Add Spice to Writing

 

Add spice and imagery to your writing by avoiding worn out modifiers and phrases.When you write an overused image like blue sky consider what else you could use in sound, scent or taste or texture to pique the reader's curiosity and gain attention. 

Notice the difference in imagery:

a broken tool             half a pair of scissors


a rusted car              Cadillac dappled with rust

beautiful woman      She had a piano player's fingers

quiet day                   even the birds overslept

good friend               tasty as triple chocolate cake


Try these:  summer day, hot morning, wet dress, cheeping bird, frustration, anger, anxiety. 

Where will you go with sensory metaphors today?

Revival in Life's Dance

Except for the point, the stillpoint,
There would be no dance
And there is only the dance
                              - T.S. Elliot


What does the stillpoint mean in your life?

Is it a stop to alter direction? Is it a resting place before your next surge of momentum? Can you move from the frenzy of worrying to a place of stillness?

Will you bow to your ego and laugh?

For high energy individuals, progress requires intensity in all activities. A stillness and form of meditation will provide ways to trick sprinter minds into observation and silence. Intuitive juices will come out and dance.

You may need to cancel a day of rigid appointments and find time to stare at the clouds.  Notice what percolates in without forcing anything.

Don't permit exhaustion or frustration to set in before you take a break. Next time you are in a flow of positive activity - Stop. Condition yourself to quit when in a joyful time.

Permit solitude to arrive in a variety of forms from silence in sounds, an absence of tastes and textures to a bombardment of newness in sensations.

A change of direction enables momentum to arise anew.

You will return to the dance of life revived.

A Kite Approach

During a writing period that feels empty or dry, we need to discover ways to freshen our thoughts.  

Soren Kierkegaard believed in the rotation method to keep the mind fresh. He indicated that a farmer can't grow wheat year after year. They must replenish the soil by sowing beans one year. It also may need to remain fallow.

Albert Einstein used "combinatory play."  Imagining he traveled on a beam of light and glancing back at a clock created break throughs for him. He visualized letting go of a coin in a free-falling elevator.

Any changes in thinking and perception jostle the mind. Distractions help to reset thoughts from focus on a single task and its implications, concerns and consequences. It helps us move into to a new venue where creativity blossoms.

Try, "See the Kite" approach.  If you want to divert someone in conversation, point to the sky and say, "What a Kite." An individual will look up and stop speaking, thinking or doing. You can use the distraction to accomplish whatever you need.  Divert an unpleasant situation, steal a bite of someone's desert. . . or even a kiss.  Adapt this idea for your writing.

Use unexpected incongruity. Try writing to these examples:

What do eagles, Robinhood and pencils have in common?

Consider  baboons, Monterey and chocolate and their differences?

Combine kittens, cranberries and the Pacific ocean.

What skitters in and out of the hole below change?

Intuition ticklers, absurd thoughts and humor intrigue the mind and provide unexpected insights. 

Use the kite approach and search the sky for ideas.  Try three unrelated items, extend to more.   Freshen and free your writing spirit.

Write Without Abstractions

 

Kahlil Gibran wrote, “Your soul is often a battlefield upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.”


This example reveals an opportunity the writer did not take. When Gibran began his notion of the soul, he used the metaphor of a battlefield and then explained about waging war inserting four abstractions. He could have defined each further by example.

We may connect with his reasoning but still need details and realistic pictures in words to understand his meaning of reason, judgment, passion and appetite.

As writers we need to communicate to the reader our point of view through metaphor, imagery and details. Because we come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, the above words create different reactions. We need to show examples of complex emotions to give the reader a clue to our intentions. 

One person’s reason might become another’s wrong. Judgment becomes another issue. Who’s the judge? Passion and appetite have potential for images also.

What does reason look like? How could you show it in action? See where you can take these four abstractions, either together or separately.

Imaginate

 

Observe the drawing above and use your imagination to create uncommon uses for pens, pencils, paper clips, safety pins, clothes pins and feathers.  

What five ways would you use a feather?  

          To tickle someone's fancy.  

             To row a boat to help a frog across the pond. 

                  To dip into magenta ink and write your passion into words. 

                      To amaze a bee.  To tuck under your pillow and dream of flying.

