imagination

14 06, 2021

Moodling, Imagination, and Creative Thinking

By |2021-06-13T13:50:29-05:00June 14th, 2021|Make Me Think Monday, Writing Craft|0 Comments

I recently came across a blog that gave me both a new vocabulary word and a new technique to boost creativity. When I read Musings from a Writer’s Brain–Moodling, I thought the blogger might have made the word up and checked for myself.

Googling the word proved tricky. MOODLE came up, but not moodling. Moodle happens to be an open-source learning management system for distance and online learning. Something that has become a necessary part of our COVID-19 pandemic world.

But that was not what the blogger Joanne Guidoccio was talking about. Her blog referred to the idea of moodling from Brenda Ueland’s book If You Want to Write

Ueland stresses that “the imagination needs moodling—long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”

Urban Dictionary defines the word as daydreaming or letting your mind wander and doing nothing.

Interesting that doing nothing and letting your mind wander will improve creative thinking, isn’t it?

But the fact is some well-known names are among those who practiced moodling.

Isaac Newton was moodling under an apple tree in 1666 and an apple fell on his head which in turn led to his theory on gravity.

Albert Einstein spent days and nights in the quiet solitude after the breakup of his marriage. That moodling period led to his general theory of relativity.

Massachusetts of Technology’s The Writing Process includes moodling as a way to generate ideas and recommends a structured technique for writers

CEOBuddy.com suggests trying noodling and moodling if you’re looking for creative ideas to expand your business.

There’s also a YouTube channel that demonstrates how to use doodling to jumpstart creativity.

Moodling, noodling, doodling, idling, dawdling, and puttering to improve my imagination…

with summer here, sounds like a plan to me.

What do you think?

3 04, 2014

The Creative Mind

By |2014-04-03T06:00:29-05:00April 3rd, 2014|Company's Coming|25 Comments

A guest blog by J.D. Faver

Thank you so much, Judythe, for inviting me to be your guest today.

creative brainLately, I have been thinking a lot about creativity and how different individuals express themselves. I am a writer in a large community of writers, both virtual and real-world. What I noticed first is that all my writer buds are incredibly creative with words. They write novels and non-fiction. They write poetry and specialty blogs. I am in awe of all the many genres represented in this group. The fascinating thing I found is that writing is only one of their talents. In a very non-scientific survey, I learned that these writers also garden, sew, make jewelry, do stained-glass, make pottery, etc.

This took me back to a wonderful class I had as an undergraduate. My original major was Theater, so I was hanging with a bunch of creative types, even then. The man who was Chairman of the Department was Paul Baker, founder of the Dallas Theater Center. I was enrolled in a class with him, in a huge tiered room with lots of windows on one side. The windows looked out on the beautiful, wooded Trinity University campus and often Dr. Baker would be lecturing to us, while gazing out the window. On some level, I figured he had given the lecture so many times, he was playing a tape from memory, but it didn’t matter. The words that dropped from his lips were stirring and inspired us all.

The name of the class was Integration of Abilities. Yeah, think about that for a moment.

Keep in mind this was a class in the Theater Department. Dr. Baker sent us out to gather a nature object that appealed to us. I recall that my object was a twig completely ensnared by lichen and Spanish moss. He had us draw pictures of the object from every angle, focusing on minute and realistic detail. He had us use different media to capture our images, graphite pencil, charcoal, conte, pastels, etc. He next told us to abstract the drawings to capture the essence of the object. Then we abstracted the abstract. So we were pretty much in tune with all the visual aspects of our objects.

Our next task was to write or choose a musical accompaniment that expressed our object. Yes, we did a movement piece where we danced or moved to the music. All this was relatable to the nature object, or in my case, a lichen and moss covered twig.

Next we wrote about it. We wrote odes, poems and haiku to and about our nature objects. These morphed into short stories, sometimes just a single scene. Trust me, by this time, the character of the nature object was getting stronger and stronger. Finally we wrote a scene for the character we had pulled from the nature object. We got up in front of our class and performed this scene.

