Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Creativity Adapts

I usually don’t think about creativity. I’m a disgustingly practical person—my writing is like a 9-5 job. I get up in the morning, exercise a half hour and start in. I don’t expect—and most often don’t get—writer’s block. When I get stuck, I take a day off and a new path opens up for me.

But these past three days I was on a camping retreat—away from cell phones and the Internet. It gave me time to think about creativity and I learned just where creativity kicks in in my writing.

When editing!

Already built is the structure as an outline, the story question and conflict points, and a roughing out of the dialogue interlaced with setting. The novel by this point has form, but it doesn’t have life.

Editing to me is like creating sculpture. The beauty is found as the excess parts are chipped away.

Life enters the novel during the multiple times I go over the words on each page. It’s where I find that exact combination of words which look good to the eye and ring true to the ear. Editing seeks the hidden, buried life in the draft, exposes it to the light and makes the novel a breathing, pulsating story.

The first novel I breathed life into was MATILDA’S SONG. It took me four years of polishing and re-polishing until I learned enough craft to build a gripping story out of the tribulations of the characters.

I’ve been blessed with finding a creative endeavor that brings me joy. Now, I can produce a novel a year. It’s work that I want to keep doing for the rest of my life.

I found my life purpose. My question to you is: How and when does creativity express itself in your life?

JoAnn Smith Ainsworth
www.joannsmithainsworth.com\reviews.shtml