playwrighting Archives -

July 18, 2018 By Marisa Moks-Unger

Risk and Reward: Being a Beginner Boosts Creativity

Enter Creative Flow by Starting Anew

When your words leap from the page to the stage it creates courage.

Sometimes to get to a greater level of creativity, you take risks to find rewards. And I speak from a newfound love of script writing. I just retuned from the 41st International Women’s Writing Guild’s (IWWG) Summer Conference. A member since 2009, I have missed only once to serve as a bridesmaid in my youngest sister’s wedding. This year I went way, way out on a literary limb – a big risk for this poet, essayist, and professional business writer – to create, workshop, and stage my first 10 minute play.

Surrendering to Reality

It is hard not to act like the proverbial kid in a candy store at this gorgeous writers’ conference. I crammed my pockets of time – all five sessions – with courses to feast upon all week. Or so I thought. From a Pose and Pen yoga opener to a food-inspired workshop that spilled into the afternoon offerings of script writing for both stage and screen, and a final mixed-media and writing art class. I wanted it all. The first two days of the script writing classes were brain stormers. But when I began writing for the stage, I stepped out of the banquet line. My schedule collapsed down to writing, editing, and revising the play. Blame it on exhaustion. I thought I could go full tilt, even participating in the evening open mic reading and going out afterwards with friends, then write when I got back to my room. However, my hopes took a cryptic turn when my keyboard hand placement was off and the play’s title read “G:PE” instead of “FLOW”. So I decided to begin in earnest after I slept a few hours.

Risk taking is a surefire way to promote creativity.

The Nuts and Bolts of Beginnership

What I learned from play veteran, Kelly DuMar, was script basics, which I applied at warp speed. I shortened the dialogue sequences to make the exchanges more natural. I agreed to the placement of a main character fainted on a chair instead of flat on the floor as it occurred in the actual event. Detailed stage directions got turned into further dialogue. And after workshopping the piece, I didn’t fight the Truman Capotesque move to kill my darlings – silent stock characters – by the instructor. I succeeded in this entire exercise, because I remembered that I was a student and as such was learning to create something radically different from what I typically wrote.

And With the Risk Came the Reward

To see my words leap off the page and take the form of a woman, a student, a dying man on a subway station floor, and a seated group of five instructors whose lessons carried beyond the classroom, left me awestruck. And to hear the audience’s applause as the experimental work came to an end was likened to an alarm clock. It jolted a slumbering part of my creative self. I was ready to venture forth and write and edit more of the same. The reward eluded the risk of failure. And it resonated deeply in my bones that this task had somehow brought me home.

Now It’s Your Turn!

What type of writing have you been putting off? I encourage you to step onto the stage of your heart’s desire and experiment with words. Try your hand at a personal essay. Or compose a poem using a traditional form for framework such as a haiku or a villanelle. Here’s to your creativity when taking on a risk to find your own reward!

Until next time,

Marisa

Scrabble Words for Flow

Create a Word Bank from Scrabble

Word Lists from Scrabble — First play the game, then get writing from your curated word list.

Sunday afternoons find my husband, mother-in-law, and I playing Scrabble. This ritual helps us to pass the time during the pandemic. The games usually run one to two hours. We have taken these games to a new level by anticipating them each week, then carefully crafting our word choices. It helps that all three of us are avid readers and come up with a variety of interesting diction.

Also, the game gets my mother-in-law’s mind off of the local paper’s with its teeming death notices of Covid-19 victims – most from local residential living facilities. And, she is now interested in the fact that I am using these word lists to write from professionally.

Next, free write for a few. Make a list of the words developed during the game. Then use the list as a springboard to write a creative piece using as many of the words as possible. Play with long and short lines. Add some rhymes. Look for alliteration. Give yourself about 10 minutes. See what images appear.

Then, select a genre or two to carry through. As a theme arises from the free write of the word list, follow the lead. Perhaps a poem rises up. Or, a one-act play. Or, both! Choose one genre knowing that you can come back and create more works from any single topic.

Now, it’s your turn! If you have a Scrabble game somewhere hidden in a hall closet, it is time to get it out and try your hand at this writing tactic. It employs procrastination by allowing you to blow off writing at first by playing a game. Then, you are rewarded for the time you invested in the game by writing a piece from the words you and others generated.

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

TGIFF – Thank God It’s Friday Flow

Cliché Finds Flow on Friday

Congratulations, you’ve made it to Friday. And, at the workweek’s end, there is time to find flow. But, where do you go to find flow? First, realize that flow can happen anywhere at anytime. Need proof? Look at this past post on finding flow in a card and party goods store. Simply click right here: https://wewriteitright.com/visit-flow-in-a-party-goods-shop/

How Gratitude Leads the Way

Use grateful eyes to take in the world around you. Then, instead of planning to hit the bars and clubs when the clock strikes 5:00 PM, other options present themselves during these times of pandemic. Why not take a virtual tour a museum? Or, take a walk or bike ride through a park? Or, spend an hour working on a poem, and essay, or a blog post. When you are grateful for the options you have – even if you are working from home amid shutdowns – then that is enough.

Your Turn

Playtime creates greater flow. — Spirographs, Etch-a-Sketch, and Slinkys are just a few ways to re-enter flow through playtime. What was your favorite activity as a child? When was the last time you tried it as an adult?

Think back to grade school, junior high, or middle school. Think about the electives that you took that helped round out your schedule. Did you take dance or music classes? Weight training? Or, perhaps, like me, you did candle making. Whatever it might be, try to reunite your lost teen with your adult self. Take time to write, dance, sing, paint, or play with your Spirograph! You’ll be glad you did!

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa