Category Archives: creativity

The power of warming up

So, here is a warmup for my discussion of ‘warmup’.

It’s a quick brain dump [not my favorite term, by the way] to get some ideas rolling.

It might be a typed list, since I’m currently [obviously] on my laptop, but it might evolve into a mind map in my codex.

But it’s something that gives me a starting point and it dodges the ol’ blank white paper/blank idea-less mind syndrome.

Warmup

Get ideas flowing

Don’t stop yourself. Don’t edit yourself. 

Get some momentum. It can help you achieve flow. 

Sometimes it takes a few minutes, 50 or more words, but it is rarely a waste of time. 

It often clears your mind of other distractions. 

It reminds you that you have ‘shown up for work’, so that’s a reward in itself.

It just hit me that ‘warmup’ is such a nebulous unclear term that writing about it can be a little dry, but I’m forging ahead.

It loosens your muscles and it reminds you that, by warming up, you are striking out against ‘perfectionism’, so that’s another reward.

This is a practice that yields plenty of benefits and I think it’s worth making it a ‘habit’, one that shakes the cobwebs out of your brain. Right now, I feel like sketching two brains…one filled with cobwebs and then one—after warming up—with just a few wisps of cobweb.

I’m still going on this warmup about warmups. This is almost getting weird, isn’t it?

As I write this, I’m starting to get a vision of what an ideal warmup session might look like. It might well include a fresh cup of coffee and both analog and digital tools nearby. I wouldn’t want to be cooped up in a windowless room. And I would want some creativity books [a future post] nearby if I do get stuck. And I might even make a poster with some warmup criteria and prompts listed to keep me on track. Yeah, I like this. And I wouldn’t have reached that poster idea unless I had reached that ‘ideal warmup session’ idea, which had resulted from the previous 250 words. 

Wow…what a warmup session on ‘a discussion of warmups’.

Have a safe 4th of July weekend, everybody.

If you’re writing memoir…free course

I’m currently taking the non-fiction course offered by scribewriting.com. With a number of resources and ample instructor expertise, the logical and methodical approach been very helpful in addressing audience and outlining the larger project. [Tomorrow, we will cover more of the actual writing of the book and on Friday, they are offering a Q. and A. session that will last at least an hour.]

These same folks will be teaching a free course on memoir next week.

Follow this link to sign up: https://scribewriting.com/bookschool/

Just thought I would pass along the info for those considering a new non-fiction project.

I should have been writing. Instead, a kitchen marathon

This is me…except he is smiling, has tons more hair, and his kitchen is clean. [Oh, yeah, I don’t wear that dorky hat. It would fall into the Instant Pot anyway.]

So, back to procrasticooking... Result: 35 new recipes in 30 days. Note: A few sites were repeated. Hard not to fall back on epicurious.com.

Discoveries:

1. I’m not sure I followed any of the recipes to their exact specifications. More and more, I’ve been treating recipes as general guidelines rather than strict instructions.

2. I ‘created’ a few of my own — simple ones where I combined new ingredients/seasonings. Example: Avocado oil-roasted potatoes with a favorite Moroccan spice mix, ras-el-hanout.

3. New cooking questions arose in that vast abyss otherwise labeled ‘my brain’, like…if I oil the veggies before seasoning them for roasting, will the oil serve as a barrier to absorption and reduce the flavors? And no, I stillhaven’t looked it up. Sometimes, you just want a mystery to linger.

4. Oh, lord, some of those recipe sites take *forever* to load up all the ads and videos. I know these folks want to make a little money, but I had no problem just closing them up and looking for faster-loading alternatives.

5. Despite the physical separation from my writing tools and settings, I did get some good prewriting and first draft material churning as I cleaned up afterwards.

6. Speaking of clean-up, yep, even with my wife doing her part, dishes and counter mess were the bane of my existence. I even took a couple of days off in mid-challenge just to dodge the scrub-and-soak-rinse-and-repeat detail. Plus, the horrors of dishwater hands…

7. Some utensils, pots, and dishes never really made it back to the cupboards. They were used, washed, air-dried or towel-dried, and put back to work.

8. Based on my ratings below…well, I’m easy to cook for.

9. Even after the challenge, I can’t seem to stop cooking new stuff. Just yesterday, on a whim, I baked a mango pound cake from Pati Jinich and made my version of Mexican street corn grits . Someone! Please stop the madness.

10. There was an added challenge this year…My gastronomically-devoted ‘shoo! chef’, Buddy.

black dog looking up at the counter

Passing through the work area, my wife would step around our furry child and mutter, “not quite a certified kitchen, I see.”

Here are my first five recipes with a few added comments, a letter grade, and a ‘Yes’ [would repeat this recipe] or ‘No’. Note: The letter grade is just as much a comment on how well I delivered as a cook as it is on whether I liked the recipe itself.

  • Bear Batter Bread by way of New Tastes from Texas by Stephan Pyles. B+ — Yes.
  • Slow-Cooked Garlicky Greens by way of Bon Appetit. A — -Yes.
  • Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
  • Added dried cranberries and some almond flour to give them a little structure. In four of them, I added generous dabs of cold-hardened chocolate sauce. Result: Downright ugly, but cooked just right and resembling florentines. A- — Yes.
  • Savory cheese pancakes with half almond flour and half all purpose flour and the rest of the traditional pancake ingredients. I liked the nuttiness of the batter and the Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. B+ — Yes.
  • Southern Fried Cabbage B+ — Yes

Links to procrasticooking:

https://www.instagram.com/procrasticooking/?hl=en

https://procrasticooking.wordpress.com

http://www.bakingequalslove.com/2014/10/procrasticooking-grilled-paneer.html

Curation Corner: Writerly Wisdom


Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing

Thanks to Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings for this excellent page that includes Miller’s ‘daily program’.

