The Abbreviated Woman

A moment may pass in a millisecond, but in our minds the memory of it may last much longer. Describing that moment in only 200 words or less is very challenging.

Rachael of Rach Writes has given us an assignment to write a short story in 200 words or less that begins with the phrase "The door swung open" and if we felt up to the challenge, we could try ending it with the words "the door swung shut."

So the over-achiever that reigned in me during my school days surfaced and decided to write the following fictional story of 200 words for Rachael's first campaigner challenge! Stay tuned for a future post about how this idea came to me.


Here goes...

The Abbreviated Woman

The door swung open and Sylvia sighed as she stepped over scattered puzzle pieces in her stilettos.

“Oh, you’re here,” Nick said from up the stairs, holding their 10-month-old daughter.

“Mama!” shouted their six-year-old daughter Kat. “You’re back!”

Sylvia pushed Kat down.

“Katydid, don’t wrinkle your mother,” Nick said.

Sylvia adjusted the purse on her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Kat.

“Kat, your father tells me you aren’t talking at school.”

Kat shrugged and burrowed her head into Sylvia’s skirt.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sylvia demanded.

Kat swung her head side to side against Sylvia’s knees.

“What wrong with her?” Sylvia asked Nick.

“Probably you,” Nick answered. “She stopped talking after you left. Us.”

Sylvia stepped back, causing Kat to fall forward.

“You have to start talking. Stop being so ridiculous, Kat.”

Kat looked up at her mother and stuck out her tongue. She ran off before Sylvia felt like making the effort to stop her.

Sylvia shoved a puzzle piece away from the door.

“You’re leaving already?” Nick asked, shifting the baby in his arms.

Sylvia flicked a sharp look at him before opening the door. She breathed the fresh air. Her stilettos clicked. The door swung shut.

The Birth Story

Since the creation of my blog over a year ago I have found one concern rising above the many I have about blogging, the Internet, technology, and more: how much personal information should I share?

I tend to withhold the intimate details of my life. I don't free myself to write in a brutally honest way that exposes me and makes me vulnerable. My blog lacks evidence of opinions and views I feel so strongly about. And yet...

...my blog does come from my heart and I put a lot of heart into it, but I save most of my deepest felt experiences and thoughts for my husband, and just for me. Others who know me call me a private person, an introvert, a shy person, and I think that fits me, but sometimes I try to step out into the open, throwing my thoughts out into the world to see what ears they fall upon.

Today is one of those days... I'd like to try my hand and heart at writing about the birth of my daughters. This started out as a writing exercise for Kate Hopper's writing course "Mother Words," and now I'm developing it even more for my blog.

I apologize in advance if this story contains too much detail. I hope it doesn't upset anyone. Tomorrow's post will be much more enjoyable!

The Birth Story of My Daughters

Women. We're all about shapes (and sizes and softness and spiritual sacred bodies). During a yoga class many, many years ago, my instructor asked us to focus on the first image that came to mind when he said the word beautiful.

The first image that popped into my 17-year-old mind was that of a pregnant mother holding her first child in one arm while holding her pregnant belly with her other arm. The image expressed roundness and warmth: pure beauty in its most natural innocent state.

Although I did get to cherish moments like that image during my last pregnancy, with my curious little toddler often being the one to hold and hug my pregnant belly, the roundness of being a mother didn't entirely reach the depth of my soul.

My belly was significantly round like I swallowed not just one, but many watermelons; however, it was my pelvis that wasn't round enough. For some odd reason, both of my babies preferred to lay across my belly when I was pregnant. Transverse, the doctors called it, claiming my pelvis was not an ideal shape for natural childbirth. Thus, both babies were born via c-sections due to the transverse position and the odd shape of my pelvis. All my hopes of a natural labor and delivery vanished in the vacuum sterile surgical room as my body was prepped for surgery.

With each c-section I encountered an absence of smell under the flare of fluorescent lights as I laid upon the hard narrow surgery bed. Childbirth was supposed to be a moment full of earthy smells and sounds I thought.

Prior to each spinal block for the surgeries, a nurse gave me a shot (the drinking kind) in a Dixie cup. The liquid tasted like one thousand Fred Flinstone vitamins crushed and blended with only a few drops of water. The lingering taste of a rusty pipe in my mouth had me begging the nurse for a chaser. However, I had been without food or liquids from midnight on, so a chaser was out of the question. Instead I got hooked up to an IV! And oh how my body began to swell.

The shot of medicine was supposed to prevent any nausea that I might have after the surgery. Both times it proved ineffective as I spewed up empty matter after each surgery while I waited in the recovery room for my babies to be brought to me. The Chloroxed recovery room air became infused with the smell of vomit to my embarrassment, which further delayed getting my babies on my breasts.

After I tossed back the shot, I walked into the surgical room. Each time a nurse assisted me and my bulging belly up onto the narrow table. Each time I was asked to hunch over like a "shrimp" (probably the least likely creature I could imagine myself as), hugging my belly to my chest as the needle dripping with medicine for the spinal block was inserted into my spine. Each time I inhaled the perfume of the nurse bracing my head and shoulders in front of me as the liquid Nitrogen feel of the spinal block pushed against my back like a ton of frozen bricks.

Quickly my legs and body were spun on top of the surgery table as a flimsy pale blue drape was slung in front of me, blocking my view of my belly. In my mind I envisioned what the other eight doctors and nurses were seeing: my naked body. The humility of the moment quickly passed as each time I realized the spinal block was too slow to take effect. My belly and arms received countless pricks of a needle drawing drops of blood each time until I finally could no longer feel any pain from the tiny stabs.

The spinal block prevented all pain from entering my mind, which allowed me to maintain control of my mind. I'd prefer never to hear some stories women share: the horror stories of c-sections gone bad. I had to keep a handle on the situation. I paced my breathing and relaxed my hands, which were strapped down on either side of me.

Although I was numb from the breasts down, each time my babies were removed from my body brought an unpleasant sensation deep within my body cavity. It felt like a giant organ being excavated from the trenches of the deepest part of the earth, so engrossed in its surroundings, so attached with tentacles and pumping life that separation is impossible.

The doctor performing the second c-section exclaimed, "She's SO BIG I can't get her out!"

Never in my life have I felt the urge to say "WTF," but laying there in that surgery room I almost screamed it out.

Instead my internal scream was drowned out by the roar of a vacuum sucking out blood and fluid to loosen my baby's grip on my body.

"Now your uterus is outside your body," the doctor stated.

Again, another WTF? but this time I stammered out in panic, "I'm burning inside."

Within seconds of my daughter being pulled out, and apparently my uterus being held outside of my body, a flood of raging hot pain engulfed my upper abdomenal area under my ribcage. I didn't experience this with my first c-section, so the surprise of it shocked me senseless. I immediately lost my grip on my mind, my control, and I felt afraid.

"We don't know what causes that hot pain, perhaps it is the carbon dioxide entering the body when we have your uterus outside of it. The pain will go away eventually."

And it did, 15 minutes later, as I listened to the doctor comment during the sewing up of my body about socialized medicine (I had my first c-section when we were stationed in Canada), and the blah blah blah of his philosophy on it. Being a scientist myself, I followed along for a few minutes until I realized that I only wanted to be thinking about my newborn daughter who was choking just a few feet away from me as her doctors suctioned meconium and fluid out of her throat and mouth.

"Breathe," I whispered to her over and over.

Almost three hours later I finally felt warmth again as my daughter was placed in my arms for the first time. I smelled again the sweet wetness of life that blossoms in even the most sterile of environments. And I touched again, I touched a living miracle created from two loving souls.

Beautiful: a newborn child.

No Time to Write?

As a writer-mama short on time to write, I look for mini-writing exercises that I can do in my head if that is all I have time for. One such activity is symbol association. It's fun and an easy one to do with a child.

Symbols are all around us.

They are woven in literature like a metaphorical backbone in a piece of writing that helps the reader learn the deeper quality of prose written in between the lines.

They are strong points in our daily lives, giving us reassurance, a foundation, the space and time to breathe.

Symbols, or objects, help us connect with small moments in our day-to-day lives as well as accompany us through bigger, emotional moments in our lifetime. During the month of April, "Earth Month" on my blog, I tried to utilize various symbols in my blog posts (e.g., umbilical cord, fire, circle, boats, bees, flowers, cycles, seeds, and footprints). By starting out with a symbol or object, I tried to think how it relates to me as a writer-mama.

