Tag: art

Categories
Building Your Creative Space

Making It Natural

Building your creative space

“You have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.”

Miles Davis

A dear friend in France, a gastric surgeon, is the son and grandson and great-grandson of taxi drivers.  Being French, the fact that his ancestors were both uneducated and dirt poor did not reduce their passion for art.  They also desired to be collectors, even though they could not afford the art they liked.  But as so often happens in that amazing country, they found a way around their limitations.

Although my friend has become fairly well-off, he has never been bitten by the acquisative bug.  The irony of his complete and utter disinterest in buying anything is also very French.  

In his case, the reason for not wanting to buy more art is because he already has too much.  He claims the burden of inheritance has scalded him so bad he has lost his taste to acquire anything.  If his wife wants new furniture, new kitchen utensils, new clothes for the kids, new anything, she just goes and buys it.  Because she also handles their household accounts, I am not certain he even notices.

To enter their home is to pass through a rambling black and white museum.  Because his ancestors could not afford paintings, they bought sketches.  Many of the artists whose work they loved were starving.  As a result, these artists were often willing to sell their sketchbooks for pennies.

Their home has so many framed sketches, you can hardly tell what color the walls are.  Hundreds and hundreds of sketches.  

Degas.  Van Gogh.  Pissaro.  Picasso.  Renoir.  On and on the names parade with the sketches.

My favorite wall leads to the daughters’ bedroom, and shows four different artists designing a method to draw life-like angelic beings.  Forty-seven sketches in all.  

Every time I visit them, I am struck anew by the difference between what I see on their walls and what I find in the museums.  Impressionist art remains a personal favorite.  One aspect that I find so remarkable is the, for lack of a better word, naturalness.  The flow is smooth, easy.  The emotional empathy is magnetic.  The world they create on the canvas is so reflective of the time, the place, and the artist.  As I said, natural.

Only it is not natural at all.  The evidence is there on my friends’ walls.  

DO THIS NOW:

  • Stop viewing practice as unrewarded effort.  If you’ve realized this already, give yourself a gold star.
  • See your finished work as a final goal, not something you launch straight into.  Understand that elements like finesse and depth and layering all require very intense preliminary effort.
  • Step away from your current project.  Determine a method of sketching.  Use some medium that does not automatically translate into the project itself. For myself, this means writing out almost every scene of a new first draft by hand.  Every scene.  By hand.
  • Understand the intent of a different medium for your sketches:  You are therefore required to redraft everything when you shift to your actual project.
  • Sketch out what you want to do tomorrow.  If it requires several days to achieve this, put off tomorrow until the day after.  This is important.  No matter how strong the urge, don’t begin on the actual project’s next step until you have fully sketched.
  • When this next stage of the project is completed, take a good hard look at the difference your sketching has made to the finished result.
  • The most common fear about sketching is that it drains away the passion and emotional freedom you take into the project.  It is important that you be honest about this. If you find yourself emotionally drained, if sketching feels like the voluntary application of creative shackles, then you must stop.  But as I said, honesty here is vital.  There is a huge difference between emotional constraints and the rigor of a disciplined approach.
  • Remember this word.  It is crucial.  Balance.

Davis Bunn’s novels have sold in excess of eight million copies in twenty-four languages.  He has appeared on numerous national bestseller lists, and his titles have been Main or Featured Selections with every major US book club.  In 2011 his novel Lion of Babylon was named Best Book of the Year by Library Journal.  The sequel, entitled Rare Earth,  won Davis his fourth Christy Award for Excellence in Fiction in 2013.  In 2014 Davis was granted the Lifetime Achievement award by the Christy board of judges.  His recent title Trial Run has been named Best Book of The Year by Suspense Magazine. Lately he has appeared on the cover of Southern Writers Magazine and Publishers Weekly, and in the past three years his titles have earned him Best Book and Top Pick awards from Library Journal, Romantic Times, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus. His most recent series, Miramar Bay, have been acquired for world-wide condensation-books by Readers Digest. Currently Davis serves as Writer-In-Residence at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University. Until Covid struck, he was speaking around the world on aspects of creative writing. 

Watch an excerpt from his new book The Cottage on Lighthouse Lane here.

