I am a firm believer that being healthy leads to all sorts of benefits. As a writer, I especially want to do the things that add quality to my writing.  The more healthy I am, the better I think, write, plan, organize, and step into another person’s (replace with character’s) shoes.

1. Sleep. We absolutely must sleep enough. For some writers, seven hours is optimum while others have different required amounts of sleep. So it is not that a writer must sleep a particular number of hours, but a writer must sleep the right number of hours.
2. Drink enough clean, pure water. The brain needs water and it needs a specific amount. Just as writers need different amounts of sleep, their need for water differs too. It is dependent upon the climate lived in, the weight of the individual, how much exercise is practiced, whether or the writer takes medicine which effects water usage and even if the writer drinks other liquids which steal water. So it isn’t a particular amount, it is the correct amount that the body needs.
3. Companionship which supplies trust, support, a kind shoulder, challenge, and encouragement. This helps keep stress down because there is someone who will be there during the rough times.
4. Speaking of stress: this is one of the top destructive health issues. Read, listen to music, meditate, go for a bike ride, knit, play Sims: reduce stress by doing those things that make you relax and get away from the stress inducing actions/experiences.
5. Eat food that supports the mind and body. Sounds simple, but it isn’t.  So this means no fast food, no sodas, no high salt chips, etc. It means eating for the body (and for the mind).
6. Exercise at least thirty minutes a day (three to five  times a week) in a fashion that raises your heart rate, warms up your muscles, and challenges your lungs and your strength.
7. This is the plus one: and it’s not a repeat of number 3. Hang out with people who look at things positively, are honest with you and want you to be honest with them, are fair minded and open to new ideas, and have few prejudices (I’m okay with people who aren’t crazy about spiders and snakes). If they are knowledgeable about things you aren’t, then you have bonus material in that friendship.
8. For writers only:  write.

True — I have offered nothing new. But new isn’t needed. Do what are bodies and minds have always needed. It doesn’t matter that there is more technology. We still need sleep that rejuvenates, food that nourishes, love that makes us secure, friendship that brings us positive viewpoints, reasons to smile, support to get us through the tough times, and strong bodies fit to recover from illness, carry us through stress and open the pickle jar.

If you liked this post, please share it.

#health
#write

The post 7+ Healthy Writer Activities That Help You Be a Better Writer first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

I love reading about the creative process. So many things effect the act of creation. There is place, time, deadlines, atmosphere, and a sense of purpose. But a recent article covered the idea that emotion has an effect on results and even on what area of creation the artist should focus on based on that emotion.

According to Scott Barry Kaufman in his article “The Emotions That Make Us More Creative,” one should consider not just emotions that are “positive and negative,” but also “emotional intensity.”

Kaufman argues that research shows that the belief that positive emotion increases creativity because it broadens the outlook and negative emotion narrows the focus thus reducing the creativity is “simplistic.”

Kaufman went on to explain that intensity was also very important. Emotions that are positive but lack intensity do not necessarily improve creativity. Applying research done by a psychologist named Eddie Harmon-Jones and his associates, Kaufman explained that the emotion “pleasant” as too mild while “desire” has intensity and therefore greater motivational power which would lead to completing a goal.

This is all very interesting, but how does one direct it toward creative writing? Kaufman clarifies this by stating that “high emotional states focus us on completing a goal” whereas “low emotional states” drive us to “seek” greater challenge elsewhere.  In a sense that lower emotional state causes us to seek creativity.

So to answer that question: how does this effect our creativity as writers? When we writers are feeling less intense, we are more likely to be inspired to come up with something new and unique. When we are feeling highly energized, it is likely we will do well to focus on a goal or action that requires completion.

When feeling good, relaxed or slightly under the weather, direct yourself to the act of drafting. Creativity will be within reach and supported by our emotional state which won’t distract us with emotional intensity.

But when feeling highly emotional (positive or negative) our attention narrows, so we should be working on the final phases of a work, such as editing, formatting or organizing.

I am still thinking this through. When I am being creative in my writing, I get very intense and focused on the work I am drafting. That seems to run counter to what Kaufman is saying. But I must agree that at the start of the act of creating I am often in the medium range of emotion.

Later when I am choosing to edit, I find that being tightly focused, a high intensity desire to work on something, does get me to redraft and define my intention on a scene better than being relaxed does.

