British novelist Louise Tondeur has a rather odd advice for aspiring creative writers: Take six breaks a day. Observe everything around you. Then write 30 words using your six senses.
What do you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste? What is the atmosphere around you (sixth sense)?
Tondeur, author of several novels including "The Water's Edge," says people hardly pause to experience the world around them.
A Creative Writing lecturer at the University of Brighton, Tondeur also says when people do pause for breaks, they usually use only their senses of seeing and hearing.
The award-winning author suggests exploring our other senses -- of tasting, touching, or smelling -- to sharpen our creative skills.
Observe what is happening around us, she says. Take a special mental note of things that most people might ignore or overlook.
"A writer is someone who notices things," Tondeur says.
She recommends documenting our observations by jotting down random words in a handy notebook or journal.
Is it really doable?
I enrolled in Tondeur's Creative Writing course on the online education platform Udemy.
The award-winning author says her course is appropriate for career shifters such as journalists like myself who might be thinking of writing a novel or a play.
I thought Tondeur's course would motivate me to explore creative writing, vastly different from what I have been accustomed to in my more than 30 years as a magazine and news editor.
News writing is based on facts while creative writing relies on the imagination.
Tondeur's method seems like a good way to train the mind to think creatively but taking six breaks a day and writing 30 random words seem like a big ask.
The six breaks within the day seem doable for me personally and I calculated these would be the ideal times for me:
6:00 a.m. after the Angelus and morning prayers;
9:00 a.m. after breakfast;
after the 12:00 p.m. Angelus;
after the 3:00 p.m. prayer;
after the 6:00 p.m. Angelus and evening prayers;
and 9:00 p.m. before bedtime or at least a Netflix or Apple TV break.
However, I might not have the patience to think of 30 random words per break.
I think I'll settle for three words based on where I am and what I see or hear or smell or touch or taste or the mood I sense (sixth sense) at that moment.
A fellow writer's thoughts
I consulted my good friend, neighbor, and fellow writer Asha Velasco about her opinion on Tondeur's "six breaks a day" method to train the brain to think creatively.
Velasco, a former magazine editor and currently an art therapist and fitness coach, says doing Tondeur's method will depend on a person's daily routine. Is the person working, managing a household, or caring for kids and pets?
"Mindfulness will work at any given moment," Velasco says.
She suggests pausing for five minutes of deep, slow breathing or five to 10 minutes of prayer, or listening to music, or playtime with pets, or stretching, or just walking about.
"For me personally, my moments for prayer are spread throughout the day because I find the most peaceful and soothing rest when I talk to Jesus," Velasco says.
Velasco says her daily prayer routine includes adoration, morning and evening prayers, and Scripture reading.
"Scripture inspires me a lot and helps with my writing, coaching and even art therapy," says Velasco, who studied Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines Diliman; Interior Design at the Philippine School of Interior Design, and Sports Medicine at the University of San Francisco.
Word prompts
Velasco says during her art therapy workshops, she encourages participants to think of "word prompts."
"Pick a word for the day or randomly open the dictionary and just choose a word or two. Use that word in a short written statement or apply to any sentence that reflects your mood," she says.
An alternative exercise would be to choose a word and think of similar or related words.
To illustrate, Velasco said the words related to "heart" can be "love, red, cardio, tick, or beat."
Velasco also shares other exercises during her art therapy workshops: "Spend 10 to 15 minutes thinking of words that describe your inner and outer self. Alternatively, doodle your inner and outer self on separate pages and add the words that describe each."
In summary, Velasco says, "All of the above helps with expression. The more you attempt to express or relate, the more open you become to experiences."
Draft and redraft
Going back to Tondeur, the British novelist says being afraid to be criticized can hinder us from writing freely.
She says our writing does not have to be perfect from the get-go. Make a rough draft then redraft. Keep redrafting until you like what you are writing.
Trying to be perfect from the start is "impossible and paralyzing," says Tondeur.
She urges us to be kind to ourselves and to do what we can, where we are, with what we have.
Start small. Take small steps. If we can only spend five minutes a day writing, so be it.
The important thing is to create a daily writing habit. We do not have to wait for the right inspiration to start writing. Just write and do it daily.
Quoting Doris Lessing, the 2007 awardee of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Tondeur says, “Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”
The author, Veronica Pulumbarit, is a Journalism graduate of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. She has been a writer, editor, and graphic designer for over 30 years for various magazines and news outfits such as UCA News, GMA News Online and Inquirer.net.
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