Learn about his new home at Blenheim Castle here.

Categories
The Intentional Writer

25 Quotes to Inspire Writers

The intentional writer

Writing is difficult.

Some days we face disappointment, rejection, criticism, frustration, nasty reviews, or writer’s block. On the tough days, we need encouragement to keep going.

Here are 25 quotes on writing, creativity, and calling that can inspire you to keep going, even on the tough days.

Words: So innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

Ernest Hemingway

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou

The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.

Neil Gaiman

Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.  

Marianne Williamson

Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.

Sue Monk Kidd

I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it until it begins to shine.

Emily Dickinson

We live in a world where bad stories are told, stories that teach us life doesn’t mean anything and that humanity has no great purpose. It’s a good calling, then, to speak a better story. How brightly a better story shines. How easily the world looks to it in wonder. How grateful we are to hear these stories, and how happy it makes us to repeat them.  

Donald Miller

Behind every specific call, whether it is to teach or preach or write or encourage or comfort, there is a deeper call that gives shape to the first: the call to give ourselves away — the call to die.

Michael Card

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

William Wordsworth

You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

Junot Diaz

Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.

Neil Gaiman

Stories create community, enable us to see through the eyes of other people, and open us to the claims of others.

Peter Forbes

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

Steven Pressfield

Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams

There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.

Diane Setterfield

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

Ben Okri

I think… the most brilliant thing about being a writer is that if you don’t like the way the world is, you can create your own.

Maegan Cook

The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.

Junot Diaz 

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.

Annie Dillard

I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.

Joss Whedon

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.

Gore Vidal

One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.

Lawrence Block

The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it.  That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.

Stephen King

Award-winning writer Lisa E. Betz believes that everyone has a unique story to tell the world. She loves inspiring fellow writers to be more intentional about their craft and courageous in sharing their words. Lisa shares her words through speaking, leading Bible studies, writing historical mysteries, and blogging about living intentionally.

You can find her on Facebook  LisaEBetzWriter Twitter @LisaEBetz and Pinterest Lisa E Betz.

Categories
A Pinch of Poetry

5 Ways to Keep Your Poetry Simple

Simplicity is extremely valuable when it comes to communicating through poetry. I’ve always wanted my poems to positively impact the reader rather than turn them away.

From my experience, here are five things to keep in mind as you craft your own poems that will allow readers to appreciate them fully.

1: Relatable Subject

First, choose a recognizable subject that will resonate with your audience. If the reader can relate to the subject, he or she will appreciate the poem that much more. Many poets, if not all, write from the unique inspirations of everyday life. Example

2 : Simple Language

You might be tempted to use academic words or jargon in poetry, but I recommend that you do this sparingly and only for a certain effect, such as humor or reverence. Your ideas can still be complex, and you should use unique words and phrases. Just make sure your poem on the whole is decipherable. Example

3: Comprehensible Message

What meaning do you want to convey through your poetry? Whatever it is, try to make sure that it fits our common experience. People understand themes such as beauty, death, joy and disappointment. Choosing a simple message will make sure that the reader “gets it.” Example

4: Clear Imagery

Every poet should use figurative language and poetic devices to create imagery and mood in their poetry. That’s where the true complexity and skill comes into play. Whatever techniques you use should create easily visualized images that touch one or more of the five senses. Example

5: Familiar References

Allusion is a powerful poetic tool, but it can often leave the reader confused. If you make references, try to allude to people, places, events, etc… for which most of your readers will have some knowledge. If you make an obscure reference, the readers might miss the entire point. Example

Knowing Your Audience

Most of these suggestions have to do with knowing your audience. As you consider these ideas, also keep in mind your readers. If they will understand academic vocabulary, obscure subjects and references and extraordinary topics, then by all means use them.

Warning: Simplicity Doesn’t Mean Easy

[bctt tweet=”If it’s too easy to write, then you probably didn’t try hard enough. #writers #poets”]

I want to be very clear about what I mean by keeping poetry simple.

When writing poetry using my suggestions, you may be tempted to simplify the techniques. For example, forcing rhyme in a poem at the expense of your diction (word choice). Or using clichés instead of coming up with original similes, metaphors, etc…

Be reminded that writing poetry shouldn’t be an easy task for you, the poet. It takes much skill to craft a commendable poem that resonates with a reader. If it’s too easy to write, then you probably didn’t try hard enough.

Just saying.

Because poetry is an art, we want it to be worthy of appreciation as well as accessible to the world. We want our readers to understand it, but not oversimplify it so it loses its aesthetic value.

And I’m not suggesting that you should never write poems that have mystery and depth—both add value to poetry.

I simply believe that the complexity should mostly challenge the poet rather than the reader.

Do you have any other suggestions for writing understandable poetry? Tell me below.

[bctt tweet=”Let the complexity of poetry challenge the poet rather than the reader. #poets #poetry “]

Categories
Grammar and Grace

Grammar and Grace

The concept of selecting a good product. Computer generated 3D photo rendering.

Hello, I’m Hope. A long, long time ago I used to teach English on the college level. I taught literature and essay writing, business writing, and technical writing. I also got to teach grammar.

I loved teaching commas and semi-colons and apostrophes except for the whiners and complainers who hated it, the jokers who couldn’t understand why they needed punctuation after the dreaded English class.

You may also ask why punctuation is important. It’s important because commas, and periods, and semi-colons are like road signs in traveling. You need them to help you and your readers along, to help you understand where you are and where you’re going. Lynn Truss addresses the necessity of punctuation in her humorous book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Untitled

Grammar, mechanics, word usage—all are important to telling your story in the clearest, best way, and isn’t that the goal of writers?

In this column, I’ll try to help you understand the finer points of using commas and the correct pronoun among other writing questions because I’m one of those people who carries a pen and is ready to use it to add a needed apostrophe or, more times than not, to delete an errant apostrophe floating on hand-lettered signs at checkouts.

I also love wordplay and diagramming sentences. Yes, really. In fact, I have a book on the subject—Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey

Categories
A Pinch of Poetry

The Art of Poetry

In my opinion, poetry is the high art form of all writing.

Crafting a meaningful poem can’t be done by anyone, but I believe anyone can learn to craft an extraordinary poem.

Hence the purpose of this blog A Pinch of Poetry where we will take our poetic talent to the next level.

Let’s consider visual art for a moment.  We could agree that most anyone can draw, color, or paint even if on the level of creating stick-figure abstract art.  But not everyone will become the next Van Gogh or Picasso.

So what makes renowned artists’ work more valuable than say a third-grade rendition of family life?  What defines them as “artists” rather than someone playing around in paint?

Techniques and intention distinguish art and poetry because they create aesthetic beauty.

Professional artists employ certain techniques to create an effect on the viewer or reader.  Every brush stroke and medium or color chosen is with a purpose.  Nothing is accidental. If you study a work carefully enough, you will discover secrets hidden deep within it that the artist is trying to share with you.

So it is with the art of writing poetry.

[bctt tweet=”Authentic Poetry is truly a high art form. #art #poetry”]

Crafting a poem goes beyond penning words on a page.  Many people can write a poem if given instructions just as so many could create a drawing.  But only a few will take poetry to another level and create written art.

How so?

When creating a poem, the poet has to consider the subject and the meaning they want to get across in as few words as possible.  Then he or she chooses the techniques which will best create images to convey those messages.  Some of those techniques are metaphor, personification, meter, alliteration, etc.

While we all have had the definitions of these techniques mercilessly beaten into us by our English teachers, implementing them is not as easy as it might seem.  And not all techniques are appropriate for every poem.  A poet decides what will work just like a visual artist decides what colors to use in a painting.

Every word and technique chosen has a purpose and meaning.  Nothing is accidental.

So if you’re already a poet then you can consider yourself an artist because authentic poetry is truly a high art form.  If you’re not poetically inclined yet, I look forward to helping you get acquainted with the craft.

Consider it an artistic adventure.

Have you ever considered poetry an art?  Tell me your thoughts below.

“VanGogh-View of Arles with Irises” by Vincent van Gogh – Web Museum (file). Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VanGogh-View_of_Arles_with_Irises.jpg#/media/File:VanGogh-View_of_Arles_with_Irises.jpg