Creative Attunement December 18-25 2013: A Room of One’s Own

 

Over this last weekend, I held an all-day workshop. During this workshop, near the end of our time together, one of my students asked me, “I see you posting late at night often. Usually with what you’ve been writing. How does your significant other deal with this? Does he have a problem with you being up late?”

To this question I said, “No. Mostly because he is a night owl himself, but also because we have reached an agreement. I have made it clear when and how I would like to have my writing space, and I have recruited him in helping me to honor this creative space.” My student then explained that it was difficult for her to find time and space to write, given that her husband schedule often fluctuates.

To this I responded, “Well, you can’t make time for something you don’t make space for.”

And so we began talking about how to create a sacred space. How to carve out a space and the time for writing. For communing with yourself and your creative energy. This is a very specific act, and a very intimate one. So from my experience, it is not something that most people can do in just an ordinary space in the house. Most writers (myself included) have to retreat to the seclusion and the sanctuary of a given spot, and most often in a given hour.

I have found this is because creation itself is outside of our normal reality. Our normal experience. It is the moment when we interact with something immaterial, and that if we truly hope to engage with it in a meaningful, consistent and honest way, we cannot hope to encounter it during our day to day activities. We cannot expect that we can create something of value to us or our soul, if we are trying to write in between making a grilled cheese sandwich, and answering phones.

We cannot greet our muses, if there is no space for us to greet them. If the house belongs to everyone and everything, and we do not set aside a portion of that house for our creative self – our artistic dreams – then it should be no surprise that they have no place in our lives. That they have yet to make an appearance.

In this, I am reminded of The Law of Attraction. In that if we do not make a conscious effort to prepare ourselves for what we want, it can never come to be. The same is true with finding time and space to create. Actually, it is not a matter of finding it at all, but making it. Committing time and space to your muses, as if they are welcome in your home.

They may come to you. They may have a story they wish to share with you, but if you never open the door for them – if you are too busy to even notice they have come for a visit – then you are out of sync with your creative energy. You have not made time for yourself. I talked a few weeks ago about what I learned from writing on a daily basis. About that being an act of self-love.

And in this idea of creating a room of your own – a sacred space – I have come around to that conclusion once more. That if we have yet to make the time in the space, and are still looking to find it somewhere, we have not truly understand how valuable this time is. How important it is to our spiritual and personal growth.

Virginia Woolf was known to encourage writers – specifically female writers – to create a room of one’s own. A space outside of the rules and laws of normal life, where creativity could intervene. Where imagination could take hold, if only for a little while, and without judgment or interference from the outside world. She was known to advocate this more than anything else. That having a room of one’s own made the difference between creating art, and not.

So create a room of your own. A space of your own, one that can exist outside of the different parts you play, and the different masks you wear. Create a space that is even outside of your own everyday thoughts. As it is these everyday thoughts – these lists of things to do – that often get in the way of us making the effort to make the time and the space to write.

If you hope to get anywhere on your creative journey, you have to first decide that your creative journey has a place in your life.

Creative Attunement October 5, 2013: Transparency In Your Writing Life – Can You Have It And Still Maintain Your Sacred Space?

Writing, for most of us, is an extremely private affair.  It’s something we do behind closed doors, out of the public eye.  The act of writing is extremely personal, because it is a moment where we become intimate with ourselves.  With the thoughts we have, the fears we have, the dreams we have, etc.  It is also the moment where we acknowledge and breathe life into other parts of ourselves, who invariably become characters, or parts of characters.

These characters will live and breathe on the page, no longer taking shelter in our shadow.  In our unvoiced subconscious.  This is one of the reasons writing is so private.  Why so many authors (including myself) will put a premium on sanctuary.  To write anywhere but where we have made our own, feels as though we are getting naked in front of people we haven’t agreed to let see us in such a way.

When we write, we are putting a part of who we are into physical form.  We are giving a voice to those aspects of ourselves that, for the most part only go acknowledged by us.  And only in the dark, in the candlelit room at the end of the hall, where no one ventures.  But when we write those secrets, whether they be wishes or crimes, become as bright as day.  As vocal as any truth spoken in a conference hall, church, or any public venue.  At that moment, we are no longer able to take back – to edit – what we said.  We must stand by it.

And that is why most writers live a double life.  The life of friend and family member, and the life of the writer.  Only when their creative project is complete, do most authors share the fruit of their sacred labors, which is most often a book or a short story.  Only when the last word has dried on the page, do writers allow others a peek inside the sanctuary.  I am certainly one of these authors.  Rather reclusive and selective.  I feel if I were to invite my audience in before my creation was finished, would be to invite a curse.

My sacred rhythm would be thrown off, possibly never to be regained.  So because of this fact, while writing, I avoid communicating about my project or my muse.  For fear the mere mention of its name will scare it away.

But can you, or should you, have transparency in your writing life on a daily basis?That is to say, can you communicate the goings-on between you and your muse – the ecstasy and severe depression the creative process can invite – can you share that – should you share that with the people outside your creative space?  And preserve the sanctity and purity of the work you are engaged in?

My answer to this is not fully formed, but I will say that it is possible.  But only if clear boundaries are established between yourself and the outside.  Only if you are clear about how much she will share, and with whom.

What do you think?  Should you allow others into your writing life?  Or should they stay just outside the door?