Pencil
Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit
by Mari Messer
Published by Walking Stick Press, 2001, 281 pages
I have drawn on this book countless times for personal inspiration and workshop material. Packed with solid information and practical suggestions, it is a book that can be mined again and again to keep your creativity high, or get it back on track if things aren't going well.
This book is not just for writers. Nor is it just for artists, musicians, photographers or others in creative lines of work. Pencil Dancing can benefit anyone who wants to lead a richer, fuller "handmade" life.
Every time I read it, I come away with something new to use. It is one of my favorite writing books and I highly recommend it.
Carolyn
Section 1--Creativity 101: Practicing the Basic Steps
Chapter 1: Raffia in the Doorway: Uncovering the Creative Self You Were Born With
Messer encourages readers to leave behind preconceived notions of creativity. Peeling away old mental habits paves the way for a fresh look at the world. Creativity is not a trait exclusive to writers, artists and musicians, nor is it found only among "experts" or "geniuses." Includes a table that discusses eight traits of a creative person. This chapter closes with three exploration exercises.
Chapter 2: Going Into Your Egg: How to Find Your Own Inspirational Space
Messer discusses how to find a refuge in which to nurture ideas. These "private places of fruitful potential" trigger the creative response by temporarily shutting out the world. At the same time she cautions against the misconception that the special atmosphere needed is "someplace other than where we are." Three exploration exercises and a "Site Write" follow to help you find your inspirational space.
Chapter 3: Time . . . and Time, Again: Hurry Sickness & Creativity
Messer contrasts "natural time" (tied to seasons and har vests that cannot be altered) and "mechanical time" (tied to the clock and calendar). After discussing at length how mechanical time continues to speed up, she sites four symptoms of hurry sickness that dull creativity, followed by specific ways to slow down. Two explorations, one experiment, and two research exercises follow.
Chapter 4: Lots of Butterfly Nets Catch Lots of Butterflies: Capture Creative Ideas on the Fly
"Ideas, like butterflies, must be caught on the fly. If you miss them when they first appear, they're likely to be gone forever." Messer presents three important purposes served through saving thoughts in a journal or notebook. She then offers details on six different types of "butterfly nets": The Trash Can Notebook, The Two-Line Journal, Pocket Notebook, Scratch Pads, The First-Draft Tablet and Sketchbook. She says, "The kind of journal you keep can influence the kind of creative work you do. Try several different types to see which ones feel comfortable and work best for you." Three explorations and a project exercise follow.
Chapter 5: Rusty Water: Getting It Wrong the First Time
"When you read the polished work of Ernest Hemingway or Maya Angelou, you never see the misfires that ended up crumpled in the wastebasket." Through examples, Messer stresses why it is essential to work through the less-desirable initial work to get to the end result. Creative people cannot be afraid of errors; learning comes from knowing what doesn't work as well as what does. Two explorations and a case history exercise follow.
Section 2--Polishing Your Powers of Observation
Chapter 6: Wake Up and Notice the Fuzz on the Rose Petals: The Treasure in Detail
Paying attention to detail is rewarding. Messer asserts that we rarely "stretch our attentiv eness to see what's right in front of our eyes." We tend to see things with all the details removed. The artist cannot tell when a particular detail might be just what is needed in a creative work, so it is best to "stay wide open" to the sometimes tedious work of observing details. "There's no such think as an insignificant detail" and "we can't see until we take the time to notice." Two explorations and a walkabout exercise follow.
Chapter 7: The Principle of Devoted Attention: Learn to See Beyond Predatory Vision
Messer opens the chapter asserting that we notice "only what we fear and what we can use" and explains why such predatory vision is detrimental to creativity. Devoted attention is the opposite of predatory vision. "Distractions are ignored or overcome through concentration on the object." The chapter explains four ways to practice devoted attention. Two explorations, one site write, and a research exercise conclude the chapter.
Chapter 8: Think Like an Alien: How to Clarify Your Vision
Knowledge allows us to take most everything for granted." Messer related how she once kept notes for what she envisioned would become a story about an alien visiting Earth. While the project itself didn't survive, she claims to have learned a great deal from learning to "see like an alien." It taught her to see life's "contradictions, humor and wonders." The chapter closes with five "unwritten rules" for thinking like an alien. Three explorations, one experiment and one walkabout exercise follow.
Chapter 9: Up to Your Neck in Swamp Water: Experiencing the Creative Point of View
"Being with an animal, an object or a place under varying conditions can expand your creative point of view." Seeing from a variety of points of view polishes powers of observation and keeps thinking muscles warmed. It can help solve problems creatively. Messer offers four tips to "prevent hardening of the arteries of insight." Three explorations and two site write exercises follow.
