Curiosity & Preparation {letter two: Falling Gently}
squirreling away more creative seeds than you could ever need
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” - Seneca
When I first started regularly writing poems in 2018, I couldn’t stop - I had so much to say! My entire life of nearly 40 years at the time was chock full of stories that needed to be told. I wrote my first book in a flurry of creativity and enthusiasm. My second book came more slowly but I still felt a nearly endless supply of things from my own life to explore. There is such joy in these times of creative output, when the work flows urgently and in great torrents of emotion. But eventually you will probably hit a point where you wonder if you’ve said all you have to say for the moment.
I have found that my own creativity is cyclical; ebbing and flowing, like the seasons. So I need to find ways to store the excess ideas and story seeds that come so easily for me at the abundant times, for the seasons when my well is running dry.
As artists and writers we need to be like squirrels gathering and burying nuts in the autumn, stockpiling sustenance for those inevitable creative winters.
This week we will be drinking in the world until the world spills out of our fingertips as only we can see it, hear it, move it, and know it.
Did you miss the first letter? Start here!
Curiosity & Preparation
At this point in my writing career, my creative process is probably at least 60% research. I love to learn and I take classes, not just about poetry, but also about all sort of things that pique my curiosity (psychology, myth, philosophy, quantum physics, personality, trauma healing, etc). While my work still tends to have elements of the autobiographical, I am finding myself more interested in other things.
I make lists, I fill my notes app with books people mention, Substacks, places I might want to travel some day, letters to people I will never send. I make Pinterest boards for everything (book covers, seasons, clothes, characters, recipes, photo ideas).
Journal prompt: What are some of the things you are most curious about? What do you often find yourself thinking about? What are some subjects or disciplines you could get even more curious about?
Make a list of things you often write about, words you are drawn to, obsessions you have (and please forgive all the spelling errors and typos in my little examples below)
