What I learned from the first 10-week round of Ordinary Magic Creative Writing

MAJOR REALISATIONS:
Don’t think about one book - think about 5 books that I would like to put out there, then it makes it easier to get on with - instead of obsessing over one book, I think how can I get book 1 out there, in order to make way for book 5 to emerge from the process of 1-4. This is one of my greatest realisations.

I need the group and the ring-fenced time that I have invested, in order to do the work. If it were free or voluntary, I’m not convinced I would commit quite so furvently

I am motivated by other people - motivated and surprised by their output and their techniques, and their commitment. Some people are full-time artists, sponsored or financially supported from the outside, some have full-time jobs and create this on the side, others are writers, who do it for a living and this is their expansive outlet, as daily life is about content and editing and revising.

I am a recovering scientist, and thank god I got THAT education - I’m so grateful for it. But I’m also sad for the 16 year old who desperately wanted to study English, Drama and French, maybe a bit of Religious Studies on the side (it’s basically philosophy and writing essays about philosophy of religion). That 16 year old was cajoled into the idea of being a Doctor. Of studying medicine and so chose their VERY VERY WORST and most loathed topic to study. Maths. Along with chemistry and biology for some weird notion they might be able to get into medical school BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. That 16 year old also had a word with 28 year old Sarah and said ‘You know you could go and do you English A-Level at night school? Tuesday evenings?’ And so she did. And 16 year old Sarah was delighted to get an ‘A’ in said A-level. Actually I think Ordinary Magic is for 16 year old Sarah. She’s so happy to be realising this right now. RIGHT NOW…

I am surprised by people - the creativity multiplies within the group - it’s infectious. In a good way.

Support for work and process comes from within the group - if that support tips over into defence of people in the group - it is actually counter-intuitive to support and to taking out places as writers

Writing does not always come from the head. The wellspring comes from somewhere else. With a trusted and experienced guide one can access this through music, silence, nature, the everyday, the mundane, movement, dance, breathing, reading aloud, poetry, nature, being still and so many other state-changers. Here is Ursula K Le Guin’s daily writing schedule. Have you ever heard Hunter S Thompson’s daily schedule? I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT but the way he accessed his source is next level. I prefer a cup of tea, a quiet spot and the company of others and a banging soundtrack that I haven’t come up with. This is the ORDINARY MAGIC.

Looking at writer’s particular choice of source is fascinating

Here are the things I have actually learned:

Allowing a lot of space to open for people to play and make things is essential. Ring-fencing the space is unavoidable.
In Ordinary Magic writing workshops we open up your field of ring-fence this space for yourself to frolic in. And indulgent meadow in which to saunter…
(When I was a young adult, a played badminton - every single week without fail, Tuesdays and Thursdays. When I was really young, my Mum and Dad played in their 20s and 30s. Every Tuesday, my Nan would babysit so they could play. They ring-fenced that time; committed and ensured that they could be there to play every single week. That’s how I think of Ordinary Magic - I commit to the business of actually writing every week).
Artists use whatever is available to them to spark the creative.
Artists have to be incredibly vulnerable to bring their words or art to the table.
Once artists work is in the world, in the public sphere, it is no longer theirs; the person experiencing it imbues it with their own meaning.
Art and creativity is not one channel like; painting is here, writing is here, drawing is here, collage is here, sculpture is here - artists will do anything to access the source of their art; read, write, walk, swim, eat, lie down, look, play, make crap art, and so on…
To write you do not need to read; to be a good writer you do not need to read. To be a good writer you need to write and write and write. (the poet and I disagree on this point).
You do NOT need a special type of anything to do the thing. You can conjure up resistance anywhere HOWEVER you can make it easier for yourself.
If you write with analogue instruments, it’s important to be comfortable and to remove as many barriers as you can and make it as pleasurable as possible. This could mean a pen that write smoothly and easily and glides across the page. And if you find one you like, ensure that you have a packet of them. If it is a fountain pen or cartridge pen, ensure that you have refills in a place where you know EXACTLY where is they are. It would mean Paper that feels good - lines that are far enough apart or close enough together. Do you want plain or grid-style paper. Don’t overthink it but if you know you have a preference - do it. I used to obsess over having Moleskine notebooks, which I love. But I don’t need them. If I get one as a gift, then marvellous - but ¥100 or dollar store notebook is easily accessible, cheap and I don’t feel precious about them. And I buy in multiples.
If you are using a keyboard, you MUST NOT stress if you can’t afford to buy the item with the perfect balanced keys, high quality, magnetic keys. If you are using a device with the Internet, then you MUST find a way not to be distracted by the Internet and by messages coming in. You must NOT stress about buying the perfect word-processing item that does not have the Internet. If you hate the way your keyboard feels it may be a good idea to invest in a keyboard that feels good - for your pleasure! And to make it easier.
One way or another, most writing needs to be transferred to digital content at some point. How you do that should be as pleasurable and easy as possible and if not - good old fashioned graft, discipline and stick-with-it-ness needs to kick in. Tenacity.
Then there’s which software to use. With ADHD as my constant companion my system is this:
I have ONE Google Doc with all of one idea on it so my screenplay is all on ONE doc with headings - it is pages and pages long but for me I need to reduce the search and be able to skim-read everythingIt looks chaotic but it will be crafted and fashioned at some point into something that makes sense. The Google doc is in a very clearly marked folder - Writing - <name of the project>
Short stories each have their own file
NO fancy software - although I hear Scrivener and other Apps can be wonderful for the right person
Not everything you write will make it into a book. In a conversation with Tim Ferris that I listened to recently, Liz Gilbert said that about 15% of the research and thread of stories that she writes during her research phase find their way into a final finished book. Rick Rubin who is a mystical genius producer, also recognises the importance of good old fashioned self-discipline - or of crafting. At some point we have to start crafting out work into something that exists in consensus reality. Our poet Carolyn makes collage, mixed media pieces, cuts out text from magasines and has pages and pages of writing that will never see the light of day
And this is what I mean by I KNOW WHAT IT TAKES NOW.
Having run one round of Ordinary Magic and having coached many artists and writers over the years, everybody has biases in the creative process and everybody has their particular insecurities.
My personal bias is in the dreaming, writing and planning. My weak area is editing, putting things in order, crafting and shipping. AND NOW I KNOW.
But what I do know is this. The clients I have coached, who produce actual work and actual books that I hold in my hands (And there are a lot) are those who found a way to make their work manifest.
Creativity and the business of actually writing and producing a finished item are different (see number 1) You may need to enlist actual help to get your item out.
That help might be mentoring help from a writer to actually find your way into the end of something
It may be coaching help to actually get over your own blocks to get out there
It may be admin help to actually do that last push to create a pipeline to publishing or to self-publish - you NEED to outsource what you cannot do. Whether that be free, low cost or an investment, if you want your stuff in the world you are going to have to find a way.
It may to to talk to people who have done it before to actually tell you and learn how to publish, then choose and publish.
It may be to network, find an agent and get that agent to work on your behalf - but something may be holding you back - so that takes you back to the coach or writing mentor to work through blocks.
There’s more and more but for me - I MUST GET ON WITH IT. I must just get on with it. I am probably, against my nature going to have to carve out time and a schedule to get this first piece out. Outside of the Ordinary Magic community