Chapter 10: Pencil Dancing With Talking Rocks: Drawing as a Way of Seeing
After explaining a "focus drawing" exercise, Messer discusses two types of seeing ("outer seeing" and "seeing into") and how they each feed creativity in different ways. She explains how doodling and drawing--whether you 're a visual artist or not--can be a bridge between imagination and creative expression. Four explorations, a creative recess, a practice and walkabout exercises follow.
Section 3--Creating With Your Whole Self
Chapter 11: Lessons From the Velveteen Rabbit: Becoming "Real" Energizes Creativity
"In Williams's story, Rabbit wishes he could become real without uncomfortable things happening. We do, too." This chapter offers the reminder that "those times that have abraded your fur and left it salt stained and faded" are what can make your creative endeavors real. Groundedness is the foundation of authenticity, yet society around us encourages us to ignore individuality on order to fit certain cultural molds. Compliance silences the creative voice. The chapter ends with three exploration exercises and a recollection exercise.
Chapter 12: The Cow and the Racehorse: Get Your Two Minds to Dance Together
Messer likens "left brain" and "right brain" thinking to a racehorse and a milk cow and discusses how both play a role in creativity. The work comes in getting the two to work together. The chapter closes with a chart that describes the qualities of each type of thinking (good and bad) and how to feed them. Two exploration exercises and a project are offered.
Chapter 13: The Roots of the Lotus Are in the Mud: Messy Feelings Speak Your Creative Truth
Messer quotes the old Indian sutra: "The lotus arises from the mud, but it is not dyed therewith." Feelings too nest in "messiness" but blooms into honesty and truth that forms a foundation for creativity. Unacknowledged feelings have a way of controlling a person. Messer explains three reasons that feelings can be difficult to recognize and then how metaphor can be a powerful tool to overcome the obstacles. The chapter closes with a feeling list and related exercise, as well as an exploration exercise, a project, and a research exercise.
Chapter 14: Drawing Inspiration From Your Past: Memories, Dark and Light, Aid Creativity
Messer opens this chapter by pointing out that "all but the 'present moment'" is a memory and that without your memories you would "lose your sense of the unique person you are." Sometimes we have difficulty recalling and processing experiences that are hidden in our minds. She offers three "Search and Rescue" missions designed to harness memories and details why facing even painful memories can be a treasure when it comes to creative expression. The chapter concludes with two exploration exercises, a project, and two recollection prompts.
Chapter 15: Coming to Your Senses: The Body as a Creative Instrument
"Creativity in the arts is the ability to cause other people to experience what you saw, heard, tasted and felt." Our senses provide the information that feeds the creative process , and sensory overload can endanger our sense connections. We're overwhelmed with noise, junk mail, phone calls, and exhaust smells; the media increases volume and sensationalism just to get our attention. The result--we disconnect. Messer devotes sections to each of the "orphan" senses--smell, tough and taste--discussing how and why they are important. The two major senses--sight and sound--are the most likely to suffer overload and it sometimes takes effort to use them consciously. The chapter closes with two explorations, two recollection exercises, and two "visual pushups."
Section 4--Losing Your Logical Mind
Chapter 16: A Kid's-Eye View of Creativity: What You Can Learn from Childhood
"Creative expression by children, uncorrupted by adult rationality and reserve, can remind us...that we were all creative once upon a time." What happened to that creative child? It's time for a resurrection. Messer offers a list of five qualities creative kids have that we can learn from as adults. "I...urge...a lowering of barriers," Messer says. "Kids can teach us how." Two exploration exercises, two field trips, and three creative recess ideas are offers so you can get plenty of practice.
Chapter 17: Play As a Way to Fire Creativity: Two Sets of Tennis Don't Count
The chapter encourages "practice without purpose." The idea of playing has been diluted by competitiveness--the desire to win can keep us from being inventive, risking a mistake--and passive entertainment which is relaxation rather than play. Learning to play helps you to draw upon the intuitive mind; it allows experimentation and risk. The chapter offers "five criteria to keep you on the right track when you choose and participate in a practice" and "ten ways to rev your creativity" then closes with an exploration exercise, a project and an experiment.
Chapter 18: Flamingos in the Men's Room: The Uses of Useless Information
Messer encourages the collection of U.I.T.s and shares a sample of her collection of Useless Information Trivia and the questions they generate. The chapter offers suggestions on generating and using your own collection. Even if the information never becomes part of a project, there are four different reasons why such a collection is important to creativity. The chapter ends with two explorations, and two mental push-ups.
Chapter 19: Visualization: The Magic of the Mind's Eye
Visualization makes what is in your imagination real, giving substance to feelings and thoughts. Messer discusses how visualization is valuable and offers ways to improve for those who are not good visualizers. Two exploration exercises, two "visual push-up" exercises and a site write conclude the chapter.
