Comments on the Writing Life … Part 1
Creativity is a gift. Everyone has it.
Guest Blogger: Kathy Dunn, Straw Dog Founding Member
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This turned out to be a very long post. I have a tendency to expand, given the slightest opportunity; and while blogging wisdom calls for posts that are short and shiny, well… this one just wouldn’t condense into bullets.
So I’ve herded my thoughts on the Writing Life into three posts. Here is Part 1. — Kathy Dunn
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Creativity is a Gift. Everyone has It.
At some very basic level, creativity is a gift that each of us carries. Some people express their creativity through music. Some dance. For some, it’s raising children, or building an organization, or cooking a nourishing meal. Creativity is a living force. It’s everywhere – and it’s ours to tap, in whatever ways most move us.
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Telling Stories
Telling stories – placing words together in ways that convey an experience or idea – is an act of creativity.
Stories are everywhere. We share them on the phone, at work, over the dinner table, in brief outbursts and long, slow conversations. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking to strangers or people we know, to pets or a higher self: the stuff of our talk is …stories.
Writer and political activist Muriel Rukeyser said,
“The Universe is made of stories, not atoms.”
I have to agree: even the concept of atoms is a story. And whether our stories are simple or complex, long or brief: when we put words together in ways that have meaning for us, we are participating in the creative process.
Telling stories onto paper or word doc is likewise a creative act. Creativity lives at the heart of writing; it draws us into a process that is challenging, inviting, confusing, surprising, and occasionally just plain fun.
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So …Why Write?
Why write? I guess it boils down to a simple question:
Is life with writing in it better than life without writing in it?
It is for me.