Symbol Association

1. Take any object in front of you. Just grab it and hold it.


2. Right now my object is an apple core. Yesterday it was a toy telephone while I was playing with my daughter.


3. Ask yourself the following questions (don't worry, they may seem silly but it really helps to stir up creativity in a short amount of time):

• How do I interact with this object?


• What is one word that can describe my emotional attachment to it?


• If I could ask this object one question, what would it be?


• Consider the structure of it. What is at its core or its main frame that you can relate to?


• How might this object be used in a piece of writing? Have you read a book or article recently that used it?


• What does your object represent in your life?

4. Tag the object in your mind with a set of words that you can recall later when you have more time to write.

5. Create a list of symbols/objects in a notebook where you can write the objects name and its tag words.

6. Use your list when working on your pieces of writing. If you don't want to use the symbols or objects from your list, then your list will at least help you to remember the value of using symbols in literature.

Ready for this exercise? I'd love to hear what symbols or objects make their way into your daily lives. What value do they hold for you as a writer-mama?

A Series on Voice: Day Three

Day Three: Developing Your Voice

To identify and understand my personal writing style I have worked through a set of exercises that I made for myself that I will list below. To develop my voice for a particular book I am writing I am starting to work on a set of exercises that so far have been a learning experience. These too are listed below.

Depending on the audience I am writing for, I have found that developing my voice may come naturally or may be more challenging. In certain pieces of writing (fiction and non-fiction) that are based mainly on my experiences and background knowledge, my voice flows easily into my writing. But when I am working on a piece that includes characters, settings, or plot details that are very different from me, I am not as comfortable in finding and using my voice. The key to remember, however, is that all humans experience similar core truths of humanity that come through in a writer's voice, so this is what I strive to find in my personal writing style.

Exercises to Identify and Understand My Voice

1. Take a personality quiz.
2. Make a detailed list of my hopes, fears, opinions, and beliefs.
3. Tease out the list to identify strengths and weaknesses of my personality.
4. Create a timeline from childhood to present that documents traits of my personality (i.e., tastes, dress, interests, friends, books, music, activities, choices, education, jobs).
5. Create a timeline from childhood to present that documents events in my life that deal with certain emotions (i.e., anger, pain, sorrow, love, joy, humility, hope).
6. Create a set of note cards with one word per card that identifies things I feel most deeply.

Exercises to Develop My Voice for a Book

1. Create character sketches for the central characters of the book (i.e., descriptions of appearance, actions, mannerisms, habit of speech, things that affect the senses).
2. Write several versions of the first chapter using different approaches (i.e., first person, third person, different settings, different starting points).
3. Write a letter from the main character's POV (in first person) to his/her parents, a friend, an enemy, a stranger, and me.
4. Make a list of how I want the overall atmosphere of the book to impact the reader.
5. Use the list to write several examples of this atmosphere based on setting, dialogue, character description, and a mini-plot.

Where Do We Go From Here?

When I used to paint on a regular basis, I approached my canvas having a very clear image in my mind of what I intended to create. I almost always had sketches of the entire painting or a photograph I'd taken to accompany the vision in my head. I felt more at ease planning the painting in steps on paper and in my head, eventhough the end results were usually some what different.

Like painting, my writing is more successful if I feel comfortable knowing the overall atmosphere. Researching, thinking, and visualizing are key components of preparing myself before I begin to write. But at some point I have to say to myself "Okay, I'm ready to begin." I think the final thing that I hold on to is knowing exactly what voice I will be trying to use in my writing.

After I've gone through the identification and development of my writing style, I think I will be ready to go with a first chapter and continue with the rest of the book. Right now I've been practicing with different first chapters, and it really helps me to see how my writing style shapes the story differently when I try different approaches. Perhaps as I gain more experience as a writer I won't have to do all of these steps to discover and develop my voice, but for now it seems to be working for me.

At what point in your preparation for a book or article do you say to yourself "Okay, I'm ready to begin" and start the writing process?

Thanks for following along in this short series on 'voice.' I've learned a lot by writing about this topic and I appreciate everyone's feedback!

