- an Amazonian rain-forest
business venture gone wrong, involving a long-suffering spinster employee who
is quietly in love with her married boss, and sent on his behalf to the
rainforest to handle the fiasco... also a love story.
“The point
I took from this was that stories are alive,” Deborah said. “Ideas are alive.
They’re floating around in the ether, and they visit a lot of people. If an
idea comes to you, grab it… If you put it down, the Muses may take it to
someone else.”
Deborah
did get to go walk the Camino. While in Spain she journaled daily. “The Camino
was a fabulous adventure. My life is NOT forfeit!” The daily journal entries
became the foundation of her upcoming book, Camino
Lessons: Losing 21st Century Fears on an Ancient Pilgrimage Trail (due out
from PenUltimate Press this fall). Deborah teaches classes in “The Artist’s
Way,” “Treasure Journaling,” and “Realizing Big Dreams” at the local community
college and other venues. She is also the author and illustrator of two
75-card decks: “A Seeker’s Guide to Internal Paradigm Shift, What if…? Cards" (questions to
guide and bless your day) and "A Seeker's Guide to Money and Abundance, What if…? Cards” (questions focusing on
peace and plenty). View a sample of her “What
if…? Cards” online at: www.whatifcards.com or
contact Deborah at: terraartframe@sbcglobal.net
No comments:
Post a Comment