I sat down and started cutting straight lines—not perfectly linear, but as straight as my hands could cut. Pulling pages out of magazines and using the colors or designs that spoke to me, the collage took shape line after line, color after color.
What do you write about, when you can’t think of anything or you don’t feel inspired? That is a great question. I feel stuck this week. I don’t want to write something just to write—and it be uninteresting or worse yet, not even worth reading.
I often think about writing a memoir or compiling a book of essays. For the most part, I have lived a rather mundane life. I can’t say that I have accomplished anything noteworthy and I am not famous. However, my life has been—and is—a journey of finding that being creative is important.
When I was about fourteen years old, the piano preludes of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) changed my life. Before then, the piano music my teacher gave me was mostly from the Classical Period with some from the Romantic Period. Czerny and Hanon were the backbone of the technique she taught.
I recently read an interview with American author Richard D. Mohr who wrote a book about Arts and Crafts pottery makers, Frank Ingerson (1879-1968) and George Dennison (1873-1966)—”The Splendid Disarray of Beauty: The Boys, the Tiles, the Joy of Cathedral Oaks—A Study in Arts and Crafts Community” (published in 2023). Mohr’s final comments in the interview made me consider “all the things worth having.”
I enjoy writing. I do not have a novel in me or even a short story. I consider myself more suited to writing essays or personal stories. I was inspired by reading Joyce Maynard’s articles in her syndicated news column, “Domestic Affairs.” It ran in my local newspaper from 1984 to 1990. Joyce wrote about her life in a simple honest manner and it felt as if she was sitting in the same room talking to me.
I wrote the anthem God Is There in the summer of 2024. One of the hardest things about writing anthems is finding a suitable text. It is more expedient to use public domain material so as not to worry about...
Some days, weeks, even months can feel monotonous and uninspired. Sometimes it is as if we are walking around in a daze–or, maybe it’s the feeling of having stepped into a deep, dark hole. If our creative senses are tired, often, all we need is something to give us focus, to inspire us, to invoke ideas—and, to help us find inspiration.
Pieces of paper are important to me. Sometimes they become a song lyric, a blog idea, or simply a reminder of a past event that is meaningful. I have often typed the phrases or sentences into the computer and printed them out . . . but, it simply, is not as much fun or evocative of that moment when I jotted those ideas down.
Scientists say that on average it takes sixty-six days for a new behavior to become automatic—it can depend on the person and the circumstances. In some instances, experts say it can take as long as 254 days for people to form a new habit. I confess that consistency has never been my strong point. However, over a hundred days ago I committed to composing music every day.
© 2021 · pegthompson.com · Theme by HB-Themes.
Recent Comments