A paper clip fascinates in its design.  If uncurled, could it attract signals from somewhere in the Universe? What will it become if combined with a pencil or clothes pin?  Create a vehicle to transport you beyond the sea.

Imagine and Play.

Verb it

 

"I ate the day

Deliberately that its tang

Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb." 

     - Seamus Heaney

GO and discover verbs. Avoid the static. Let your specialties flow and transform.

              Toddle. Romp and Wriggle. 

                    Swoosh and Sweep into the air.

Focus.     Nurture.     Create.     Appreciate.     Thrive.  

Ponder the world's wonders. 

Laugh and Play. 

Yell, Whee!

Let verbs scurry for the day.

Word Play

I have always felt the thrill of watching words spilled across the page. Even a menu attracts me with phrases like squeezed orange juice and boysenberry compote. I love ellipses, quotation, question marks and the accent marks in other languages. Billboards and matchbook covers attract me. I cannot get enough contact with words.

When I search my memory for my first engagement with words, I recall two instances. I remember tracing the raised letters on a bathmat in a New York hotel - The Statler. Written in cursive writing, the texture of the "S" and "t" and "a" and "l" fascinated my fingers. Before that my father found me sprawled on the floor trying to copy out the squiggles from a big red book. I had watched my ballet teacher doing something similiar and it intrigued. When I asked, she said, "I'm writing."

Over the years I have collected a variety of words that attract me by their appearance, sound and meaning. I also have lists in French and Spanish. Pajaro will always feel more like a flyer than "bird." 

When I need a break, I return to the lists and play. Nothing has to make sense.

The jostling of words encourages my synapses to make amusing connections.

For a word play:  Choose nouns and verbs. Avoid adjectives and adverbs. To start playing, circle a few and see what adventure they will take you in a freewrite. Draw lines in different colors to connect across, down or diagonally. Discover arrangements.

BOYSENBERRY OASIS SPRITE FEROCITY
      FRACTURE SCRAMBLE DRAGONFLY PLUME
                LIGHTNING SAPPHIRE CONFETTI TAPIOCA

SLITHER AUBERGINE ARMADILLO CUMULUS
      FANDANGO ZIGGURAT HAYSTACK PUPPY
              PETAL CANOODLE FLUFF VELVETEEN
                       SURGE ARTICHOKE DREAM FINGERS
          SIDEWINDER ELOPE JOUST SUNLIGHT
                WOMBAT SILLY FIGMENT AUGUST

STRUT RUBY WOLVERINE GRAPEFRUIT
    RELENT JACKHAMMER LOVE PARACHUTE
       BAMBOO SWAGGER MOON TWILIGHT
           PERSNICKETY LINOLEUM VELOCITY

SEAHORSE SPINDRIFT PLATINUM WHISKER
     STAR GAZER NUANCE GLITTER RELAX
        SPANGLE DIAMOND TREASURE PERIDOT
             AUTUMN SUFFOCATE DANGLE DUCKLING
                  HYBERNATE KITTEN TSUNAMI PARSLEY

WHIFF LOVE PLUTO RUST PERPLEX
CABOOSE PYRAMID CONGEAL CINNAMON
TURTLE FRIEND GUPPY HERON 

Play on and on.

Feast with Nature

Robert Louis Stephenson wrote, "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. Happiness does not need to become the goal. We need a variety of experiences and moods to write about." 

In the 1980’s  Martin E.P. Seligman adopted the term, “positive psychology.”  After years of studying the “learned helplessness” that characterized depression he began to study how individuals could learn optimism. Seligman felt a search for “authentic happiness” made more sense than  relying on psychology’s one-sided focus on illness and disorders. 

Study optimism, courage and perseverance rooted in social and civil well-being. Consider how to gather simple pleasures. The process itself will attract feelings of exultation.

When nature provides a feast, take time to savor all the flavors. Everyone needs to awaken to the enlightenment that explodes in blossoms and sky. Take a pleasure interlude from your busy day to revel in the marvelous natural world around you. 

Squeeze out joy and appreciation for the living, growing creatures, plants and trees.

Feast with nature.

Create a Positive

People comment with the worn phrase, "I'm gonna catch two birds with one stone." I don't like to think about dead birds. "Why not catch two birds with one seed. Then watch their antics?" I suggest.j

During my daily exercise run routine, I capture birds, flowers and the unexpected in photos and words. One morning, a woman ran out of her house yelling, "What are you doing in my flower bed?"

