Thoughts on Creativity

by Sarah Albrecht

I’m excited and thankful to be part of this blog; what a great opportunity to pull thoughts together into a semblance of cohesion, to share life’s wisdom, joys and sorrows with each other and become stronger as a result. Ideally, this post would have been completed and waiting on the lineup before my kids resumed school after the holidays and life resumed its usual frenetic pace. However, that didn’t happen. Each time I sat down to draft I couldn’t seem to say anything.

This problem made me think about the nature of creativity. Bear with me as I approach those thoughts in a rather round-about way.

For years as a young mother, I squelched the need to write--to create with language--that has been with me for as long as I can remember. I labored under the conviction that I had to sacrifice everything that made me individual to be a good mother. Sometime in the past few years, the mists of darkness parted and I realized what I should have known all along: that I could use my talents and still be a good mom. I took a deep breath and started writing.

Soon I found I labored under another illusion: now that I had returned to my natural creative home in writing, all would be well. True, the essence of home is safety, love, peace and satisfaction. However, home isn’t always that way. It can be aggravating, messy, and chaotic.

I didn’t want that part, the aggravation, the mess, the chaos, but there it was. Creativity-- in writing or music or art or even in life itself, for with the agency we have, are we not creating ourselves— is hard work.

To balance out those daunting elements, I turned to the supreme Creator’s example. As Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in his last Women’s Conference address, “Creating…[is an] objective that contributes to our Heavenly Father’s perfect happiness. Creating…[is an] activity that we as His spirit children can and should emulate” (Ensign, Nov. 2008). This is what I learned, or re-learned, on further examination of our Father’s creative endeavors:

-God created all things spiritually before creating them physically (Gen. 2:5, Moses 3:5). Despite the spontaneity inherent in creation, creativity requires planning and skill.
-God created the heavens and the earth, separated light from dark, created plants and beasts and every living thing, and saw that they were good (Gen. 1). Creativity can be fulfilling.
-God rested upon completion of his work (Gen. 2:2-3). Rest from creative effort is necessary and good.
-All was created for the use and enjoyment of man (D&C 59:18-20). In its highest form, with all its planning, skill, and effort, creation is service.

Feeling more validated and hopeful about my efforts to create, in general and in writing, I looked for more wisdom about creativity. Here are a couple of quotes, first from novelist Virginia Woolf, and then from Hungarian scientist and writer Arthur Koestler:

"It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything." Virginia Woolf

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."—ArthurKoestler http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_creativity.html

It’s a new year, ready to create with the materials at hand. Best of wishes to us all!

Allow myself to introduce ... myself

by Marielle Carlisle

I'm so excited to participate in this blog. I hope I don't bore you too much.

Here’s the scoop: I live in sunny AZ, and have been here for 6 years. I joined ANWA back in June, a month before I had my second child. I was only able to attend one meeting before my husband’s Wednesday night classes started. My life is now filled with dirty diapers and sleepless nights. As I write this I am recovering from a 5am wake-up time. I haven’t reached delirium, but I am bordering on insanity.

I’m 6 feet tall, I love to sing karaoke and I’m obsessed with the website Allrecipes.com. I’m a Gemini and was born in the Year of the Monkey. I have brown hair but I used to be blond, much to my dismay (I wish I were blond. I really, really do). I grew up in SLC, graduated from BYU and UCMT, and am now a massage therapist at a swanky resort here in town.

Now let’s go completely random!

Random fact #1: I love watermelon. Like, LOVE watermelon. I’ll carve half a watermelon for a meal, and use my nice big white and blue Tupperware bowl to hold the flesh. I won’t need to drink any water, since I’ll get all my fluids from the melon. After I’ve finished all the other food on my plate, I’ll focus mainly on the watermelon and eat until I’ve made myself sick. My dear husband will then lovingly wrench the watermelon bowl out of my kung-fu grip. During the summer I’ll buy multiple melons and eat them all in about a week. I love watermelon. It makes me happy. Should I be concerned about this? Is this what a drug addiction is like?

Random fact #2: I hate having dirty feet when I go to bed. Something about dirty feet in between the sheets rubs me the wrong way (literally), and I have to wash my them off. During the winter it’s not so bad since I wear shoes more often, but summertime is brutal on my piggies. It doesn’t have to be a deep cleaning, just a good rinse with a little soap.

Random fact #3: I like to eat my ice cream out of a cup. My mother-in-law took it a step further and dished out hot fudge sundaes into hot cocoa mugs. Brilliant! I have the perfect mug, too. I painted it myself while working at Color Me Mine the summer between my freshmen and sophomore years at BYU. It’s a big, bright, multi-colored mug, and holds loads of ice cream. But I’ll still eat ice cream if it’s not in a cup. I’m not that picky.

As of today

This is on my TiVo

I say that it's for my two-year old, but secretly I'm the one who wants to watch it.

This is on my nightstand

When I hear a book is being made into a movie, I immediately get the book from the library.

This is on my ipod (and in my head)

His voice is like butter

And this is trying to climb on my lap

Meet Tootsie Roll. There is a cat mixed in with all those toys.

Whew! There you have it. Until next time.

Nine Rules to Avoid

Recently an article came into our editorial department from the "Publishing Executive" December 2008 issue about luring readers into actually reading your content. These are things to avoid. I thought I would share them with you. Whether you write fiction or magazine articles, they can apply.

Rule 1: Give'em more, more, more: Readers will decide to look at it later and we all know what later means.

Rule 2: Test-heavy means that's where the good stuff is: Too much text is certain death.

Rule 3: This issue is great: Readers take just 2-5 seconds to decide to read a page or not. (Terri's note: This is very true in descriptive heavy fiction.)

Rule 4: I'm not an artist: Think of your text as speaking. We stress what's worth stressing by our diction...do so in your writing.

Rule 5: Make headlines bigger: A small font in the same amount of space can be a big attention grabber. It says I'm important, look at me.

Rule 6: Headlines are the most important: Actually, captions are the most important. The photos draw the eye, the captions draw the interest.

Rule 7: Visual "wow": Be suspicious of visual fireworks, whizzbang, color, weird layouts and peculiar typefaces. They take away from the meat and become a "show" unto themselves.

Rule 8: The more color, the better: Never consider one page as individual, view it as part of a whole.

Rule 9: Design isn't critical: Think of it as editorial tool revealing content, organizing sequence, guiding the reader.

How do you feel about these rules?

Minting New Coins

by Joyce DiPastena

Okay, I admit it. I’ve been in a bit of a funk since Christmas came to an end. The after holidays blues? My brain’s been feeling all mushy, and consequently, I haven’t been able to think of anything to write for my ANWA blog. So I decided it was time to pull out my Silver Pennies book of poetry again, and give my mushy brain a rest by sharing another poem (by somebody else) with you.

The little introduction by Blanche Jennings Thompson reads:

When you put money into a bank it is not always safe. You may have to spend it or robbers may steal it, but the coins which we put into our “heart’s treasury” are safe forever. The memories of beautiful music, lovely poems, and wonderful pictures are coins of this kind. Can you think of others besides these?

She follows with a poem called, “The Coin”, by Sara Teasdale:

Into my heart’s treasury
I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
Nor thief purloin,—
Oh, better than the minting
Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe-kept memory
Of a lovely thing.

As I read this poem, I began to reflect on the many lovely memory-coins that are mine from the year 2008. Now it’s time to go forward, shake my mushy brain awake once more, and begin to form some fresh “coins” for the year 2009!