My character turned out to be a barren woman (dried twig that had all the life juice sucked out by a leech-plant). She was bitter and I got a standing ovation. Amazing for this very talented class.

The upshot of all this reminiscence is that I use this sort of creativity to develop characters for my novels.

My other creative outlets are, I love to dance, love all kinds of music, I draw and paint, garden, make quilts and sew, make stained glass, jewelry, mosaics and pottery and many other arts and crafts. Not all at once, of course. And, it’s hard to have your hands in another project when they are constantly on the keyboard, but I CAN do all those things.

My contention is that exploring different creative outlets will enhance all your abilities. My very creative critique partners have a multitude of interests outside of writing. They do scrapbooking and crochet, drumming and bread-making, singing and sewing. The list goes on.

So, I encourage you to explore your creative process and be bold in trying new things. Take a class or just go draw on the sidewalk with colored chalk. Do something to polish another facet of your fabulous brain.

Me Signing at ComicPalooza 2013J.D. Faver is a Houston-area author of romantic suspense and under her pen name, Calista Anastasia, author of young adult fantasy.

Please like her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JDFaver

and follow her on Twitter @JDFaver_Author.

Be sure to check out all her novels on her Amazon Author Page

6 03, 2014

Harnessing Your Writer’s Imagination

By |2014-03-06T06:00:46-06:00March 6th, 2014|Company's Coming|5 Comments

More company and I’m excited to welcome Jane Carver to the porch today. She’s talking about imagination. One of my favorite topics since my imagination tends to run full throttle.

Harnessing Your Writer’s Imagination

As a writer, my imagination creates whatever I want.

We writers fill notebooks with ideas, pages with storybook names, jot down dire circumstances then one day, we pull out an idea from here and a name from there and put it all together.

Once I’ve written something I want to share, it is time to edit, hone that manuscript until there is, no doubt, what I want the reader to experience.

I’m still working at my process. And always will. Any writer who says, “I’ve got this down pat,” is only fooling herself.

Writers are learners who constantly attend conferences, take classes, read and communicate with fellow writers as they hone their creativity.

There are no new plots–each has been told.

There are no rules to what an imagination comes up with, but there are guidelines to follow if you want that story to be the best it can.

The idea is to tell your story in a new way. The trick is to take what you learn and make it your own.

Write in a way that no one else does. Be fresh! Add tension, conflict, danger, doubt, suspense and maybe love if that’s your thing.

Polish and craft the words your creativity stirs up until you have a story that begs to be read and enjoyed.

Thanks, Janie for the encouragement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

jane-c-authorJane Carver is a former schoolteacher, a quilter, an artist

an editor,

a dual personality author, writing adult fiction as Jane Carver and young adult fiction as Jane Grace

a blogger extraordinaire writing 4 blogs weekly…amazing!

Want to learn more about Jane or her other personality, Jane Grace? Visit her website for adult fiction and her website for young adult fiction

Or stop by one of her blogs:

http://janiecarver2011.wordpress.com

http://RomancesByJanie.wordpress.com

http://JaneGracePresents.wordpress.com

http://WritingImagination2013.wordpress.com

You can also pick  up a copy of her latest releases by clicking on the covers:

Janie IntenseIntense (Young Adult Fiction) Sensitive subject but more about the compassion and help received afterward that makes up the story. Nova Dean dreams of going to Nationals in Debate but to do that she must beat Adam Parks and his team. Their rival is intense but not as much as the help Adam gives Nova after she’s raped. Only with his help can she take one step at a time back to a life she can endure. Only with his help are the rapists caught.

ReturnWithHonorReturn with Honor (Adult Fiction)

The death of Jud Longtree’s best friend gives the local police chief reason enough to suspect him of murder. With the help of Lottie Amberville, they use both logic and creativity to find someone who may have murdered more than once.

Go to Top