Creativity is Not a Passive Activity

Notes on the writing process, the Synopsis and the Outline

One of the things I somehow always manage to forget about the writing and art making process, and ironically will be including within the pages of this book, is that creativity consumes energy, whether it’s sitting in the chair concentrating on editing at the 11th hour or actively laboring over a work of art in the studio.

In the aftermath of the big push and the excitement that ensued, I crashed. Hard. I spent the day working from bed allowing the emotional release and the fatigue to have their way with me. From that state of mind, I can manage to edit videos and upload lessons to my website, or tend to easy tasks on the computer, but I had no business attempting to write anything that I wanted to be legible.

Yesterday’s blog post needs some loving care and a great deal of editing to read the way I had intended. Perhaps I’ll return to it another day, but it isn’t on today’s schedule.

Without further ado, here is the two page synopsis and the chapter outline of the book that I submitted to the publisher along with the other required materials for my proposal. Next week I’ll share an excerpt from the two sample chapters I submitted. But this will give you an overview of where it’s going.

I’d love to hear what you think in the comments. Thanks for being here!

With love and gratitude,

Crystal Marie

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Fire and Rain — Cold Wax and Oil by Crystal Marie

Recovering Your Intuitive Voice: An Artist’sGuide to Silencing the Inner Critic and Living a Deeper More Meaningful Life

Synopsis

More than a hunch, a sixth sense, or a gut feeling, the Intuitive Voice is a form of knowing. It is there to guide us through life and our art making, one right next step at a time. To stay connected to this knowing involves deep listening and paying attention. Not a one and done session, but an ongoing dialogue. It is a matter of trust that we know what we know.

Yet for so many artists, the connection to the Intuitive Voice has been broken or distorted. We’ve lost touch to this vital part of ourselves after a lifetime of input from external sources, creating limiting beliefs and core lies that govern our behavior, follow us into the studio, and become the voice of the Art Critic, throwing up blocks and inner resistance that turn our internalized limiting beliefs into a limiting reality.

For years I’ve taught collage and mixed media workshops utilizing the Intuitive Voice as an internal guide. This wasn’t a result of a formal education, I simply taught what I’ve come to know. Getting in the studio and tuning out all the typical distractions, no music or tv, no podcast or radio, nothing that would relieve me of the cacophony of thoughts in my own head, allowed me to understand my own blocks and internalized fears around creating.

As I began the practice of working in silence and deeply listening to all the internal chatter in my head, I noticed patterns that allowed me to divide these thoughts into two categories. I called them the voice of the Art Critic and those of the Intuitive Voice. It isn’t always easy to discern which messages belong in which category, but through practice, I began seeing a pattern.

With this new awareness, I began developing little tricks to coach myself out of the critic’s grasp, and soon a series of exercises followed that I returned to time and again. Not only did these exercises help to identify the messages that were blocking me and move me past the controlling mind, but they served as a sort of warm up, oiling the wheels of inspiration.