Not all of us can be Haruki Murakami, so passionate about his craft and about his stories that after he closed his Tokyo Jazz bar in the wee small hours he would open his notebook and pen his mystical worlds and fascinating stories, or later in life, took to running for his creative source, then even wrote a book about that.

Or Glennon Doyle with her 3 young kids, in the wardrobe at 5am grabbing the quiet hours before the house wakes up to write her Blog, then her book that would become a best-seller because the compulsion to get their writing into the world was greater than her wish to watch TV until late at night, or have a lie in.

BUT we can work out our own version of this and learn what people are willing to go to bring their work to life.

We are our own people.

A few books that explore the creative impulse are below.

The Creative Habit - Twyla Tharp

The Artists Way - Julia Cameron

Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert

The War of Art/Turning Pro - Stephen Pressfield

The Creative Act - A Way of Being - Rick Rubin

I even think that Just Kids by Patti Smith is a good read for creative inspiration and artistic aspiration

But… be careful that these don’t become the resistance itself - beware

If you tend to place a lot of importance on being right or wrong, good or bad, perfect not perfect, a good girl or boy. If you tend to police other people’s output (you know - spelling corrections, asking for permission in low stakes situations, criticisms of self and others, pointing out when people haven’t followed ‘the rules’ in low stakes situations and so on) then you need to be careful not to take these creative tomes as another stick to creatively beat yourself with. I love them as it keeps me connected to the Ordinary Magic, and it reminds me of what it takes. With every read, I find myself discovering knew things, depending on my own current mindset and what I have learned over the years. For me, books like these are creative manna. For the next person they could feel dried and thirst-inducing. They could feel like a formula they are failing at.

Bottom line is, when it comes to creativity I am interested in those devoted to their art.

And if they have produced actual concrete works, then I am interested in how they got there. And if they have written a book, or have a Blog or journal somewhere that gets regularly updated, then I am interested in that too.

Matisse said, “creativity takes courage”. They were right. It takes the courage of sitting in a room and saying to yourself “I’m going to make this, even though nothing is perfect and everything is cringe and I’m never going to get published”.

It takes courage to overcome your own particular brand of resistance. Whether that be self-criticism and the criticism or correction of others, believing that one has to be ‘good at it’ to write (who knows what is good and what is bad?), that there’s a right and wrong way to do a thing, you need to be a wonderful wordsmith or conversely, be simple. There is no right way. Once one becomes comfortable and confident in their art and their integrity, I have noticed that comparison begins to ebb away; to wain.

If you tend, like me, to be a starter not a finisher, which is fine for the creative act, but if you want to have a physical product in the world, you’ll need to complete and publish or produce.

Back to the 5 versus 1 book idea above. When I had one book, every decision felt so weighty.

Now it’s 5 it feels well, like an imperative to get the first out - imperfectly then to allow number 5 to have a chance of life. Such an interesting reframe that emerged from either reading or hearing something but someone who has already published - I forget what.

As Carolyn, the poet of Ordinary Magic said to me when I was to-ing and fro-ing over the medium of my story

“CALL IT HYBRID AND GET ON WITH IT!”

Yup - she called me the F out and thank the MAGIC. THANK YOU.

It stung but my God, did it stop me and delicious resistance from getting in the way.

She knows you see.

She’s published.

A number of times.

She’s mentored.

A number of times.

She did a Masters in Creative writing so she had to get writing looked at an assessed and marked and graded (she got a distinction by the way - that’s my girl)!

And EVEN though I have coached and coached and can pretty much spot defensiveness, resistance and bullshit from 1000km, and can sense who will publish (And am very very pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong oh so often am and that is why I love being a coach, we constantly open up possibility, and constantly review expectations, and constantly review our biases).

It’s different when it’s yourself.

And that is why I LOVE Ordinary Magic.

And that is why I LOVE the combination of poet and coach.

The gentle hand of the poet being guided by the coach who reads the field and notices what’s present and joins the process and creates the conditions for the poet to weave their magic, with their knowledge, know-how, expertise; their music and collage and mixed-media; their deep and wide creativity and limitless imagination allowing us all to be enchanted, spellbound, play with great breadth, to tap into the creative magical stream of ever-accessible magic.