A Series on Voice: Day Two

Day Two: The Discovery of Your Voice

In day one of this series on voice I defined it as a writer's personal writing style based on who the writer is (personality, experiences, attitude) and the atmosphere the writer wishes to create in the book. I was left wondering how an author truly learns what his or her own voice is before setting down to write a book.

The books I've read that leave an impression on me carry a voice that has a power over my emotions and makes me believe in the book's story. But how did these authors tap into such deep truths of the human spirit with voice? First they had to discover their own individual depths of the soul.

What Are Your True Aspects of Humanity?
In her book Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott states that "you cannot write out of someone else's big dark place; you can only write out of your own." To reach the core of our humanity, Anne suggest that we confront our "anger and damage and grief." And it doesn't work to tackle this confrontation with someone peering over our shoulder; we have to release ourselves to exposure in order to tell the truth in our own voice.

How Can You Acknowledge the Truth?
A first step to take in taking down the barriers and grapling with your deepest truths might be to make a detailed descriptive list of your opinions, beliefs, fears, and hopes. And from these branch out to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each item in how they relate to you as a human.

A second step might be to ask yourself what you've repressed inside of yourself since childhood. What secret identities, personalities, lifestyles do we dream of living but don't? I tried this out by creating a conversation with my self and my shadow (my self being the writer-mama-wife that I see every day and my shadow being what I dream I'd be doing in a dual reality, a rainforest biologist and painter).

When I look to the deepest truths of myself I am embarrassed, sadden, surprised, humbled, happy, and inspired.

From this foundation I can begin to develop my voice. In Day Three of this series I will attempt to learn how a writer develops their voice.

The two steps I've taken to think about what lies at the core of my soul that speak of humanity are just two ways that I've tried. What other steps have you taken to discover your voice?

A Series on Voice: Day One

I learned so much from doing the "Writers Write and Think Outside the Box" series on my blog earlier this month, that I decided to do another series on a second topic that I struggle with: voice. Unlike setting, characters, plot, and dialogue, 'voice' has always been a harder concept for me to understand. What is it exactly and how do authors achieve success with it? How do I discover my voice and how does it differ in each book I write?

These are just some of the questions I have always had on voice, so I am going to blog on voice for the next few days! This series is meant to serve as an exercise for me to truly learn what voice is, how to develop my own voice, and why voice is important, so there may be parts of this series that you don't agree with and I would be happy to learn from you since I am learning as I blog about voice. If you would like to follow along, I'd love to hear your insight and experience with voice! So let's begin...

Day One: What is Voice?

As a writer-mama I often wish the discovery and usage of voice could be as easy as creating different voices for my toddler's stuffed animals when we pretend play. Unfortunately a writer's voice is much deeper than using a strange monster accent or a squeaky mouse trill of tongue.

To answer this question I pulled my first diaries from when I was in elementary school off of my writer's bookshelf. Skimming through the pages, I realized that as a child new to writing my style was all my own. I was too young to have studied the writing styles of other authors. I wrote in my own unique way. I believe this is this definition of 'voice' - a writer's personal writing style.

But what exactly is your personal writing style?
Your individual writing voice is a combination of all the experiences you've had in life, your personality, the personalities of your characters, and your feelings towards the subject you're writing about, the characters, and the reader.

Why is voice important?
After I finish an extraordinary book, I close the cover and say "Gosh, I wish I could write something like that." What makes me say this? The author's voice. In some mysterious, vague way the author has beautifully written a story with characters, settings, plots, and dialogue that create an overall atmosphere that is unique and believable. I can reread these books over and over, and each time I learn something new. But I don't want it to be mysterious and vague. I want to know how the author's personal writing style created such an engaging, successful voice.

How do I identify voice in books?
I made up a small exercise for myself to compare and contrast voice in different books and essays. Among some of my favorite pieces of literature, I looked for excerpts that demonstrate anger. This is what I learned...

In Katherine Paterson's book The Bridge to Terabithia, the two main characters argue about beating up a bully who stole Twinkies. The dialogue of each character shows their personality as well as their innocence. When Jess claims he has to fight "the female gorilla" eventhough "them Twinkies is well on the way to padding Janice Avery's bottom," the reader is given a unique perspective from the author that is influenced by the author's personality as well as the character's personality.

