For many years, I led creative writing workshops. Early on I noticed that some writing prompts tended to keep people entrenched in their thinking mind… and their subsequent writing was heady and dry. These writing prompts often involved using a word or newspaper headline to write from. Their writing might have been slick and witty, but it was rarely deep or soulful, it didn’t move the group emotionally.
But when I brought in images, it opened up a whole other space… images helped writers access a depth that wasn’t available to them otherwise. Their writing was rich and profound, I felt nurtured listening to it.
Albert Einstein said that images were what motivated his work and helped him formulate his mathematical and scientific concepts, while words had to be “laboriously” found in a “secondary state.” I believe this is true for all of us. We search for the explanations, the descriptions, the words…but what we really need to do is find our image. Once we do, we’re off to the races.
The words and descriptions will come later; what we need to do first, is find our image.
What is the image… that inspires your work? gives meaning to your life? provides healing to your physical body?
That’s the place to dwell.
