Write Beyond Rocks

After making his selection at the quarry, Michelangelo pushed a slab of stone down the road for miles to his studio. A passerby asked why he worked so hard over a piece of rock. He replied that he knew an angel in the rock wanted to come out during a laborious process.

Rollo May in Courage to Create wrote that creative people need big hearts to take the risks necessary to creativity. He called it an “active battle with the Gods.”

Why do writers suffer so much in process?  Why not relent to the passages of turbulence and keep paddling?

Writers need patience to discover their angels and angles through the stages of creativity.

Preparation: In the beginning of a writing project, an idea arrives followed by a search for possible ways to discover its elaboration.  Spark fly.  Everyone has fun until . . .

Frustration arrives:   No one can avoid this phase. Count on it!  Make friends with it.  The creative process includes periods of confusion, chaos and especially ambiguity. The distress of living with ambiguity fuels the creative process. Believe it!  Every writer feels a temptation to give up or feel satisfied with a piece of writing prematurely just to have it done. Outlast the feelings of frustration, fear and intimidation. Dialogue with it. Soldier on!

Incubation. This stage helps a writer develop tolerance for the mystery and the continuous flow of ambiguity. It involves patience and active playfulness.  Gain trust that process will solve the problem.  Move into this stage by diversion.  Get away from thinking about the direct issue.  Romping with a child's mind will help.

Elaboration:  Writers with patience and the ability to play and divert from frustration feel the satisfaction of an “AHA” moment.  Perspiration rains until the skies clear. The writing flows and ideas spark in rainbow colors.

Communication: Now the words harnass paragraphs to race into pages. Sharing the idea in a form that becomes understandable becomes the finishing line.

Rest, re-creation and play become the building blocks and fundamental to the writing process . Carl Jung encouraged, “Every creative individual owes all that is greatest in his life to fantasy. The dynamic principle of fantasy involves play. This characteristic feels childlike. Without playing with fantasy no creative work has accomplished.

When stalled, place the pen aside and play!

Creative Write: Return to a piece of writing that has become a rock in your road.  Play with it.  See it upside down. Discover ways you haven't considered before to roll it aad discover its angel.