Ben Mikaelsen's book Touching Spirit Bear deals with anger of a teenage boy throughout most of the book. His voice comes through on several pages where he clashes the intensity of the boy's anger with the beauty of the wilderness on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. For example, the author writes, "In the bay, a mother seal played with her spotted pups as a golden sun peeked through the gray overcast and glinted off the waves. "This place sucks!" Cole mumbled as the breeze drifted sparks upward like wandering stars."

In an essay titled Exile: El Paso, Texas, Benjamin Saenz uses his voice to describe the injustice a man receives in such a way that the reader feels angry for the man eventhough the man himself tries hard to not be angry and speaks calmly and fairly to those who hurt him. By reading about the man's actions but also his thoughts, which oppose his actions, the author's voice comes through in a unique way.

Each of the above authors effectively use their own personal writing style to portray anger, but how did they discover their voice? And once discovered, how did they develop their voice? I will address these questions and more as this series on Voice continues!

The Shadow of a Writer-Mama

In her book poemcrazy, Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge suggests we send an invitation to our shadow for a personal conversation. Our shadow is our secret separate selves, long ago buried in childhood. It is who we long to show in the sunlight. It is the depth of our desired-self. It is our self living in another reality.

Every day the rise and fall of the sun casts my writer-mama shadow in various directions, but the way I see myself stays constant. I wake, wash, write, and listen for my toddler to rise. I diaper, dress, and prepare the sippy cup. I play, invent, chase, and giggle. I read, sing, and say "sleepy-bye time." I write, write, write until she wakes from her nap. I play, invent, chase, and giggle. I cook, feed, giggle, and wipe. I kiss, snuggle, whisper, and sleep. Although my shadow may follow me around all day long, it is in the distance, only touching the soles of my feet.

My Shadow
Like my 3-dimensional writer-mama "Pushmi-Pullyu" self, my shadow takes on the form of a two-headed creature: a rainforest biologist-painter. Occasionally we take a walk together on a sunny day. Upon listening to my shadow, I've learned a thing or two about my entire being.

The Conversation

Self: Shadow, let's take a walk on this cool Spring morning.

Shadow: But I am wandering in a world of green diversity where howler monkeys awake the forest before the sun rises and kinkajous paint the trees to sleep with flickering firefly eyes. Why should I travel to your world of writing, sippy cups, playtime, and diapers. A world of "no, no," naptime, and silly songs. My world drips of crimson red on tips of brushes amongst the paintstrokes of hunter green.

Self: I want to live in your bedazzled cathedral, so I can feel the flutter of glasswing butterflies taking flight from impatient flowers. But I also want to share the beauty and joy of my world with you. It is magical, too.

Shadow: If you, a writer-mother-wife, can only be in your world, what can I, a tree-climbing-insect-hunting-oil painter, give you? What good does your shadow bring to your sunny life?

Self: Because you make me dream. And this fantasy of you gives life to the child inside my spirit. I write about you to inspire other children, in hopes they will pursue every dream they have ever had in their lives. I seek the details of your world to paint my words. I crave the time lost in observing infinite worlds in water pools in ebony tree pockets, trails of leaf-cutter ants, and army ant bivouacs. I am homesick for palettes and canvas and stains on my fingers.

And Shadow, I want my daughter to see this in my reflection. If she can see all of me, us, then she will see the passion behind my writing, the reason of my teaching, and the mysterious beautiful potential of life.

Shadow: And will I be abandoned at the end of our walk today? When will I see you again?

Self: You are always beside me, inside me, even if we don't have much time to talk. But let's begin on a new path, a path where we will talk to each other every week. And I will let you be heard. You can be the writer. You can be the voice.

What is your writer-mama's shadow? What does it have to say to you? What do you wish to tell it?

Writers Write and Think Outside the Box: Wall Six - The Open Window

Thank you to everyone who has followed along in this series on writing and thinking outside the box! I appreciate all the comments and ideas that I have received from it. In this final part of the series I like to think that it isn't a sixth wall or side of the box that we'll be discussing, but instead a window that we can keep open so that we can get outside of our boxes.


It is fairly easy to let ourselves hunker down inside our boxes, keeping the sixth side closed, so how do we keep the window open? How can we continue to think and write outside of the box? I know it's corny, but I put my 19-month-old daughter's little Jack-in-the-box beside me on the desk as I think about this question. All it needs is a little jingle to pop open, but for some reason my brain requires a bit more than that.


