Super Power Your Writing

When the comic book hero, Superman, first appeared on the scene in 1938 he had the power to jump over tall buildings, but he could not fly.  By 1941, Superman hovered in mid-air and moved around while floating.  Eventually, he attained the ability to soar distances, even between stars.

Discover ways to super-power your writing. Take a draft that does not fly for you. Circle excess words like adverbs and adjectives to notice if they stall the movement of ideas. Repopulate sentences with active verbs.  Swing the words and sentences around. 

Go for short and long sentences for variety. Search for details. How might a question to tease the reader? Add musicality and read lines aloud. Color a line or two.

Expand your wings from taking big leaps to hovering in mid-air.  When you work to increase writing skills you will progress to full flight.

Fire up Ferocity

Poet, David Whyte feels that even though life causes constant heartbreak, we need to keep resusitating ourselves.  "When you close down to heartbreak, you cannot hold things in affection," he says.  "The whole of creation is just waiting for you to appear and stay open."  

When Whyte says, "Everything is waiting for you," he questions why everyone needs to be "up" all the time.  It goes against nature to avoid changes. Nature follows a pattern of growth, fullness, cessation and decay.  Nothing in the world is "full on" all the time.  Why do we think we need to?

Whyte encourages a courageous conversation with oneself and then others.  We have so many loses in life,  part of the healing involves the willingness to come out and be found again.  

His metaphor for heartbreak involves the F's we do not like to face: fear, failure, and frustration.  How do we make Friends with them?  Also, we must learn what they have to offer us without pushing away.  A Ferocity in our attitude keeps us patient through the minor f's.  This involves the creative spirit in both writing and facing life's challenges. Think of the flow of nature and go with the seasons. Sunshine all the time will bore us.

In reality, the heart does not break. It does not even fray or wrinkle. It's a muscle. If we keep it energized by dietary choices, exercise along with mindfulness with each moment, it will stay healthy. It will receive and expel blood and do work as life passes through us.  

Fire up your Ferocity as you overcome life's f's.

Go Buoyant and Inventive

If the daily grind gets you down, find a flight into freedom. Stay open and alert to opportunities. Reject trivial aspects of life that sap your energy.

Einstein talked of "combinatory play" which opens up one mental channel by dabbling in another.  He played the violin when he could not solve a mathematics puzzle. After a few sonatas, he had an answer.

Creative procrastination often works to lessens frustration. Try diversion when stumped about a problem to solve.

Consider daily routines you follow.  Do you brush your top teeth first before you shower, take the same route to work, put your right shoe on before the left?  

Become conscious of your rituals and vary them.

Break the habit for a day. Pay attention to the details and take a different view.

Invent. Innovate. Imaginate!

Let humor in to play.

Go buoyant and inventive.