✍🏽 Break the Barricades that Bury You Inside Your Body

"To access those parts of ourselves and create a funnel for our creativity to flow through, we need to do a little work to facilitate that easy flow."

Nov 21, 2024

’s workshop, DO IT ANYWAY: Removing Creative Blocks for Better Writing is open for registration! Class begins January 18th. Space is limited. Register before January 8th.

Do It Anyway: Removing Creative Blocks for Better Writing | 2 weeks

Literary Liberation and Keisha-Gaye Anderson

Nov 15

Read full story

Become a member of Literary Liberation

Life is for dancing. And this is how I approach my writing. We are all enmeshed with responsibilities, relationships, to-do lists for our to-do lists, fears about the future or what we’re capable of accomplishing, and regrets about the past. Everyone has their “supposed to” or a template of what they think a writer or writing should be. When we sit down to create, all of these thoughts, presumptions, and insecurities hang over our minds like a thick fog, or function like multiple restraints that bind us and keep us standing still, frozen, and unable to get started.

It is important to remember that your imagination is not actually bound by any of these concerns. It’s non-linear, non-local, and entirely free to float above the things that weigh us down. There’s no cap on the number of ideas we can generate. There’s no penalty for creating one type of work vs. another. Each life experience grows a new branch of creative possibility. But to access those parts of ourselves and create a funnel for our creativity to flow through, we need to do a little work to facilitate that easy flow.

There may never be a convenient time to clear your schedule to write or eliminate chronic stressors, but when you learn how to manifest your creativity no matter what’s happening around you, then you’ve reached a level of self-mastery that nothing can penetrate. Here are some ways to get there.

Enter with a sense of joy/wonder.

When we decide to create anything–from a painting to a meal to a story or poem–it’s important to remember that joy + curiosity is the skeleton key that unlocks all doors to the creative realms. When we enter this head space to have fun, discover/uncover, and in many cases, experience a kind of release, even if the topic is heavy, we have more access to more of ourselves. Tension and a need to control works more like blinders or water dousing a spark. Yet, daily stressors are unavoidable. Start by getting grounded in your body. What do you feel? What do you notice around you? How can the sensory input you experience when you decide to take a moment to be still inspire you to move along certain streams of thought? As you are still, even for five minutes, take some time to brain dump or even record what you feel/see/hear/smell/taste in that moment without judgment or a need to organize or control. The thoughts and feelings that emerge are a pathway that will lead you to a calmer space from which to access your imagination.

“[W]hen you learn how to manifest your creativity no matter what’s happening around you, then you’ve reached a level of self-mastery that nothing can penetrate.”

The field is limitless.

You can see with your mind’s eye much further than you think. You are not bound by any categories or restrictions, or ‘shoulds’ or ‘shouldn’ts.’ You are free to roam to dangerous places, silly places, taboo places. You can become anyone or anything. Don’t judge yourself. Allow yourself to instinctively feel who you are and what you are capable of outside of what you can imagine. In most cases, we are still operating through the early programming of our imaginations, which may have little to do with who we’ve become.

Give yourself some prompts related to subjects you’ve always wanted to explore. ‘What if I were a ____?’ Or imagine yourself writing from a perspective that is not you. Are you a surfboard bouncing along a big wave? Are you the damp walls of a dungeon of antiquity? Are you a grain of sand being swept across a desert in a storm? You can be anything, anyone, anywhere. There are no right or wrong answers, just you tapping into the accumulated experiences of the collective. You’d be surprised how adept you are at settling into these scenarios when you finally resolve to venture there.

You remember more than you’ve forgotten.

Your mind is a magnificent computer, recording every detail of your life experience, whether you are aware of that or not. It’s so sophisticated that it filters out information you don’t need at the moment so that you can move through your day effectively and unencumbered by details that are not relevant to the tasks at hand. But those experiences are recorded somewhere. You can access memories you think you’ve forgotten.

Start by recalling objects from your childhood or from significant life experiences. What did they look like? Where were they located? What time of day was it? What was playing on the TV or the radio at the time? What was the mood of the other people in the space? You may just recall colors and textures. Write those down.

You can create a word map or a word-stream of consciousness that acts like mental breadcrumbs, taking you back to significant moments you may have forgotten. You can also look at old family photos or newspapers and magazines from that time period. You’ll be fascinated by how many people and situations surface in your memory. Using those memories to draw connections to themes and topics you want to explore can imbue your writing with a richness and authenticity that’s unique to you, and very powerful.

Let the rain come down.

Now that you’ve unlocked some doors that may have been intentionally or unconsciously shut in your mind, know that there will be boogeymen. There’s no way around it. But part of going deep to produce writing you’re really proud of, that really encapsulates what you want to communicate, means being brave. Don’t stop the deluge. Record it on the page. Disjointed or illogical, it doesn’t matter. Write it down. Be honest about how you feel about situations or people. You may use some of this in your writing or you may not, but the important thing is to be consciously aware of how you feel about every aspect of a topic so that you can choose how to approach it. You may want to write one poem or piece of prose about the positive aspects of what has been uncovered and another about the negative aspects. Looking at topics you’re exploring from various perspectives puts you in the driver’s seat. From there, you can take your creative work in any direction you want.

There are no bad ideas.

Most of the time, there are two main things that stop people from writing. First, it’s the feeling of being overwhelmed about where to begin, what to say, and how to structure the work. The steps above, and a deep dive into form and structure for the particular genre you want to write in, can help clarify how the writing will take shape and what the narrative arc should be.

The second major blockage is a fear of being judged or told that one’s writing isn’t good enough. I’m telling you here and now to get over that–your ideas are as good as anyone else’s ideas. The worst that can happen is that a piece of writing is rejected, and rejection is just a part of the writing journey–for everyone.

The style of your piece may not be a right fit for a publication or may be a slightly different theme from what they’re interested in publishing at that moment. You may need to tighten up the structure, use more vivid language, or clarify things like point of view or setting. But your ideas are not ‘bad.’ You must be determined to express your ideas and confident in your right as a human being to share your point of view with readers through your writing. There’s something for everyone, and someone definitely needs your story. All you have to do is make it as strong and engaging as it can possibly be.

Be courageous and start writing!

Literary Liberation