What I liked best about the article though is that he stated that creative people are able to adapt and mix emotional states for the best results. We are essentially diverse and not boxed in by our emotions. We harness them. Yeah, emotionally creative powerhouses. I’ll take that complement.

Have any of you noted your emotional state and its effect on your creativity?  What have you found about the connection between emotion and your work?

#emotion
#creativity
#writing

The post Harness your emotional grip on creativity with levels of intensity first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Blossoms to hold onto.

It is that time of year again when everybody is writing
either their New Year resolutions or their accomplishments for the past year.
My thought is more along the lines of what is still present, still ongoing. So
here is my New Year list post.

• My Labrador companion Cagney it turns out is not
  turning ten years old in a few months but in fact is going to be nine for
  another year. She and I are quite pleased about this turn of events now that
  she is over me aging her faster than she needs to. 
• Cagney is still an excellent backwards tap dancer
  and gives a show every night when I measure out her evening meal. 
•  I am still working on Book 4 of the Students of
  Jump series, which appears each day, (though I keep writing more scenes) to still
  have another 6K of words to get to the end. My book apparently has some Dr.
  Who Tardis qualities: the inside is larger than one would expect. 
•  I am still disappointed with the movie version
  of The Hobbit. Where in heck did this
  white orc come from and since when was a dwarf the main character of a book
  titled The Hobbit? 
•  Don’t get me started on Ender’s Game. But I still feel the same. Good news: no white orc.
•  When building a house, everything takes longer
  than expected, still. Yet the roof is on, windows are in, garage doors are
  going in as I write and siding is going up. I remind myself daily that I could
  still be smoothing the concrete in the garage, and suddenly I feel as if we
  have been moving along quite swimmingly. 
•  I am still getting older and expect to continue
  aging in the future 
•  Teaching has been, is and will continue to be
  very hard work. Fortunately, students still have the capacity to learn despite
  their nearly all out effort to avoid this. I get updates a year or two after
  graduation that show that these kernels of learning take root and remain
  exponentially active for many years. As of this year, I began teaching my first
  grand-student. He is a much better student than his mother. Appears kernels
  imbed themselves in the genes. Who knew? 
• Creativity still begets creativity. I am testing
  a theory: One can never run out of creativity. I’ll let you know the results,
  but you have to hang around. I won’t make the post until shortly before the
  end, and I plan to live a very long time. 
•  There are in fact motor homes that one can be
  comfortable in. You just might not want to bring along two Labradors and two
  family members to test the comfort level. 
•  You should still floss the teeth you want to
  keep. 
•  Teenage girls notice teenage boys faster than
  the speed of light. Boys might be a little bit faster noting girls. Research is
  still coming in. 
•  Having to pay bills teaches responsibility.
  Politeness, consideration, appreciation, timeliness, good work habits and
  sympathy are also benefits of this experience. Earning grades through one’s own
  personal effort teaches the same lessons. 
•  A kind word still makes a difference worth
  noting and is therefore worth giving. 
•  Still keeping company with the best of writer
  friends, Marcy Peska and L. A. Hilden. 
•  Another year with the best man in my life and he
  assures me he is looking forward to another. 
• The finest of daughters continues to grow into a
  woman who will one day also be my best friend. Though I don’t look forward to
  letting go of her girlhood, I am already reaching for her adult hand. 
•  My daughter’s Labrador is still terrified of
  white floors of any material. She treats them like ice and skates on her curled
  black nails in a comic lack of control that promises to end with all four legs
  spread out like Bambi but never happens. It seems an appropriate phobia
  considering the time of year. 
•  I expect to continue blogging for another year,
  and probably longer. 
•  Based on my current writing projects, I see
  several years of writing ahead. Theory on creativity appears well supported.

#NewYears
#Creativity

The post A post about the constancy of life and New Years first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

A couple of years ago, a fellow blogger and I discussed writing guest posts for each other. She writes in the combined fantasy/urban legend genre and hoped I could write a post about magic or how place contributes to a story.

I decided to do it on how every story has rules, and how rules of magic effect story development?  I thought I would come up with a set of rules of magic and show how these rules would govern the flow of the story.  Great idea, huh?

