How I Fuel My Creativity

I’ve always loved books. Somewhere along the way, you fell in love with them, too. Nowadays, I have the pleasure and honor of writing stories to share. For me, this is a creative process.

I imagine characters, settings, weird plot twists, and happy endings. Everything in a book that I write has to start in my mind, as a thought. So, it’s important to me to keep my mind fresh and clean… an inviting place for those thoughts to live for a while.

One of the ways I do this is based on the book “The Artist’s Way” By Julia Cameron. Have you read it? If not, I highly recommend it! She talks about ways to feed and nurture your creative nature. She describes one practice that she calls “morning pages.”

The idea is to take some time first thing in the morning to journal. She recommends three pages of handwritten journaling, all done in a stream of consciousness style. That basically means that you just let the thoughts flow right out from somewhere within onto the page, without stopping to think or self-edit. Just write. She also says there’s no wrong way to do this process. Everyone’s unique. 

For me, these morning pages have changed quite a bit over the years. At first I did a lot of really fast, stream of consciousness writing. I’d fill pages! At one point, I started writing thoughts from one side of my mind, and then answering with another part of my mind. Sounds wild, I know, but it was actually really fun to do. More recently, my morning pages consist of a short section, usually about a page, of jotted down notes about my dreams. 

I like the feeling of writing down my dreams in the morning. It helps me clear my mind. Julia Cameron helped me to see that sometimes journaling and writing can clean up thoughts that would otherwise clutter the inner mind. If I don’t take the time to write like this, I’ll often continue to remember fragments of dreams all through the day. 

Once I write down the dreams that I can remember, I feel as though they’re safely stored away. This gives me a spacious feeling, and I can go on to outline, write, or edit the fiction that I’m working on. My dream journaling is a way of connecting to my subconscious mind, which is helpful because writing involves both the subconscious and conscious mind.

For example, I might get a great story idea while consciously focusing on something else, like walking over rocky terrain. I’ll be watching the rocks and figuring out where to step, and then an idea will pop up in my head. 

I know you have a rich imagination, too. I’d love to hear from you, about your own journey with your imagination and creativity. Do you have any neat tricks for fueling your creativity? Share in the comments section below.