Imagine Yourself as an Artist
24th June 2016 | for Creatives | creative process, artists, writing, Antonya Nelson |
"I've adjusted my thinking to imagine myself as an artist. I don't know why that made such a huge difference, but it did. An artist in a studio, working. Not the author of the book in the store, but the person in her house, pursuing a thought or character or image and trying to wring something meaningful from it."
Similar for Creatives
Give Your Mind a Chance to Refresh
"Breaks give your mind a chance to refresh. I write multiple books at once, and I'm always thinking about them, even if I'm not at a computer. It's a habit I picked up as a litigator: You have 1,000 facts in your head, and the most important thing isn't that you know them all- it's that you crystallize them, so that you can present them clearly. Epiphanies don't occur like a spark; they're actually ideas that have been floating around in your brain for a while. By the time I sit down to write, my thoughts are well organized and come out cleanly."
Completely There
"I never really know what something will become when I begin. But once I am inside it, I am completely there."
Back the Hell Off
"You have to tell your mind to back the hell off. It's another place in yourself entirely where you must look to create a work of art."