Chapter 20: Can the Cat Kill Your Curiosity?: What to Watch for, Just in Case
Messer defines the "C.A.T." that kills curiosity. She contends that if you are determined to keep your curiosity at a healthy level, great rewards will follow. Two exploration exercises, a walkabout exercise, and a project follow.
Section 5--Freeing Your Creative Elves
Chapter 21: Ice Fishing: Four Steps to Creative Inspiration
Messer outlines the four steps in the creative process and shows how they are like ice fishing. These four steps can be a helpful guide when you get stuck. Benefits and pitfalls of each stage are discussed. Three explorations and recollection exercise close this chapter.
Chapter 22: Bursting Your Shell: A Strategy to Expand Your Creative Comfort Zone
This chapter discusses making room for creative growth. "Gutsiness is a creative requirement," Messer asserts and this includes having the guts to expand your comfort zone, gently stretching your creative experience through experimentation and adventure. The chapter has a quiz to help you to assess your comfort index, and then offers two exploration exercises and a field trip to let you stretch your comfort zone.
Chapter 23: Deliberate Ridiculousness: Bump Up an Ordinary Idea and Tame an Outrageous One
"Absurdity is creativity's next-door neighbor." Messer believes that giving yourself the room to be ridiculous gives your ideas room to move about, grow and connect with each other. She offers four ways to bump up an ordinary idea, followed by advise on taming outrageous ideas that won't work. "The trick is to see value in every creative brainchild, no matter how outrageous or mundane." This chapter closes with two exploration exercises and a project.
Chapter 24: Learning to Wiggle: To Be More Creative, Loosen Up!
"The problem is, we don't trust ourselves." Messer illustrates how creative people get bogged down by clinging tightly to control. Keeping a goal in mind while letting go and entering the creative process can be a hard skill to master. Messer suggests that focusing too tightly on the goal and not paying attention to the experience as it unfolds stifles a project. The creative process will carry you forward if you relax. The chapter discusses how to maintain contact while losing control. It ends with two explorations, a recollection exercise, a project and a site write.
Chapter 25: How a Man Jumped Off a Building: Risk Practice, Step by Step
Starting with the story of a stunt man who started jumping off curbs and worked until he could jump off buildings, Messer explains how taking small risks can build to larger risks. "You have to start from where you are. It's as simple as that. You can't skip a few steps before you try a high leap or you'll break your neck." She cautions against regrets that come from missed adventures and derailed creative opportunities, generally a product of risk avoidance. The chapter offers five suggestions for making risk manageable and closes with two exploration exercises and a project.
Section 6--Befriending Your Beasts
Chapter 26: Spinning Straw Into Gold: Identifying and Coping With Fears
After a brief encapsulation of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, Messer states, "the ugly gnome and the gold-spinning genie embody the positive and negative sides of creativity. They occur together." Once you recognize and name your creative fears and your own unique potential, he loses his fearsomeness and disappears. It's not a one-time process but an ongoing one. Four tips for conquering fears are discussed. The chapter ends with a chart outlining early warning signs of fear and anxiety, two explorations and one recollection exercise.
Chapter 27: Uncle Wiggly and the Giant Squid: Creative Chaos and Ways to Survive It
Creative chaos is an uncomfortable part of the creative process. "You can't seem to get a handle on what you're doing, or you get off track and can't get back on." Messer urges viewing the chaos layer as an essential part of creativity and offers four tips that can help you make your view of this period a positive one. Two exploration exercises, a project and a creative retreat conclude the chapter.
Chapter 28: Aim for Join-Up: How to Tame Your Inner Critic
Messer likens taming the critic to taming a wild stallion and explains in five steps how to begin the taming process, along with four ways to reduce the "baggage your creative animal carries." Two exploration exercises and a project close the chapter.
Chapter 29: Sailing Through Seaweed: What to Do When the Wind Won't Blow (and You're Stuck)
The chapter help you identify when you're "in the doldrums" and offers suggestions to get the wind blowing again, Messer shows why you shouldn't give up hope, even if your doldrums leave you stagnant for months or years. This chapter concludes with two exploration exercises, a project, and a research assignment.
Chapter 30: Leafing Out in Impossible Places: The Three D's: Difficulties, Detours and Distractions
Difficulties teach us and can be motivating, and "is as much a part of creative life as an arm is part of your body. Creativity can be generated at the most trying times and can actually get you through them. Detours are another part--confusion, false starts, and blind alleys. "Sometimes a jog in the road can take us to just the place we want to go. A detour can present us with a whole new view." Messer offers suggestion for "deliberate meandering detours." Distractions are inevitable and it's essential to learn to "write anyway." You can reduce distractions, but Messer insists: "I believe that some distraction helps sharpen the intensity of your concentration." The chapter ends with two explorations, one research project and one recollection exercise.