So I begin asking myself a set of questions:

1. Who is allowed to use the magic?
2. How is the magic performed?
3. Is there an age requirement or limit?
4. When is one eligible to perform magic?
5. How is one recognized as a performer of magic?
6. What makes one especially good at magic and therefore a respected provider of magic?
7. What/who determines quality, strength and usage?
8. Are there social rules governing its use?
9. How does economics play into its use?
10. How does social standing play into it use?
11. How does one learn or is it innate?
12. Can one be employed as a magic provider?
13. Are there any personal costs to performing magic?

My post never was sent to my friend because in the process of answering the questions so that I could show how they would govern a story, I ended up with a great idea for a short story. A case of accidental inspiration.

Perhaps these questions could generate a story for someone else.

What unexpected inspiration led to a story, novel, poem or what-have-you idea?

#magic
#inspiration
#creativity

The post Creativity: the art of the accidental inspiration first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

You know that feeling: itchy fingers, voices in your head, ideas backing up, the urge to sit and type like a maniac through a scene, a tirade of dialogue, a well-strung motif? That’s where I am at, about to break out in a rash of words.

But there is a hold, the ever present disruption of life.  I have other work to do. So the log jam of voices stack up like train cars bumping into each other, linkages snapping in place, and me hoping I don’t run out of track in this backward build up of freight cars.

I bleed off pressure by writing on note cards quick bits I might forget, short cues of dialogue, beginnings to leap off from, to prime the pump when that moment of tunnel writing pulls into view.

That is the nature of being a writer while working at a job that does not include being a writer. I have said before that I teach and that teaching keeps me quite busy. I live two lives which impose on each other, sparring for my time, my creativity and my concentration.  I do not fear boredom when I retire. And sometimes lesson planning turns into an intense creative process that is nearly as satisfying as completing a chapter, getting through a bit of emotional dialogue, typing ###.

But at this moment, writing now this little post will have to suffice as a tug on the rope to let off steam until this weekend provides a few hours of uninterrupted racing down the tracks of my current book coming to an end or my next book establishing its voice, both rattled into line, the engine having gathered enough pressure to make my breaks squeal against the anticipation.

Who else is at the station? How are you holding out?

#creativity
#writing
#waiting

The post Creativity: when the track is full and starting to backup first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

 My last post was about brainstorming with my writer pal Marcy on a novel idea involving dementia and Alzheimer’s.  Much of what is going into the book is based on my experience with my mother and my father-in-law who are both suffering from this kind of memory loss.  Every phone call I have with them or chat with my mother-in-law or my sister, who also keeps contact with our mom, is a source of inspiration and information. But it is also disheartening because it will only get worse.

I tell myself that as painful as it is to watch and keep up with the changes they are going through, it is part of life, part of loving someone and part of the truth that must be in what I write. What we experience is our greatest source of originality and authenticity.

I know this book is going to tax me and pull hard at my heart, for every wall my character must climb will echo a difficulty my mother is going through. I have long since given up having those chats with my mom that always left us laughing. For many years I would unload my disappointments through the receiver of my phone, and my mother would be on the other end listening.  But it was never a sad event for I would find myself giggling over those troubles because she brought that out in me.  They were fodder for humor instead of tears or anger when I shared them with her.

But I cannot do that any more. She cannot hold onto the same conversation for more than a couple of minutes. Sometimes she thinks she is talking to my daughter or worse me back when I was in high school.  It is much harder to make her giggle and much harder for me to find the humor in the troubles that come with the changes she is going through.  Nowadays, she is sharing with me her difficulties, and I am the one hoping to bring humor rather than sorrow to her experience.

What life experiences feed your writing and give you hope that you will find peace in the effort?

#creativity
#Alzheimer’s

The post Creativity: Using your own experiences to authenticate your writing first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Partner and group brainstorming: I use this technique in my creative writing class. We gather around the table and discuss ideas. After we settle on one, I step back and write down each plot point or character decision as they work through them and build a consensus.

Now and then I read through what they have so far, and then the group is off again revamping, adding, changing.  Epiphanies fly about their heads, like those crazy fireworks you set on the ground and dodge as they zip off in random directions.  My students ram through half-baked thoughts as quickly as their mouths can speak them, making connections and changes to enhance emerging motifs.  And each student adds more flame and fires-up another idea.

