Coaching Creativity by Jill Badonsky, M.Ed. Creative Mentor, Humorist, Artist, Motivational Speaker, International Author of The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers and Other Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence. Introduction to Creative Highs, Flying Monkeys, and Breaking Rules copyright 2004 Jill Badonsky All rights reserved

"I want the one rapture of an inspiration." ~Gerard Manly Hopkins

Hi. Welcome to a new column at Writer’s Monthly. This month I explain its intentions, ponder the nature of creativity, and entice you to come back monthly in the interest of expanding your understanding, mastery and joy of the creative process.

Experts write that creativity is a timeless flow of peak experiences where fulfillment, generosity, and enlightenment abound. In it we get plugged into the splendor of our expressive, authentic nature. Creativity is one of the five most enjoyable pursuits of the short human life (in league with other favorites such as romance, altruism, eating, and line-dancing). So why don’t we just be creative all the time? Huh?

It’s the flying monkeys.

Flying monkeys are my term for the evil thwarters of the creative process. We encounter them as we attempt to take creative steps down the yellow brick road to the land of Awes. They include but are not limited to:

distractions,

lack of focus,

difficulty choosing an idea with which to start,

overwhelm,

procrastination,

low self-confidence,

fears,

excuses,

self-sabotage,

addictions,

perceived and well defended lack of time or money or motivation,

fixations on the glaring blue-TV screen mindlessness

and obsessions with keeping the kitchen floor clean.

You know …those kinds of things. . In addition to the glorious adjectives used to describe it up at the top there, creativity is also elusive, fickle, and frustrating. Most people I work with in my creative mentoring practice experience a number of flying monkeys. I know them intimately.

That’s where this column comes in.

I get to closely study the whirling presence of flying monkeys because they follow me around as I attempt to write, paint, choreograph dance, come up with marketing ideas, be endlessly clever, adapt to change, think, and perform silly poetry. In spite of their strength and numbers in the last twenty years of empirical study, analysis and staring blandly into the holes the sky, I have discovered ways to move past the flying monkeys’ thwarting powers to the flow, timelessness and even prosperity that the creative process has in store for the ingenious and willing mortal.

Each month I shall tackle what prevents us from starting or completing inspired impulses that our mental radar receives urging creative expression. You will receive examples, inspirations, manipulative questions, exercises and most importantly, play to move you through blocks or to help you reach even deeper levels of creative joy. Creativity has no ceiling and the more you accept its invitation to express who you are, the more your world will open to resourcefulness, flexibility, optimism, enjoyment and the thrill of being your uncensored self.

"No problem can be solved from

the same consciousness that created it."

-Albert Einstein

Creativity is non-linear. It follows no path of reason. We cannot always just sit down and sink into the flow. Creative productivity requires tricks and mind-play in order to dislodge us from the mundane life of following expectations, policies and procedures, rules and someone else’ advice. It asks us to seize our power, break rules, and trod down a new path of our own making. In order to free your imprisoned creativity this column must depart at times from the predictable.

In the movie, The Muse, Sharon Stone is indeed the Muse. She is the person famous Hollywood directors and writers seek when they are creatively blocked. Although she turns out to be somewhat of a nut case, there is truth to what she prescribes for the blocked character that Albert Brooks plays. Acts of generosity are required. Creativity thrives in generosity. Things that seemingly do not make sense are assigned, for instance Brooks is told to spend the day at Sea World when he is neurotically attempting to meet a deadline.

Odd directives that work.

That’s creative coaching.

It works.

The lack of logic, the diversion, the departure to a novel activity where the new is once again experienced feeds the mind with inspiration. That’s the kind of thing you will receive in this column.

And a Monthly Creative Prescription: (Odd and playful tricks that make writing easier). To receive around three prompts a week, please send an e-mail to jillbadonsky@hotmail.com with the word ODD in the header.

If you write something you like, please send it to me to share: jillbadonsky@writersmonthly.com

Choose one or all.

1. January 22 was Answer Your Cat’s Question Day (I’m not making this up)

Write a piece that answers a question your cat, dog, or other animal may ask you.

2. Word Pool:

Use these words and any others to write prose, poetry, nonsense, essay or run-on sentences. Use any form of the word or even a word it reminds you of. Feel free to break rules of meaning, grammar and predictability. Have fun, see you next month:

dove, random, invent, fern, thoughtless, swerve, meander, clock, slinky,

wink, figure, welcome mat, wince, sniff, earthly, not, shrug, pick, find, dilly dally

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