Kneeling near a magenta rose dappled with dew, I had my cellphone camera inches away. I wondered about her observation skills? Did she think I dropped bugs on her roses? 

I'm allergic to cranky people and must search for an antidote to avoid a rash. So, I smiled, pointing to the sky, "Sun's almost out. What great care you take of your roses. I just wanted a photo."

With her head down, she had no reply and managed a weak smile.

I loved the movie, "Pay it Forward," and felt certain that philosophy would catch one. It didn't, unfortunately. Maybe we need a "Pay it Forward -2"? What if each day we share a simple kindness with someone? Just place a flower on a car window. Or write a sticky note, "Smile in the sun today."

Try doing something for a friend or spouse without having them ask. Anticipate! Make a habit of generosity without expectation and grin even if nobody notices. You'll feel buoyant.

We're all in this together. Create a Positive and pass it forward.

Help Our Waterfowl

 

Children love to feed bread and crackers to waterfowl. They do not know the harm created from adding these ingredients to the diet of ducks and geese.

Poor diet results in a disease known as "Angel Wing" (slipped wing). The last joint of the wing twists causing wing feathers to point out instead of resting against the body. Males develop it more than females.

Because of uneducated human kindness, both wrist joints become retarded in their development. When the wing twists outward, it cannot perform its usual function. In extreme cases, the stripped feathers resemble blue straw protruding from wings. Incurable in adult birds, the disease leads to an early death.

Birds rendered flightless cannot migrate with their flocks.They cannot even fly to protect themselves from predators. In young birds wrapping the wing and binding it against the bird's flank, together with feeding the bird a natural diet, might reverse the damage.

Only wild populations fed by man suffer this disability.We need to educate adults and children that all wildlife suffers from unnatural feeding practices. Most animals forage to provide for themselves and will do just fine without additives.

If you must feed, at least pick grass or bring lettuce. Cameras and polite observation at parks become the best ways to interact and learn about wildlife.The Canada geese often let children mingle with their young. If someone gets too close, the mother will hiss and extend her neck. Watch out for bitten fingers.

Plea for Wildlife: Please make copies of this page. If you notice people feeding waterfowl, please share this information. Ask that they pass it on.

Energy Balance

Design your daily journey with curiosity for each moment's potential. Focus on what works, not what's broken. When your dreams and ideals intersect with life's real journey, let your discontent energize your positive energy. 

We open a newspaper or turn on the news and feel blasts of words detailing what does not work. How can we avoid the daily intimidation into negativity when inundated with the media's interpretation of a broken world?

My father told me, "Don't say can't. It doesn't exist in the dictionary." Defiantly, I ran to my dictionary to show him the word. I found cant but not the contraction can't that meant cannot, so I believed him. This reminds me of one of the best lines in from a movie, "Can't walks on won't street." When we say we can't, we really mean: we don't want to and won't. 

Success comes in cans but it takes our will.

Creative thinking results from an innovative choice in the moment. This attitude adjustment pushes beyond the onslaught of impossibles. Negativity becomes a bad habit. 

Everyone has the power to make changes.

Begin a list of what works in your life as a reminder. What gives you satisfaction? Go deep into the details and sensory imagery concerning your potential.

Consider one action you can do as soon as your eyes spring open each morning that pushes you beyond inertia.

What can you do for the environment or a loved one to express your responsibility?

Each day expand your list with creative solutions whenever you confront or learn of a difficulty or problem.

Attract and invent ideas for possible ways to balance the negativity around you. 

Become Positive in your donation of energy to others around you.

Anger and Cooked Carrots

Words act as symbols for a variety of emotional and intellectual connections. Everyone feels visceral responses from “color” words resulting from life experiences. Anger, love, war, and friendship stimulate mind pictures, sensory responses and complexities of mood.

During my early years when my father read to me at bedtime, he encouraged me to close my eyes and create mind images of the stories using my ears, sense of smell, taste and feelings. One evening I must have fallen asleep during his reading of Arabian Nights because I awakened suddenly out of a dream where I heard my father's voice say, "The villagers were angry."

