When I first came to L.A., my spiritual mentor/life coach (who will not be named) was actively teaching drawing and water color at her home studio. In order to spend more creative time with her, I studied some very basic drawing and water color techniques and, as always, the effort paid off in ways I never could've imagined.So today, while thinking of ways I could contribute something of what I have learned about writing over the years, the memory of a book she told me to read in connection with my art work came to mind. It's a classic called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. In essence, the book helps students cut through the fog that is sometimes created by the conflict between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.
Here's a link to a radio show on Studio 360.
Even if you are not interested in learning to draw, you will benefit from the very practical and easy exercises in the book. In fact, I also learned an invaluable tool called "clustering" and have used it countless times to find out what it is my feelings would like to find the words to say. It works especially well when you're feeling blocked and are facing a deadline. Here's the basic technique.
Get a blank piece of paper and simply write down the phrases that come to you. They may not appear to be linked. Don't worry if the syntax is missing. Allow yourself to jot down things with the most emotional resonance, even if they don't make perfect sense. Put similar concepts near each other in the spatial context. Then begin to circle things that begin to emerge as related.
Before you know it, you'll have written your story. Often the hardest blocks produce the juiciest insights. I am facing this dilemma on a larger scale as my entire life seems to require a shift in focus. So I am working this week to do a version of this clustering to try and find out what it is I want to do and have my life be about.
I find that focusing on negative space and seeing that as having its own shape is an effective way of tricking the left brain (the language-based inner critic) to shut up and let the intuitive side speak. In drawing my map of where I want to go next, this too is a tool I'm using intuitively to find the shape of things to come.
