| FALL IN LOVE WITH CREATIVE PROCESS by Suzanne Murray.
A lot of people think that when it comes to creativity, inspiration is the key. Yet those moments of insight or revelation never occur without the willingness to commit to the work and continue to show up. This perseverance is just as important. You get a creative flash. You show up to the work and what wants to be born becomes more clear.
Nobel prize winning Canadian short story writer Alice Munro once said, “I threw away all my early writings and it wasn’t because I was the mother of three small children. It was because I was learning my craft and it took a long time.”
It was the same with David Guterson who wrote the award winning novel Snow Falling on Cedars. When critics acclaimed that a brilliant new writer had just come out of the Pacific Northwest as if he and his book had arrived by magic, he responded “excuse me but I’ve written in the early morning hours for 25 years before going to my job.” It took him ten years to write the novel.
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet, Mary Oliver wrote for twenty five years before putting her work out into the world. She refused to take an interesting job because she didn’t want to be distracted from her work. It was only a few years after she started publishing her work that she won the Pulitzer. Her perseverance clearly paid off.
One of the favorite essays I’ve ever written is 13 pages and it took five years to write. I started from a clear place of inspiration but then I had to do the work. I needed to do research. I needed to continue my writing practice. I had to put the draft away for a couple of years while I developed my skill as a writer because this essay was very complex and when I started it I didn’t have the level of ability to finish it.
This is why as a writing teacher and creativity coach I teach people to fall in love with the process. It is true for any form of creativity. You show up, you start playing around and you find yourself in the flow where time stops and you taste of the joy of being creative. This allows you to persevere. Even when things aren’t going well, you can find pleasure in showing up and being willing to play with what wants to be born out of your effort. This provides its own deep sense of satisfaction and working the process is its own reward.
An award-winning writer, Suzanne Murray’s work has appeared in literary magazines including Orion and The Sun. Author of “Love Poems to Nature,” she has kept a journal for forty years and is currently at work on a collection of essays about her connection to Ireland.
Suzanne also has creative experience in photography, dance and design. She is trained in EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Access Consciousness the Bars, Psych-K & Theta Healing. She works to empower clients to clear energetic limiting beliefs that hold them back from living their full creative potential. She also has a background as a biologist and professional naturalist and has worked of Yosemite Institute and the National Park Service.
Suzanne Murray offers:
Writing Coaching, Creativity Coaching,
Ireland Journey
Creative Life Coaching & EFT Sessions |
