MAY WRITING EXPERIENCE
Embracing Your Creative Mind
Final week of MWE. Let’s do this.
Here we are. Week 5.
If you’ve been following along with the May Writing Experience, checking out our tag page, utilizing the resources and guidance we’ve provided for you, and trying out some of the exercises — then likely, you’ve grown.
As a writer. As a Medium content creator. And hopefully, as a person.
Samantha Lazar and I have both received a lot of messages and comments from many of you reporting the growth you are seeing on your Medium profile and with your writing goals, but as you know, there’s more to it than that. When a writer sets out to learn, to grow, and puts their own effort behind it, beautiful things happen within themselves and that shows within their work.
To begin our last few days, our last “week,” I’d like to invite you to share something you’ve learned or accomplished by participating in the May Writing Experience. Leave a comment or a private note on this article so we can see something you are particularly proud of!
Over this past month, we’ve experimented a lot. With the source of our inspiration, with the topics we write about, and with how we tell our stories. We’ve dug deep and we’ve exposed our weaknesses, tackled our fears, and set out to reach big goals. The topic I have for you these last few days is an important one. It’s about accepting yourself. Who you are. Your gifts. And that creative way your mind works.
Because it is not easy being a creative spirit in a world that values numbers, left-brain thinking, productivity at all costs. The creative mind functions in an entirely different way.
One of the most brilliant creative minds I know of is a lyricist and songwriter named Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, a folk-rock band that rose to fame in the early ’90s. With hits like ‘Round Here, Rain King, and Perfect Blue Buildings, Duritz brought something unique and utterly poetic to songwriting.
If you are unfamiliar with his work, check out some of these quotes from his songs:
Step out the front door like a ghost Into the fog where no one notices The contrast of white on white In between the moon and you The angels get a better view Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right I walk in the air between the rain Through myself and back again Where? I don’t know
When I think of Heaven, deliver me in a black-winged bird I think of dying, lay me down in a field of flame and heather Render up my body into the burning heart of God In the belly of a black-winged bird
Carrie’s down in her basement All toe shoes and twinned With the girl in the mirror who spins when she spins From where you think you’ll end up To the state that you’re in Your reflection approaches and then recedes again
If I hadn’t told you these were song lyrics, you likely would have thought I was sharing snippets of poetry, right? Can’t you see the ballerina in that last quote? Studying herself in the mirror down in the basement? Can you feel the angels and see the glisten off the feathers of those black-winged birds? To write words that build emotion in other people is truly a gift.
Adam Duritz recently released a set of four songs that fit together into what he is calling a “suite” and critics are likening it to the rock-opera and rock theme albums we haven’t seen in the music industry for decades. The songwriting element of it is simply brilliant. After decades of music from the Counting Crows, Duritz is still churning out material, in spite of and because of the way his creative mind works.
You see, Adam Duritz has Dissociative Identity Disorder and speaks openly about his D.I.D. What I find marvelous about this is that he not only deals with the way his brain functions, but he has learned to work with it and embrace the way his mind works through brilliant songwriting.
He takes the good with the bad, and out of it all makes something beautiful. And we all, as writers, need to learn to do this for ourselves. We didn’t get to choose how our minds work. And we don’t get to choose to not be a creative individual. I think most of you would agree — we write because we must.
Even when it is difficult or uncomfortable. Even when people think we’ve lost it. Even when we hear those questions:
How will you ever make money doing this?
Are you still doing that little writing thing? (and)
Don’t quit your real job.
Watch this interview with Duritz as he discusses his writing process for the Butter Miracle Suite One. (←That’s the link for the suite if you want to give it a listen.)
Pay attention to how Duritz talks about his creative process with such confidence, honesty, and humility at the same time, while addressing his mental health issues and how that affects his creative process. I find his perspective to be refreshing and authentic. As a writer and poet, his openness really moved me.
I hope you enjoyed the interview. You can see why this video falls right in line with our theme for these last few days: embracing your creative mind. Now we need to talk about the takeaway here. How this all ties into what we’ve been doing for the May Writing Experience.
Your goals for the next few days: wrapping up the May Writing Experience and moving forward.
There are 3 days for this week so there’s an exercise for each day.
Excercise one.
There’s something about your creative mind that you’ve been fighting against. Apologizing for. Resisting.
I want you to make peace with it.
You know you need to. You know that this resistance has been holding you back from fully accepting your own creative purpose. This is the time for bravery, for confidence, and for a determined spirit. It’s time you take your place as a gifted, creative energy and move forward with an unapologetic rising up.
This is going to look different for each of you and may take more than a one-day effort. But take the time to identify, admit, and address this need within yourself. This is a cathartic moment for you and we (Samantha and I and all the other MWE writers) are here for you.
Exercise two.
Make a list of all of your positive qualities as a creative individual. Take a moment to bask in the comfort of those strengths.
Make a list of the negative ones as well — but add a note of how that negative can be made into a positive. Figure out ways that your weaknesses can become your greatest strengths.
The way your creative mind works can either hinder you or inspire you. You decide. The framework is yours. Own it.
This will look different for each of you. Perhaps you need to do a regular list, a computerized list, or a vision board. But get these concepts out of your head and onto something concrete so you can take these lessons with you into your writing experiences moving forward.
In other words, get your butterfly butt out of the chrysalis. It’s time.
Exercise three.
Think about your own journey through the May Writing Experience. What is the biggest, most transformative thing you are taking away from this experience and into your writing journey moving forward? Write about that. Let us know how it’s affected you as a writer and as a person.
Tell us how you feel about your own writing journey and what you have to offer.
Medium Challenge
Do an assessment of your stats for your Medium growth through this journey. Where do you stand now? Did you meet the goals you set out to meet through this month? Let us know where you saw growth in your Medium experience. Do a write-up about this if you’d like to — then set your next set of goals!
The next time you hear from us, it will be reflective, supportive, and conclusionary for this program. You have what you need for the next 3 days and then some. I encourage you to revisit other posts in the May Writing Experience (look up the tabs on Fiddleheads & Floss Poetry Pub and Sky Collection) that were the most influential. Bookmark them. Repeat the exercises if you need to. Let us know if we can help or answer any questions.
We thank you for being here.
