TED Talk Tuesday: Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity

Welcome back to the blog! I took some time off during the summer. I apologize for anyone who stopped by for any of my regular features.

I'm back, and better for the time away.

I am starting a new blog series. Each week, I will post a TED talk which impacts my writing life, or life, in some way. Some of these, like this week's, will directly discuss writing. Some will get us thinking in other ways.

My hope is that the TED talks will inspire or stretch us in our thinking. My hope is that we will find more things to discuss. My hope is that they will spark us into some difference in our lives or in our writing.

My hope is that we will listen in a meaningful way and not just wait for our turn to talk.

Although, I would love it if you would take a turn to talk. Not everything in the talks will be things we will all agree on. Thank goodness for that! Discussion and differences breed new ideas and perspective.

Wow, I have lots of hopes, don't I?

As President Snow says, hope is the only thing stronger than fear.

And as writers, we tend to feed our fears.

Which brings me to our TED talk for today. In which Elizabeth Gilbert discusses fear, genius, and the importance of just showing up for work.

Can't see the embedded talk? View here.

So, do you believe your genius resides outside yourself? Have you ever had an experience like the poet described? Does this idea of external muse make you feel anxious? Does it make you feel relieved?

I'll get the ball rolling. I like the idea of just showing up. Of getting the work done. Whenever I do that, I see progress.

I also identified with those feelings of fear which Elizabeth describes.

The idea of muse as actual thing outside of us all made me cringe a little, but then I realized that I speak in those terms ALL THE TIME. I call it The Universe. As in, "I need to keep myself open to The Universe." "The Universe has provided the answer/opportunity/experience." It backs on my Faith and belief in miracles, and the idea that things will be provided for us when we need them.

Even in our writing.

What do you think?

OH, and I love her reference to Dobby, the house elf. :)

PS--After I decided to launch this blog series, I opened up this fortune:

See? The Universe is totally on board with the TED talks series. :)

Muse

I think that what Lisa Hannigan does with music and book is amazing.

And, paper as well.

And, just because this is a music post, I have to include Falling Slowly from Once.

I have a 'soundtrack' for my middle grade novel. When I hit play on my playlist and put on my headphones, I am immediately taken into my novel. This saves me precious time of having to 'get into the mood' to write. It works for me.

What inspires you? What gets those creative juices running?

Unicorns are Too Big for Pet Stores

One of my kids told me this today, followed up with a "right mom?"

Now, I honestly don't know his feeling on the matter. He might have been joking, or saying something for the benefit of his younger sister.

Or, most likely, he knows.

I love the idea of knowing that something is real, and fitting it into the reality around you. It's such an innocent idea that we lose (maybe) somewhere on the road to adulthood.

The only reason why we don't see unicorns at pet stores is because that would be impractical. Unicorns are just too big.

It reminds me of the children's story, Many Moons, by James Thurber and Louis Slobodkin. The only thing that will save a girl from illness is for her father to capture the moon and place it on a necklace for the girl to wear (she knows that the moon is the size of the tip of her finger). Her father, the king, finally gets someone to make a tiny replica of the moon and threads it on a string, and then goes to great lengths to hide the real moon from her daughter. If she sees it, she'll know that the one around her neck is fake, and fall sick again. But, she does see the real moon hanging in the sky, and all is well, since the little girl knows that the moon grows back.
Don't you?

Fitting made-up ideas and people into the fabric of our understanding of reality is a lot of what fiction writing is all about. Listening to children might help us do it with grace.

I hope to have some of this perspective in my life, and in my writing.