Real Words

I just finished writing a post for my other blog, San Francisco is Sexy, about the opportunity we have to experience things that are not the norm for us. This now has me thinking specifically about the vast amount of opportunity that writers have to expose themselves to other forms of creativity. And how the choice to do so can significantly broaden our own writing horizons.

In creative circles (particularly those that are familiar with The Artists’ Way), the basic idea surrounding this is that you need to refill your well of creativity on a regular basis. The more that you take in from life, the more you have to work with when you are creating something and putting it back out into the world.

Think of it this way … imagine that you had been born into a situation which confined you to a single room without exposure to anything outside of that room (including Internet or books or other sources of information). You could certainly still be creative, using your imagination to produce works of art and writing. However, consider how much capacity your own creativity would have for expansion if you were then able to leave that room, to immerse yourself in the outside world, to have access to new experiences. Your writing and art would turn into something entirely different from what they were before based only on being exposed to more things.

We aren’t living in such extremes but we can see the importance of exposing ourselves regularly to new things. And I would argue that it is specifically important for writers to expose themselves to other forms of creativity in order to gain a better understanding of different approaches to their own writing. Writers who study music may gain a better sense of the rhythm of their own writing. Writers who study theatre may begin to see new ways of approaching their characters and dialogue. Writers who study painting or photography may begin to understand shadows and light in a way that can enhance the subtleties of their writing.

There are other benefits to exploring different forms of creativity as well, of course. You may discover that collage art makes you relax when you are stressed out from writing too much. You may learn that you are actually as skilled with a paintbrush as you are with a pen. But even if you discover that the thing you really want to do most of the time is write, you can benefit from the beauty of expanding the boundaries of your writing simply by opening yourself up to the potential within other forms of creative expression.

For most writers, the only real limitations on their writing are the limitations that they place upon themselves. Although time constraints and other things are certainly a problem, writers can choose to write almost anytime and anywhere. They can choose to grow their writing in the ways that they see fit for themselves. So why not choose to open up our writing options by seeing what else is out there and then returning to the page?