I saw mashed carrots steaming from a bowl on a window ledge. I could smell them. Their cinnamon and clove flavor exploded into my mouth. From then on when I heard the word, angry, it elicited an association with carrots. It became a beneficial trigger to make me laugh and not get caught up in the emotion the word represented. What a benefit this has become in most of my life situations. 

Think of the "color words" that stimulate your emotions. Do you have experiences with them from the vantage point of your other senses? 

Let Words Lead

To mine for emotions and discover where words will take you, experiment with these mood sets:

grateful   empathic   playful   admiring   secretive   joyful

anxious   fearful   angry   remorseful   lonely   rejected

The first line includes upbeat feelings. The lower line delves into the frustrations and negative feelings. Add others.

Use a spiral notebook for this exercise so you may move with ease through the pages. Begin by writing the first word in the pair across the top of your page.

Write for at least two pages to express every thought or feeling that the word arouses. If you need more information on freewriting, scroll down to my post on Wordling. Then switch and write at the top of the next page the word that appears beneath your chosen word.

Write for two pages about the emotion listed beneath it. Don't forget to use all the senses. After the writing session take a break. When you return, write for a page about what the mind has churned up regarding these moods. Do you see a character developing that intrigues you?

Become willing to go into uncomfortable places. If you have secrets to tell, create a character to reveal them. Do this by writing a first name when the idea arises and use dialogue to push the idea forward or write in third person. Let the writing amuse and surprise you.

Don't analyze or critique the results. See if you can generate the mood you write about. During your writing, do not stop or re-read what you have written. If you become sidetracked, let the writing flow where it wants.

Let words lead into creativity.

Take Five

 

We often avoid deep reflection and thinking in our daily lives. Our culture has created an avoidance behavior since the media continues to irritate us with the doom and gloom in reporting the status of our country.

Individual awareness becomes the first step to alter the apathy. It has to begin with each individual taking responsibility and extending it.  Effective communication with positive people promoting possibilities helps.

It's not about sign waving, it's about reorganizing thought patterns to consider, "What can I do? What are five ways today and then tomorrow? Start with family and friends first. Our media needs to show us how we have succeeded in the past in order to motivate us for the future.

If it's easier to continue to point out what's wrong  or "shoulds" then we'll never see positive change. 

We need more life coaches and less critics. If one person can reach one, it makes a difference. Alter your kaleidoscope and put thought into five ways family and friends have achieved greatness. Share and urge others to pass it forward. Stop the bashing and stay Positive to bridge the communication gap.

Each morning begin breathing with gratitude and awareness. Think of five ways to make each moment count. 

How will you make your presence felt in the world today?  

Novelty of Happiness

 

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first inaugural address


In her book, YOUR CREATIVE BRAIN,  Dr. Shelley Carson shares the psychology and neuroscience of creativity. A Harvard psychologist, Dr. Carson defines creativity as something novel or original and useful or adaptive to some portion of the population. She focuses on the distinction between originality and creativity. Carson indicates that many things are original but aren’t particularly creative. She cites the “word salad” speech of a schizophenic as highly original but it does not appear to have a utility, even to the person uttering the words. 

Psychologists used to believe the left brain analyzed with an involvement of sequential thinking and the right brain handled creativity. The a movement developed toward the front-back brain division. The front brain became the gatekeeper and controlled the input from the back brain. Now we think it’s more complicated that either model. It depends upon which stage of the creative process you’re in.

Dr. Carson feels contentment is the enemy of creativity because the creative mind constantly hungers for stimulation.

Creativity involves novelty-seeking. Studies of cognitive behavior have shown you can change brain activation states, alter neurotransmitter levels and the receptors for those neurotransmitters and receptors. Dr. Carson believes, “if we have the ability to change our brains with cognitive behavior therapy, why not use that power to become more novelty-seeking and more creative?’

She adds, to increase creativity, “keep learning new things. Take courses, read widely, and learn how to play a new instrument or how to cook Tuscan food. Learn, learn, learn! Second, try not to judge the things you’re learning. Keep an open mind. Everything you learn is a possible element that may make its way into some future creative idea that you can’t even imagine today. And the more open-minded you remain about what you learn, the more likely you are to see how it can be combined with other information to form a novel and original product or idea." 