My favorites: 

  1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
  2. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
  3. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

This 21 Authors Share One Piece of Advice for Writers post by Robert Lee Brewer from Writer’s Digest could easily be a springboard for 21 separate posts. The word cloud above offers a few items from the article. Take a look.

Curation Corner: Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing

HENRY MILLER Word CloudHenry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing

Thanks to Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings for this excellent page that includes Miller’s ‘daily program’.

My favorites: 

  1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
  2. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
  3. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

 

Curation Corner: On sticking to your story, a daily 15 minutes, and chipping away

ALDERMAN McCANN CHANDLER WRITERS WORD CLOUD
Don’t ever write anything you don’t like yourself and if you do like it, don’t take anyone else’s advice about changing it. They just don’t know.

RAYMOND CHANDLER

***

Write for fifteen minutes every day. Set a time in advance, set a timer. Try to write at the same time every day. Your subconscious will get used to the idea and will start to work like a reliable water spout.

NAOMI ALDERMAN

***

The terror of the white page never goes away, no matter how much you publish. Do you know how terrified I was this morning, as I woke up and walked into my latest novel? And it doesn’t get any better. Every time I finish a piece of work, I am completely terrified that I’m going to be found out, that I’m a charlatan, that I have nothing left anymore. That I can’t do it anymore. It’s no good; I’ve lost touch. Through all of that, you find another block of stone. You just continue to carve and chip away.

COLUM McCANN

***

Thanks to Jon Winokur–via his Twitter feed– and his Advice to Writers for these first three quotes.

I should be writing. Instead, 30 recipes in 30 days

My first recipe from 11 days ago…Thank you, Epicurious.

So, yes, much like the summer of 2010 when I was laid up after Achilles tendon repair, I, like millions of others, am experiencing ‘restricted routines’. Hey, gotta do the right thing for others, including our front-liners. No complaints here.

And, as in 2010, it’s freed me up for another round of…

“30 New Recipes from 30 Sources in 30 Days”
Subtitle: “Without Gaining 30 Pounds”

Today’s entry, from Mom on Timeout: Peanut Butter Stuffed French Toast

Okay, now this is weird. I’m revisiting the recipe and son of a gun if I forgot the eggs!

But it’s three hours after breakfast and it just hit me! 

This recipe’s batter called for a quarter cup of flour, which is not something I’ve used in the past, and evidently, that supplied enough substance and adherence qualities [‘stickiness’ is really the better word] that I didn’t notice the lack of eggs. Weird.

Probability: You throw in enough of the good inner stuff, you don’t notice shortcomings. Case in point: I’m not proud of its appearance–I can tell you, the wrestling match just to get this on the tray was not a pretty sight–but this stromboli-saurus recipe earned a ‘repeat visit’ award.

My apologies to Lauren’s Latest…her final product was much more pleasing to the eye.
‘Ugly Delicious’ folks: are you reading this?

Speaking of ‘inner stuff’, there was no reason to stop at peanut butter, so I pulled out black cherry preserves and a thick blueberry sauce that accompanied the flourless chocolate cake I’d made four days prior.

Half the fun of ‘following’ recipes is taking the detours. [Thank god there isn’t a Siri or Google Maps in the culinary world. That digital chorus would be endlessly yammering at me. “No, you nimrod, don’t double the cheese!”]

My final detour at breakfast: “Well, there’s still batter left…I wonder if I tossed in a wad of brown sugar and a glop of the blueberry sauce and then soaked the bread…”

Yep, I’d do it again. And maybe next time, a little creme de cassis or brandy wouldn’t hurt.

And speaking of detours…do this: While you’re eating, close your eyes. My experience: The food’s taste is ramped up. [Drawback, so is the sound of your chewing and chomping.] It seems to follow the truism that taking away one sense heightens the others.

So, what does all this have to do with writing? Experimentation in writing, as in cooking, can be a pleasant little kick in the seat of the pants.

https://www.writerslife.org/how-to-experiment-with-your-writing/

Fellow writers and cooks: Go pave a new path. Have fun. 

Curation Corner: Bradbury, Goldberg, and Faulkner quotes

From the ‘Do as I share, not as I do’ department:

writers quotes wisdom Bradbury 2

When you write – explode – fly apart – disintegrate! Then give time enough to think, cut, rework, and rewrite.

RAY BRADBURY

From the ‘Cripes, I hate it when people make me feel responsible for my own life’ department…
Sometimes people say to me, “I want to write, but I have five kids, a full-time job, a wife who beats me, a tremendous debt to my parents,” and so on.

I say to them, “There is no excuse. If you want to write, write. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait. Make the time now, even if it is ten minutes once a week.’

NATALIE GOLDBERG

From the ‘Benefits of setting the bar low’ department: 

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

WILLIAM FAULKNER

 

 

Curation Corner: Showing up…

messy desk jesus-hilario-h-5v69Vl62NCM-unsplash

A recent item from Jon Winokur’s Advice to Writers…

You Have to Show Up Every Day

Sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you’re the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in.
—THOMAS HARRIS

***

My take: For me, there is something magical about getting in that first 100 words. They don’t have to be quality words, of course, but just getting me to notice that I ‘showed up’ is a forward step.

I start the day in my notebook quite simply: “Showing up–the date–First 100 words” and I take it from there. The total often stretches to 150+ words. Interesting, though: There are times when I enter the list-making ‘zone’, so even if I don’t reach the century mark, I know those are quality words that are giving my work some added focus.

**Photo by Jesus Hilario H. on Unsplash