THE NEXT THING LEADS TO THE NEXT THING

in-process creative lessons

I am so interested by the way things can change by the way we see them.

When I took a painting and drawing class last fall, I was surprised by how I was starting to see everything around me in such different ways. A tree was now beautiful and also as a series of lines, a series of light and shadow across the bark that gave it life, shape, depth. My fingers itched to play with my new drawing pencils, to make something 2D come alive on the page by coloring in the late afternoon sun dancing across the bark, the shadow on the underside of a branch.

Now that I’m writing a novel and dipping my toes back into fiction like I haven’t since I was a kid, I find myself reading novels in new ways. Noticing why the dialogue in a scene is really hitting me. Swooning over the pacing, a well-placed metaphor, the well-done shift from internal world to setting to dialogue, noticing why I love what I love. The chapters are breaking apart into craft without losing their beauty, and I find inspiration and I learn how to write more of how I desire to write in this new seeing.

The seeing can be a spark.

I am grateful for creative play and all the ways I have allowed myself to just enjoy the magic, to make a mess, to not expect anything to be anything but creative expression.

And also, what feels true is that the next thing leads to the next thing.