Section 7--Creating From the Inside Out
Chapter 31: Setting Out on a Steed, Riding Backwards: The Courage to Begin
Beginnings are difficult. False starts, blind alleys and feelings of confusion are woven into any creative act. The question becomes do I give up? Turn back? Wait or forge ahead? Messer relates a fable, and four related questions to "start the wheels turning." She concludes by warning against trying to start in complete assurance, ironing out all the kinks beforehand. "You will flatten the life out of what you do....The knowing, in truth, may be found in the going." Three explorations and an assessment exercise close the chapter.
Chapter 32: A Knight to Remember: Mental Armor for Your Soft Spots
It's an art to be tough (enough to handle rejection) and tender (enough to keep in touch with feelings and sensations) all at the same time. The key, says Messer, is to pinpoint when you are vulnerable and your creativity needs protection to survive. The chapter offers five tips to make criticism happen "in the right way at the right time" so that it is not overwhelming or destructive. An informative chart entitled "Seven Steps to Rejection Protection or How to Build a "Bomb" Shelter leads into the closing two exploration exercises and instructions on taking a creative retreat.
Chapter 33: The Mother of Invention: How Limits Promote Creativity
"Creativity craves challenge." Limits--either from outside or within--lead to new ways of doing and seeing. Our world is aimed at erasing limits that can lead to "creative paralysis." Framework is limitation. Limitation gives your work structure. "Limitation is what differentiates a flood from a lake." For the creative person, limits pose a challenge that makes you aware of how the creative process grows and changes as it progresses. "If you're not intimidated by limitations, you can often break through to an even better idea." Messer concludes: "Love the obstacle just as much as you love the pearl." The chapter closes with three exploration exercises, an assessment, and a research project.
Chapter 34: The Value of Being Weird: Keeping the World From Pretzelizing You
"You can create from only one place. That place is your real, honest-to-goodness, warts-and-all self." Yet from the time we're young the world tries to mold us into the same shape as everyone else. Trying to live up to everyone else's expectations "takes all the bubble out of life. It begins to taste like flat champagne." Messer offers suggestions for getting back in touch with the "disowned and unrecognized" parts of "that weird, original, quirky, authentic way of being" than can hold great potential. Five explorations and a project close the chapter.
Section 8--Danicing With Your Creative Spirit
Chapter 35: The Big Awe: Nourishing a Sense of Wonder
"Creative people ooze awe at the drop of a hat." Buried under layers of familiarity, we lose awe over things we see every day. We lose awareness of them, operating on auto pilot. Messer urges, "If you want to be an artist in any sense of the word, you have to learn to experience self-generated awe in even the simplest things." Stay fueled by looking at everything as if it were the first time. Mystery, awe and wonder "slow you down, take you deep, generate more questions than answers. For a creative work to have depth, the creative person has to go below, where the wonder is." As Albert Einstein said, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." The chapter closes with three explorations and one walkabout exercise.
Chapter 36: Being There: Practice to Calm Your Skittery Mind and Tap Your Creative Source
Messer shows how mental "junk" clouds our connection with creativity. This may be why creative inspirations or breakthroughs often happen during downtime when you're involved with something repetitive and the mind slips through junk and clutter to the creativity underneath. Learning to take the time to let your mind settle and clear opens creative new pathways. The chapter closes with a list of seven ways to find that quiet mental spot, four exploration exercises and two experiments.
Chapter 37: The Handmade Life: Piecing Together the Creative Way
"To piece together a life of richness, meaning, satisfaction and lasting value requires an exceptional kind of creative artistry." In a culture that values material wealth and comforts it can be difficult to make sure you are getting enough of the things that really matter. Creativity can contribute to "inner affluence" by feeding your center and later generously feeding others' through your work. The chapter closes with three exploration exercises, a project, and a celebration exercise.
Chapter 38: For the Love of LIverwurst: Allowing Your Dreams to Live
We can easily get bottled up in everyday life, putting creative time aside for things that seem more pressing. When this becomes a habit, "creativity collapses." Messer offers a plan to keep creativity in close contact with instinct and the creative source. "There's only one way I know of to make that connection. That way, difficult as it may be," is to make time for solitude." Messer identifies times when you can tell that such a creative retreat is "absolutely essential" and shows the three parts to a successful retreat. The chapter closes with four exploration exercises, a project, and a creative retreat planning.
Chapter 39: Listening to the Dolphins: A Creative Person's Responsibility
Expect the "vertical thinkers"--the practical, pragmatic, linear thinking people to throw a wet blanket on creative efforts. "Creative responsibility begins with the struggle for resolution on the inside by taming your inner critic. It ends in a battle for the life of your creative work where you hope to win the cooperation of your outer critics." Tenacity is crucial. Messer offers five ways to get creative ideas accepted by left-brain decision makers. The chapter closes with three explorations, one research project and one assessment exercise.
Afterword
Index