Brainstorming

That’s brainstorming for strong writing.  That is the achievement of more than one mind reaching for development, precision, cohesion. I love those moments because they don’t just make for great writing, they make for the truly creative moment. If you have ever been a runner or done any kind of exercise that demands individual focus for more than half an hour, you may have felt the sensation that makes you feel as if you could go on running forever; the pace is perfect, the weather, the degree of breathing.

You float along without really feeling your feet hit ground or the sensation of running at all, almost an out of body experience. Time seems to stands still.  When two or more people are on the same run through an idea, it’s like that glorious running experience.  It feels as if you could create forever and you do not want to stop.

Very recently, just this past weekend, I felt like that.  I shared an idea I have been mulling over for a few months.  Soon my writer pal, Marcy Peska, and I were digging into the characters, their concerns, histories, families, questions, possibilities and my idea took on more life, seemed to breath a few halting breaths each time Marcy or I sent off another email between us.  The characters that had been slipping into my creative moments stopped being just skin deep. 

Sharing with Marcy and gleaning tidbits from her knowledge and experience made for development I would have taken much longer to come around to by myself.  What I love most about brainstorming with Marcy is that her questions are framed so that my characters are real people.  “Does Joan have Alzheimer’s in her family?”  Now I have to sit down with Joan and find out about her family history and for very good reason.  Colleen in a matter of seconds became even stronger because she is the type of person Marcy likes.  That alone added considerable depth to what was already a strong-minded woman.

Brainstorming with another writer or an interested friend is my kind of idea development. I am sure many of you use this same process. Is it a major factor in your process?  What others benefit idea development?

+Marcy Peska
#creativity
#brainstorming

The post Creativity: round robin brainstorming can lead to strong writing first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

 Since I am often inundated with numerous obligations I cannot put off because they are important aspects of my income-producing job, I need a few tricks to galvanize creativity.  I have already written about several of them, but my most trusted approach to getting off the pot and onto the page is very simple.  I read what I have already written and/or read other writers’ work and think.

This post is a definite example of that.  I post every Wednesday pretty reliably (unless life interferes with unreasonable demands I must give in to).  But I don’t often come to the page with an idea ready to zoom from my finger tips.

Today I started by diddle daddling around reading my old posts, posts that landed in my mailbox, posts I came across on Twitter, and posts I know my friends have written recently.

Somewhere along my diddling about, I dropped in on a blog or two by other writers (Jane Friedman for one, on ironically “What should authors blog about?”  Seemed rather apropos.)

Reading makes me ask questions.  It also makes me stop and think, and thinking leads me to wandering and wondering, which can on occasion produce a thought worth writing about. 

Of course, this approach does have its downfalls.  I may be planning to write a post and I get curious about sunflowers and then think about My Antonia by Willa Cather. In the book was a long description of the sunflowers which often stretched far into the distance on hills and along road sides in that part of Nebraska. Thinking about this image, will remind me of a neighbor I had in Oregon who grew sunflowers along one side of her house. From across the street and several houses down, I could see those enormous orange/yellow bobbing heads.  They stood in a long narrow line along the garage wall like tall garish soldiers.

They made me want to grow sunflowers one day. Years later when my daughter was about eight years old and wanted to grow a garden, we bought sunflower seeds and planted them along a fence line just the other side of our neighbor’s garden. I imagined them leaning over our fence and gazing with smiling sunny faces at his squash and pumpkins and benefiting from his soil preparations.  We had one of the wettest seasons that year and my daughter’s foot-tall sunflowers were leaf deep in runoff.  We made numerous attempts at building up berms to hold back the encroaching flow, and dug channels to move the sitting water. But it just kept raining and raining.

We finally moved them to higher ground while rain ran down our necks, and the pooling water spilled over our low boot tops.  Either they never quite recovered or the seeds were only distant cousins to the spritely blooms my neighbor had grown.  We had a rather sickly crop of lean seeds to harvest.

That’s the thing about creativity, it’s like an unexpected rainy season when you’re trying to grow sunflowers: one thing leads to another and you just have to go with the flow.

What flows have you had to ride along that guided you to a writing moment?

#creativity
#sunflowers
#thinking

The post Creativity: reading, thinking, and occasionally sunflowers are components of the process first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.