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The Subjectivity of Art
I’ve been really obsessed with music lately, which is not really out of the norm because we all know I need it to write and do just about anything else. I have a recurring hum in my ears because I’m hardly ever without earphones (I know, I know it’s actually really bad, but try and stop me…you might regret it) or there’s never not any music playing in the background. I also have four different devices, which can allow me to play music, five if you include my laptop. And I’ve been thinking about the subjectivity of art and the different mediums. Becuase just as much as I obsess over…
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The Artist’s Way Wrap Up
Before I ventured on to actually do this journey, I’d heard lots about The Artist’s Way. Even friends who had dabbled with just the beginning pages had mentioned it but never really thought much about it. Now looking back I understand why it’s such a pivot and most recommended books around the internet. The Artist’s Way may have been published way back when (1992 to be exact), but every essay written within its cover still hits all the right spots some 25 years later. For those of you who haven’t picked up the book, seriously what are you doing? Even if you’re not blocked and you want to learn more…
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Keep Me In Your Memory
I, like many others this morning, woke up to the devastating news that Chester Bennington took his own life. The iconic face and voice of many angsty teens and adults a like are collectively mourning the loss of a man who’s lyrics, melodies and screams were the only things keeping us together when we were going through times of hurt, doubt and loss. After the death of my dad I haven’t been able to feel much for the celebrities who have left this earth, but this one cuts deep. So deep. I’m left numb and I can’t seem to find a way around that. Chester’s voice was a guiding light…
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Why I Love Rewrites Over Editing
You’ll see that I posted about how much I hate editing over here (sorry editing lovers, I really am) but today I want to talk about how much rewriting is the complete opposite and almost as hard. When I sit down to do creative writing that isn’t a blog post or a piece that is for publication that I can take my time with it, I have a completely different process here. Rewrites are completely different to edits. Or at least in my book and I’m actually glad they are, because they’re less painful and more conducive to my creative process but they’re just plainly more engaging and I like…
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The Artist’s Way – Week 12
I’m so sad, I’ve been putting this wrap up post off for so long because it’s the very last one for The Artist’s Way and I don’t like goodbyes when they’re final. I can do it if I know I’ll see them again and I know that this book will be in my life for all time but I think I’m ready to take a lot of it’s lessons into life and use them to better my creativity and my life. I’m excited to see where I go from here. Week twelve is all about a recovering a sense of faith; it touches on trusting, mystery, the imagination at play…
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Why I Hate Editing my Own Work
I’m an editor and you know what? I hate editing my own work. I’m an editor and you know what? I hate editing my own work. There, I said it. I admitted it. I fucking hate editing my own work. It’s why a lot of my blog posts go up on the first go. There’s no rewrites, there are checks for spelling mistakes like a day later (or a week later…whoops), but there is no major editing. Maybe that’s why people who commented on my Huffington Post article called me illiterate or maybe they just couldn’t understand my conversationalist tone? Who knows, who actually cares? Initially, it was upsetting but…
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First, We Make the Beast Beautiful – Sarah Wilson
I found out about First, We Make the Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson by one of my dear friends, it also happens to be one of the friends that is currently sitting to the left of me and she opened up to having anxiety, a term that I knew about but never really delved into because I never fully understood exactly what I needed to come to terms with for me to be okay with the word. And to be honest, I didn’t even think that I was going to get the book. Anxiety is scary to me, mostly because I’m a self-diagnosed anxious person, but I think that’s also…
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The Artist’s Way – Week 11
This week was all about autonomy and I found this week’s essays to be ones that touched me on a different level. There was loads about creativity and it’s basis in the topics of acceptance, success, the zen of sports and building your artist’s altar, all of which are infinitely important. I took a moment to really delve into these and found that I wanted to actually write out every one of these small essays and tape them everywhere and anywhere I could put them. Morning Pages: Less consistent with them this week, but I definitely did crave them and found that it was easy to get to the page,…
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ahhh The Great Gatsby, how I have avoided reading this book through all of my schooling, until now. Yup, I have gone eleven years of high school and university never having ever read the book. Sure, I watched the movie but never read the book. I just had heard from various friends that it was torture to get through and horrendous so I dragged my feet as I began to read it but soon I realised that it actually wasn’t as bad as many made it out to be. In fact, I liked it. Yup, you read that right. I liked the book. Even more so after hearing the lecture…
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The Seven Stages of Creativity
Creativity is a mystery that we all try to pinpoint. And I really started to unfold this mystery with a quote that I open up my computer to every morning when I power it up and that’s: You can’t use up Creativity. The more you use, the more you have – Maya Angelou I have the last two sentences of this quote set up as a wallpaper on my computer and I have to tell you, it took me hours to find it, so it seemed perfect to start this blog post off with a quote like that because it’s perfect in every way. I wholeheartedly believe that the more…