This is what I know...

• My daughter's brain is constantly in the creative-drive with original thought flowing out of it all the time.
• Every object, every word, every motion presents a new discovery to her.
• My peaks in creativity, when it's almost effortless to think outside the box, occur when my brain is working hard at doing the things I described in Wall Three of this series.

My conclusion: To keep the box open, to continue thinking and writing outside the box, I need to exercise my brain, daily.
Exercises for the Writer-Mama
These exercises are ones that I can pick from on a daily basis to give my brain a kick in the neurons to remind myself to keep my writing original, innovative and creative. Many of these exercises I've gathered from other writers and thinkers I know or have read about. A special thanks to them!

1. Read, Read, Read. And not just books we're comfortable with, but new genres, new age groups, new authors. And think, think, think about what I am reading. One approach for this exercise is described by Jen Roland who has set a reading challenge for herself.
2. Explore different niches. To perfect my craft I try to write in areas that I know, but as a writer wanting to live outside the box I need to try out different niches that writers put themselves into. Maria Schneider calls it "boxing yourself" and she does a great job of broadening her niche. I believe this improves our writing overall as it helps us to develop different writing styles and to learn from others in each niche.
3. Utilize the lists. Other than my grocery list and 'to do' list, my lists are personal and have the vulnerability of first drafts. Mary Jo Campbell's exercise of creating a list of our fears that we will overcome and actually crossing off items on it is a perfect example of how a list can help us to actively seek life outside of the box. To continue this awareness, she suggests generating a list of 100 items that make us come alive so that we can surround ourselves with these things daily.
4. Try on new words. Poet Susan G. Wooldridge utilizes an exercise in creating a word pool for a daily swim. In her book poemcrazy, Susan describes collecting words and attaching them to objects around the house to give new meaning to both the words and objects. Take this exercise one step further and create connections between the objects with their new words or try using the word-object combination in your writing.
5. Blog. My blog has come a long way for me personally. When I began my blog I used it as a springboard into writing. As a new mom with a colicky newborn I was usually very exhausted when a free moment to write landed in my lap. Blogging helped me to just get my fingertips on the keyboard. But recently my blog has taken on new meaning for me. I see it as a challenge for me to climb. It forces me to think about new topics, new directions, and new ideas.

On that note, I would like to ask my readers what other exercises you do to help you think and write outside of the box. How do you manage to keep your creativity going when you write? What do you do to push original thought out onto paper? Writer-mamas aren't the only ones who feel the creativity seeping out of them from exhaustion. Every writer, every thinker can feel this way when he or she settles in to write. But we don't want to settle into the box, so let's keep the window open!

Writers Write and Think Outside the Box: Wall Four

Day four of this series on thinking outside the box is focused on the construction of our own individual boxes. By identifying and understanding the walls of my box I hope to find it easier to think outside of the box.

Identify Your Box

What are your hidden assumptions? How do these assumptions impact your ability to think outside the box? Where did these assumptions originate from? How can I break down the walls of my box?

Step One: Make a List of Your Assumptions
Here are some of my personal assumptions that I've come up with:

1. I can only best tackle a problem as a visual learner.
2. I too often take for granted my health and blessed life.
3. My opinions are typically influenced by my upbringing, my political beliefs, and my religious/spiritual beliefs.
4. Lately I assume too often that the Internet will provide faster, more correct answers than a human being I could communicate with instead.
5. A solution to a problem may work for a slightly different problem and I could obtain the same results.
6. My behavior is greatly influenced by society and cultures.
7. I assume others think and feel the same as me in a given situation.

Step Two: Think About Your Assumptions and Their Origin

• My experiences in life provide a foundation that I seek comfort in when faced with a question or problem.
• I use knowledge gained from my experiences because it is what I know best.
• There is comfort in knowing that if I go with what I know and not stick my neck out, then I will end up with a solution that works for me.

