What influences your creative work?
We are influenced by simply living life, but the subconscious can be a sneaky bugger. What you experience with your senses and the memories you create are strong influences.
You will notice it when you are freewriting and a memory pops up or a detail that you have lived works perfectly for your character and those words flow out of your pen to the page at the exact right moment. Or an overheard conversation snippet ends up in your poem that you thought you forgot about.
Those examples are accidental influence. But I am referring to magic of paying attention and being more intentional. To examine what you find interesting that has an impact on what you make.
So if that first question is hard for you to answer, here is a different version:
What do you pay attention to?
Authors are who come to mind for me first in relationship to my writing, but objects and patterns influence me too.
For me, all roads lead to writing no matter what genre the spark is.
For you, that might be different. I recently started paying attention to collage again because a woman I met through Sarah Selecky’s community Centered has been posting on her Instagram. I used to do collage all the time but it had fallen away for me. I am so excited to have her influence and talent! She even gave me the idea to write a story in response to a collage I make because that is something she is playing with herself. You can check out Woz Flint here.
Some people design clothes or cards. Some people cook or bake. It can be whatever creative outlet that is yours.
In my practice, I try to stay open to what lights me up and to pay attention to it and play with it to see how it manifests in my writing.
A great book that exemplifies this idea is The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. It is a book of essays of delights he noticed every day for a year.
Sunday I was influenced by one of my daily self assigned prompts. I reflect on the Spell of the Day from Llewellyn publishing. Yesterday’s post was about time and measuring it with incense sticks. I do not use incense, but I started to think about other ways I measure time. I have measured time with the shampoo bottles I have gone through or the notebooks I have filled. I measure time with the books I have read, or not read at this time of my life!
In Kindergarten, we teach students to measure objects with nonstandard items. For example, the students measure their desks and write down how many paper clips long it is or how many pencils. I have never really understood the point of this until now. It is tied to creative thinking. [There may be another reason but I haven’t gone down a rabbit hole to find out.]
How do you measure time in your world?
I have learned to analyze what stirs me. Lately it has been pleasures. With reading, I do not want to analyze a piece that makes me angry. At least not in the way I would unpack the craft and want to see what the author did with his sentences, format, word choice, etc to unlock the magic. I do think about what it is that repels me and what is underneath that.
Questions I have been asking repeatedly are, “Where does that come from?”
Or
“What lies underneath?”
Those questions have led me to epiphanies and writing I would have never come to otherwise.
Are you a rereader? I typically do not think of myself with that identity, but I have reread The Night Circus at least 4 times. One time I made a note of all the food that was mentioned so I could have my own dinner party influenced by the book! I have examined sections of this book and what makes it so magical for me.
I have a copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane on my bed today. It is a library copy because I cannot find my copy of this book in the apartment. I know it is here somewhere. I am compelled to reread it. Neil Gaiman is a writer I come back to again and again. I watched his documentary last week too. I have a ticket to see him speak in person in May which I purchased before the pandemic so hope this is the year!
Who do you find yourself coming back to over and over?
There are other authors I revisit often. Amber Sparks and Kelly Link are universal for me. I come back to them no matter what the season. Other authorsI am obsessed with for a limited time only season of need. Pema Chödrön comes back into my life during pain and grief seasons.
What would be on the list of themes, objects or ideas that come up in your writing all the time? I am sure there are ones that manifest right away and others may come to you as you think about it.
When I was a reading specialist I had a girl who worked pickles into her story every time. I knew it was her story because of it. A writer friend I recently met always references socks somewhere in her work. Another always references seeds or mud. It can be anything. I would love to hear some of yours in the comments.
There are themes that you might now even notice until someone else points it out to you. Someone told me once my stories had a subtext of loneliness and loss, but there is always hope at the end. Coffee shows up in my writing too. And magic of course in some form.
Today, I invite you to think about what you pay attention to and what lights you up. What fuels you with energy or makes your heart race? What used to be something you paid attention to that might need some attention again?
And then…how will it show up in your art?
I invite you to join my PUSH group for February which is the month of INFLUENCE.
What is a PUSH group? It is Conversation, Community, Writing
PUSH groups are the heartbeat of the community space provided by TammyB. It is intelligent conversation with creative people.
Gatherings are the 2nd and 4th Mondays at 7 p.m. Central/ 8 p.m. Eastern
Each bi-weekly hour-long meeting focuses on curiosity and wonder. We share wins and experiences, write together, laugh, and are open to new ideas.
The second meeting of the month will be a writing circle where we will write together, share, and give feedback with a non-critique method.
Payment of $15.00/per month to PayPal will secure a spot for the month.
If you would like to pay ahead you may!
$90 for 6-month enrollment
You can enroll for PUSH groups here. Please make sure to include your email in the notes! You will receive the Zoom link for the month when your registration is confirmed.
If you have trouble with the paypal.me link you can search for me by my email tammybreitweiser@gmail.com or @tammybreitweiser1 in PayPal.
I look forward to seeing you!
NO ONE will be left behind due to financial hardship. If you need an alternative price point just reply let me know. You are welcome however you are!
Tammy L. Breitweiser writes, walks, inspires, and teaches. She is the conjurer of everyday magic with short concise stories. Her fiction has been published in Gone Lawn, Cabinets of Heed, Spelk, Five on the Fifth, Clover and White, Fiction Berlin Kitchen, and Elephants Never.
One of the favorite bits of trivia I've learned in the last couple years is that voyageurs—the legendary paddlers of the lakes and rivers of the North—measured river distances in "pipes"; i.e. the number of pipes they would smoke between takeouts.