Creativity Lurks Just Below the Surface

I am at the cottage in Nags Head this week for Easter week. I have my four children and my two nieces, and my dh is commuting to work every day. The weather has been crisp and clear but windy and cool. Still it's quite beautiful and relaxing to just hang out with the kids. I haven't been able to write as much as I'd like, of course, but the environment is conducive to other kinds of creativity. I've been doing lots of painting, Marina-style. We did some work on the cottage last year and there were some great wood scraps, so we saved them in a pile. We've been building things, painting signs and small masterpieces. (Lots of Go Tarheels and Surf's Up) Taking the time to be still and just paint just gets the juices flowing, you know? I'm still working on this picture book manuscript (which I totally love, btw)and a few other ideas, too. It's funny how painting (and perhaps I should have mentioned before, I AM NOT AN ARTIST)can just relax me enough to have writing breakthroughs. I strongly suggest you try it.

I received some info about Chautauqua this week, and I am so excited. I think it's going to be the most amazing thing I've ever had the opportunity to do. What a great example of a creative environment that gets you going. I'm going to try to incorporate that more into my regular life. Did I tell you about the book I read that said to make an "art date" for yourself once a week? The author recommends that writers spend an hour a week observing some other art form that writing. Anything. I've been trying to do that more consciously and more importantly, put an 'art date' in my kids' lives once a week. It's actually easier than you'd think.

My husband was reading an article this week about the guy who wrote all the James Bond books. Apparently he went to a fabulous vacation spot and sent his friends a postcard that said,"I love it here. I could write the great American spy novel here." And then he did. Pretty cool, and it shows the power of putting it on paper.

SO I've gotten off-track a bit these past weeks, so I'm going back to setting goals for the week. While I have a number of things to do here at the cottage and just a few kids in my house, I would like to put a few goals on paper. 1. Complete my crits for this week. Sounds easy, but I'm having trouble accessing my e-mail here. 2. Write a draft for a personal narrative to enter into the Writers Digest competition.
3. Map out my new PB idea using the 32 page template.


Thanks, guys, for listening. Remember to cheer for the Tarheels tonight!!! Also, my next blog will be my 100th, and I'd like to put out a challenge for you. Here is my blogging goal. I'd like to double my readership for the next 100 blogs, so I'd like for you to thoughtfully consider sharing my blog address with at least one person you think would enjoy this community. Ask them to comment and name who sent them. Please join me for my 100th Blog Party. BYOB. I'll have a special prize for those of you who visit--a link to one of my favorite sites. I'll have some new pictures and for that one blog, you can ask me any question you want via a comment, and I promise to answer it. Kind of a cyber truth or dare with no dare. So please join the fun TOMORROW!!!!

Thanks for being here for me. You guys are the best.