What could you do to develop a novelty-seeking ability in your behavior today? 

Everyone C*A*N

 

I love to day dream and explore; antennae ready for everything along the paths I travel. Fantasy and reality mesh and meet my attention. If I'm working on a project that feels one-dimensional, I'll take a break and see what a wandering will uncover.  I might not use the discoveries of the day in my current project but they will wriggle into future writing. They percolate in my brain while I'm helping students discover  their own "ways in."  

Through Curiosity, Awareness and Noticing (CAN!),  opportunities build 

focus during times of  "boredom" which all writers encounter.  

I did not use the other B word (Block) because I refuse to believe in it.  

We can always write something. 

I Believe (a Positive B word!) writing has its own rhythm.  

We need patience and word shuffle. Also, we must learn to distract

ourselves at certain times and become demanding during other situations. 

Each writer's temperament requires a different carrot and stick. 

I require lots of play time and the engagement that nature offers 

my sensory perceptions. Then I CAN gather experiences and interactions 

to use in a variety of ways.

My cell camera assists me to add another layer 

of creativity to the day. 

Often an incident such as a Great Blue Heron 

landing on the water will happen far out of the 

camera's focus. My notepad will provide 

the space for word pictures. 

I scribble and record the effects of atmosphere 

on my temperament of the moment.

What a discovery to experience an elephant who extended its trunk and smiled 

from the grass.

What do you say to an asphalt elephant?

Messages of the Wind

 

Wind sends a feeling without a face. Swish of sounds and presence. 

        A scent hangs in the shimmer.

Clouds and sky provide color. The moving air shares an absence. 

        Joy appears from memories. 

Those  missed arrive as messages of the wind.

Beyond Expectation

Photography stimulates my initial stages of idea formation. During travel, I notice how a tourist snaps pictures, trying to capture experience and not getting anything beyond the lens. It takes the senses to explore the layered history or the emotions of the moment.

My cell phone camera helps me discover details to accompany with words. The images engage my spirit and blend with the swirling notions in my head.

I appreciate the poetics of Federico Garcia Lorca, the gypsy poet of Southern Spain. Lorca wrote an essay, “Theory and Play of Duende” suggesting most artists search for perfection at the cost of a need for struggle - duende. This force, not an angel or Muse, becomes more of an “energetic instinct.” A writer may have the voice, the style, and the ability but will never triumph unless duende resides within. All through Andalucia, people speak of duende and recognize it when it happens. It is a spirit that is more than one’s spirit.

Lorca does not want to confuse the duende with demons or devils, or as a destructive force. He says, “I mean, secret and shuddering…” Where the angel dazzles and the Muse dictates, surges from outside of us. The duende has “to be roused from the furthest habitations of the blood. Seeking the duende, there is neither map nor discipline. We only know it burns the blood like powdered glass, that it exhausts, rejects all sweet geometry we understand, that it shatters styles.” Emotion is impossible without the arrival of the duende.

Lorca told about a singer who had to send away her muse and become helpless. And how she sang! "She was able to kill all the scaffolding of the song and leave way for a furious, enslaving duende, friend of the sand winds who made the listeners rip their clothes off.” It is the marrow of forms, the pure music. Duende also means a radical change to all the old kinds of form, “totally unknown and fresh sensations with the qualities of a newly created rose.” Each person finds something new that no one had seen before, that could give life and knowledge.

Lorca ends his essay discussing three arches, which have within them the Muse, the angel and the duende. “ Through the empty archway a wind of the spirit enters, blowing insistently over the heads of the dead, in search of new landscapes and unknown accents: a wind with the odor of a child’s saliva, crushed grass, and medusa’s veil, announcing the endless baptism of freshly created things.”

When asked why he wrote, “A thousand tambourines of crystal wounded the light of day break,” he replied, “I will tell you I save them in the hands of trees and angels, but I cannot say more. I cannot explain their meaning and that is how it should be. Through poetry a man quickly reaches the cutting edge that the philosopher and mathematician silently turn away from.”

As a poet, I have experienced a thrill that transported me beyond my understanding and expectation. When the mind becomes fueled by uneasiness on the edge of discovery or the rowdiness of creation, the writing takes flight. Once one has felt the rush a sense remains that it will return. In this state, all senses expand and melody flows through the body. Not knowing its next visitation will provoke the search for a variety of ways to coax it back. If the timing is not right and it tries to escape, one grasps only air. Yet, having it for a moment engages the highest form of communion with the self.

