My writing tools, Part I: Setting the mood

Some thoughts on Steemit Membership

As a member of the Steemit community, I would like to share some of the tools I use for writing. I don't really do video, memes or artwork, so I just stick with what I know for writing. I suppose I might get into that other stuff later, but for now, writing is the most easily accessible form of expression for me. Take note that the tools described in this series may or may not be specifically for writers. Some of them may work well for other crafts as well.

I'm also reading up how best to succeed on Steemit, which is not what this article is about, as I'm just a bit of "Plankton" as described by busy.org (the other interface to the Steem Blockchain). So I'm starting with this guide here for now. My goal in that regard is to follow the guides that I find from people with proven track records and, to the greatest extent possible, do what they suggest in the guides. I'm agnostic as to the result and I'm not attached to the outcome. I just want to see if they work. If I hit the big time pile of Steem Power, I'll write an article about that, too.

Life has shown me that sharing is what love is. We share what we have because we often find that the finer things in life are better when shared with someone else than when experienced alone. We share what we make because, on some intuitive level, we recognize that information just wants to be free.

Steemit is more than just sharing. Steemit is about earning for sharing and acknowledging what others have shared, too. Steemit rewards us, the content creators and viewers, for doing what we already enjoy doing: creating or discovering a work of art and sharing it.

The benefits of writing

With proper direction, writing practice can yield prodigious results, even if you are not a writer by trade and have no intention of becoming a writer. As I said earlier, writing is the most easily accessible art form for me, personally, but I believe that is true for anyone who applies themselves to the art of writing.

Even people with just a high school diploma will know the writing basics. They know how to spell, to structure a sentence to give it meaning, and to generalize those words in the broader context. Most of us have a story to tell and only need a way to tell it. For the writer, writing is the way.

Now that I think about it, every illustrated novel, comic book, movie, song, album of songs - just about any medium of art we can think of, sans the purely graphic arts - requires some writing. If you want to sell your work, then writing is communication, and communication is the juice of sales. You may need to use words to sell the products of your craft. For nearly all endeavors, writing is required for communication, planning and execution.

The first tool - affirm your creativity

Regardless of the art form you choose to use to express yourself, that expression requires some access to the creative power within us, a sort of spirit if you will, that provides the motive force for the act of creation. Herein, I want to provide to you, the first tool that I use to tap into and direct that creative force.

One way that I access that creative force is through a prayer of sorts. It's kind of an prayer, affirmation and agreement for and with that creative force:

Oh, Great Creator,

I will provide the quantity

You will provide the quality.

This little gem is from the book, The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. I have printed those words and posted it on the wall behind my monitor so that I see it every morning before I set down to write. If you look carefully at my profile picture, you'll see it there. It is a persistent reminder that I only need to start writing and to keep going until I'm empty to produce a good first draft.

The Artist's Way is a great book on how to connect with the creative part of yourself. I strongly recommend this book for your reading, especially if you don't believe that you're creative. The reason being is that Cameron affirms in her book what everyone should know:

Everyone possesses a creative power.

There are no exceptions. Everything we do requires imagination.

We acquire knowledge, like a skill or a fact, and then we must apply it. Imagination is what we use before we try something new, before we do something scary, daunting or complex. We form a vision in our mind of what we are going to do before we do it. We use our imagination for everything we do, from walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water to building a business. Therefore, on one level or another, everyone has creative capacity just by using their imagination.

One of the greatest scientists of all time has said that:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand,
while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
--- Albert Einstein

These ideas may not seem like tools at first. But I've found that they're "can openers" to creativity. They help to set the mood for writing, to censor the censors, to quiesce the critic in my head and to assure me that all I need to do is just start writing, and not to stop until I'm empty. Then I can start editing, formatting and finish with publication.

I offer these tools to you in the hopes that you too will find them useful for attaining the state of mind required just to start creating.

In the next part of this series, I will introduce you to a writing exercise that can help to tap into the creative energy within.