Displacement Activity is Good for Writers

On my writer’s blog (EverWriting) I have a category that I have designated as the default: Displacement Activity, a state in which many of us find ourselves when the words refuse to flow or when we are reluctant to let them flow as they will.

I have three novels in the “works in progress” stage. In one case, the manuscript is in typescript. The others are locked in notebooks. All are fully plotted but moving on from plot to complete is proving to be beyond my motivation level at the moment, so I’m engaging in Displacement Activity.

Where I have lacked motivation to write, I have been doing one of the next best things.

This activity is particularly good as an analogy for writing. Here is a ‘plot’ for a planned quilt project. The color scheme is like characterization: we have to have some level of contrast, but at the same time, the colors and fabric patterns must be compatible. Too much contrast leads to clash and discordance. No amount of shifting of sections will make those colors work together.

On the other hand, too little contrast will result in bland, uninteresting projects, not only for the quilter but the ultimate recipient as well. 

There are exceptions when the intricacy or the uniqueness of the finished product is the focal point. As in writing, while the whole is critical, the details matter.

Yet, the details often become the narrow focus when moving from plan/plot to process and completion. Planning a project is often the fountain of creativity, the exciting bit for the quilter, and for the writer. Working through the initial impulses to put the project on paper, create the design, the characters, visualizing the story as it unfolds and as the project takes shape. 

Sometimes, that stage is the end. The story refuses to move forward; the characters refuse to conform to the needs of the story. What can we do to with all those words and all that effort? When the characters have no conflicting needs, or create no tension because they are utterly sympathetic to one another?

What can we do with the designs that simply won't work, that are too small for the purpose, the amount of fabric you have is inadequate, the print is no longer available in the shop? 

Nothing is better for a creative person than the challenge of solving a problem and achieving a beautiful result, however it comes about and whatever level of commitment it requires. As unwelcome as failure is, the amount of experience we gain makes the effort worth more. As Walt Disney enjoined, "Time to stop talking and start doing."

Zen and the Art of Doodling

It’s First Fridays, and thus, time to get creative… with zen doodling. It’s the latest rage! Okay, it’s not such a rage. More of a low murmur. And Okay, it’s not so new. In fact, it’s as old as the hills. But I’m “down with the kids”, and this is what they’re murmuring about this week: Zen Doodles.

What, you ask, is a zen doodle? (Pretend you asked.) Basically, it’s a doodle. It’s one big, complex, massive doodle. What’s the point of a zen doodle?

1. Meditative
2. Stress release
3. A plotting tool
4. Cool art to fill the pages of your journal.

It’s meditative, because it helps you to exercise moving from constraint to freedom. The only constraint is the page on which you’re doodling. Then you slowly add constraints – an outline of my hand was my constraint in this doodle (below). Then you free up again by doodling in one portion of it, then add constraint – a curve, a flower petal, a line – big and bold within the constraint of the hand, then within that constraint, you add another layer of free-form detail. (This, by the way, is a LOT like plotting a novel.)

It’s a stress release, because it requires very little attention. I did the hand while having coffee with the LWDC (Ladies Who Drink Coffee). As we chatted, I doodled.

It’s a plotting tool. I suffer (suffer?) from Attention Deficit Disorder or A.D.D. – an ugly, pejorative term that doesn’t really describe what it is to have ADD. I prefer to think of it as Attention Diversity Dilemma. Sure, one of its less pleasant side bars is the inability to focus – on stuff that other people want you to focus! I’m perfectly chill with focusing on what I want to focus. Sometimes I need to employ strategies… like zen-doodling. I write. My mind wanders. I doodle. I strum my banjo, (always close at hand), and then I turn back to writing. I have a goal of 1,000 words per day. That’s just four pages, approximately. I can do that – in and around Attention Diversity Dilemma. Would I be more productive without A.D.D.? Maybe. Who knows, but I’m certain I would be far less creative.

Here’s a little video book trailer I put together for one of my off-road books, (another hazard of A.D.D. – going off-track genre-wise). The entire book trailer is just one big giant zen-doodle! While writing the book, I created pictures – still shots of scenes that were playing in my head – then I used my words – a free-form expression of what I hoped to incorporate into the characters, the plot, etc., into the creation of the pictures. The zen doodle is the plot! I hope you enjoy the trailer, even if the book might not be exactly your cuppa tea. (Warning: It's young adult, paranormal, not cozy.) The book I'm writing now is a sweet romantic comedy loosely based on the play, Cyrano DeBergerac, by Edmund Rostand. I'll try to post some of the zen doodles on my blog at www.sofiecouch.blogspot.com as I journal the plot... soon. 

So, the next time you sit down to coffee with friends, pick up a pen, grab a piece of paper… and zen doodle. You never know where it may lead you.