I seek the edge of helplessness in order to write with my greatest force. Often I cannot explain the meaning. For me, and I hope the reader, the feelings of wonder remain beyond the language and the story.

 

Phoebe Joy

Black Phoebes won my attention when we moved to an apartment complex during our home remodel several years ago. I discovered a park next door and decided to spend an hour each day observing and writing about nature with all my senses. I sat under a sycamore tree in late summer and waited.

Above my head, a black bird cleaned its beak. Then it flew to a lamp post and off into the ivy behind me. Each day for a week, I observed this fellow in action. One day I brought a seed bell and hung it under the bird's sycamore branch thinking I'd attract even more of its friends.

I searched the internet and discovered the Black Phoebe fit the description of the behavior I had observed. My seed bell must have caused a snicker in the bird community since these birds only eat and catch insects on the fly. Called hawking, they fly from from sunrise to sunset eating all day with the tenacity of a hummingbird. I've seen them capture bees and moths for dining pleasure.

Phoebes move in a circular pattern in their territory and work harder than anyone I know. In the spring, they pair and create a nest from mud, one beakful at a time. The male stands guard and often sits the nest in rotation with his mate. 

I discovered the conical nest high in the eaves of our apartment building. The next stage involved nesting behaviors. Resident crows became aggressive causing both phoebes to take turns chasing them causing disruption to their feeding ritual. I heard peepings but could not see how many chicks had arrived. Unfortunately, I left on a trip for two weeks.

Upon my return to the park, I did not see the pair I'd named Flash and Fee. The nest appeared vacant and no peepings sounded. I felt a sudden fear that the crows had taken over during my absence. Then I looked at the center of the park to discover four phoebes. They took turns dancing on air. I crept closer and watched this marvel of flight training.

After returning to our renovated home, I searched the neighborhood for Black Phoebes. I missed this daily association. One spring I discovered a pair at the end of the block. They had placed their nest under a neighbor's eaves. 

I continue to create water sources in my yard to attract my favorite Black Phoebes. One day a breeding pair will return to capture my fascination.

Self-responsibility?

 

We make choices every moment. It becomes our basis for empowerment. When viewing the above photograph, it's obvious that someone made a choice. A barrel for discards stood inches away.

If each person took responsibility for his or her air space and discards, a clean world would flow around us. Instead, a cigarette butte here, facial tissue or toothpick there and soon the landscape takes on a cluttered appearance.

People ignore trash on the street rather than picking it up and tossing it into a container. Why?

I observed a mother stop her car and let her son out. He approached a man putting trash into a bush and said in a polite tone, "Sir you dropped this." Why do we need to remind one another?

We need to take a long look at our individual impact. We're all a part of the Web of Life and have a responsibility.

What will you do?

Playful Eat Write

What could an apple do for your writing? Pay close attention.

Discover the colors that circulate around an apple: red, yellow, orange, a tinge of green. Does the stem pull out or must you twist it several times? Hold it to your nose and breathe in its scent. What memories arise? Feel the skin texture when you take an apple from the refrigerator beaded with moisture.

Bite into it and observe the impression your teeth create on the white flesh. Do you see red veins inside? Feel the texture and the squirts of saliva as your cheeks suck inward from reaction to the tart flavor. 

Observe the change in fragrance as you chew. Notice a liquid release, then the after taste. Let your tongue mingle with the apple's skin bits and succulence. Feel the texture on your teeth. Examine a swallow. Notice the apple until you lose its sensation as it enters the stomach.

Consider a variety of apple experiences. What if you bit into a mushy apple or one with a worm's tunnel? Will you eat around a brown spot? Sprinkle slices with cinnamon and clove. Do you prefer a Delicious, Granny Smith or New Zealand?

What could you combine with the apple to enhance the flavor? Will cheddar cheese raise the taste buds and coat the tongue? Add raisins and cranberries. Describe ways sweet intervenes.

Try an orange or peach. Experience them and write with connections to early memories. Write about discovering how to peel a banana. Imagine the first person to eat pomegranate seeds.

Enjoy a playful eat write.