Step Three: Tackle Your Assumptions to Move Outside of the Box

1. Expanded Listening - If I listen without forming an opinion or an idea while the person is speaking, then I can try give myself time to question what is being said by making a mental effort to put aside my assumptions. Instead of giving a reply that begins with "well, I think that..." I should ask the person to expand on what they are saying so I can truly figure out what it is they are saying.
2. Time for Pretend Play - As often as I try to step into someone else's shoes to assess how they might feel or think about something, I probably do it with the walls of my box surrounding me. If I give myself time to try on the cap of many different individuals including the one in focus, then maybe I can gain perspectives (and answers or ideas) that each person might give. How might a teacher, cab driver, postal worker, lawyer, prisoner, homemaker, welfare-dependent, doctor, PeaceCorps volunteer, etc all feel about a given topic? What advice would they give me?
3. Emphasis on Diversity - Given that society, cultures, religions, organizations, and my past all provide the bricks and cement for my walls of assumptions, I should make a mental effort to encompass a wider range of these when I think. Visualize different people in different settings in different time periods. Listen to voices of not just humans but all organisms. Welcome diversity as a resource that will enrich my mind to help me think outside of the box.

Writers Write and Think Outside the Box: Wall Three

Where Does Creativity Spring From?

The experience of observing and interacting with my daughter from conception to her current age of 19 months has been a major learning experience in my life. I've been thinking about this question over the weekend and watching my daughter do new things that are very creative. With such a young brain, Ayla is discovering new words, new actions, new everything each day. Thus, creativity springs from our human nature, our minds and our imagination. As adults, perhaps the challenge lies in the question "How can we be more creative?"

How to Ignite that Spark of Creativity?

PLAY - Imagination is something we haven't forgotten how to do as adults. Our minds may wander into realms of fantasy, dreams, and fears during the day and night. But do we actually give ourselves time to slip into this world of imagine? Do we have time to play?

My daughter plays all day long, and she prefers it if I play right alongside her. As she plays with her toys and books, investigates the construction of things, manipulates objects to do new things, I am learning how to play again. I invent dialogue between a carrot and an eggplant. I sing to her stuffed animal shark from the perspective of her stuffed animal puppy. I discover how water pours out of different objects into a tub.

As writers we can play with words. Collect unusual words from field guides, cookbooks, magazines, snaps of conversation you pass by, and find new ways to use these words. Read poetry that plays with words in ways that novels don't. Catch a phrase of a conversation between two people you may pass on the street and play with the words in your mind to give them new meaning.

CREATIVE CRAFT - Writers are very artistic and often have many creative outlets, but we may not give ourselves time to pursue these outlets if our time to write is limited. If we do make time, however, to paint a piece of pottery, doodle, listen and only listen to music, try out new recipes, or spend an afternoon with a camera, then we our helping our writing minds to expand.

TOOLS - We have at our fingertips a wealth of tools that make our day-to-day tasks easier. Whether it is browsing googles database for an answer or going to store to purchase an item to simplify a task, we don't have to work as hard to accomplish certain projects. By limiting the tools we let ourselves use, our minds will have to work harder to solve a problem. A simple example is baking a cake: Should I buy a pre-made cake at the store, bake one using a box mix, or bake a cake from scratch? And carry it one step further, bake a cake from scratch without a recipe.

If I steer away from the computer (and access to the Internet) and stick to a piece of paper and a pen, my writing takes on a very different course, one that is independent of quick answers on the web, one that reflects my thinking in its entirety. As writers, we may find our writing to be more creative if we limit our tools to the pen and paper (or a typewriter).

BRAINSTORM - All of these options give our brain a work out. By exercising the mind we may help ourselves to see new things in areas we didn't before. As a writer-mama I love lists: To Do lists, character traits lists, setting description lists, shopping lists, Ayla's words and actions lists, etc. Lists are a first step in brainstorming to help our brain think outside the box. A second way to brainstorm is to make diagrams. How does one word or object relate to another? What is the cause-effect relationship? What detours might a character take? What's real and surreal? Brainstorming is like another form of doodling. It gives the brain space and time to let ideas flow in a stream of imagination.

VIEWPOINT REVERSAL - It is easy to let ourselves fall into the position that we normally take in any discussion or argument. A conscious mind may make an effort to slip into the shoes of the other side, but we still hold firmly to our viewpoint. How often to we make a true effort to switch our perspective? To cast away our assumptions that we make before an opinion is made? This is how we build our box, based on the assumptions we make. What are the assumptions you make every day of your life that lead your mind into making decisions, forming opinions, and solving problems? This question will be the focus of the fourth part of this series.