Have you ever stopped to ask why writers write? The answer varies throughout the writing community, but the general consenous is that we write to share a piece of ourselves with our readers.
Reading a book, poem, or piece of prose is an intimate act as the writer uses their voice to reveal hidden truths about themselves. For many, including myself, writing is a way to discuss the hard parts of life that are not easily spoken out loud. Writing words on a page is brave, couragous, and can lead to you getting out of your comfort zone.
Writing is more than telling a story; it's about being vulnerable. This vulnerability is what creates the story with a message that will speak to readers. Yes, memoir is vulnerable as the writer shares their life and memories, but fiction can be just as vulnerable. In fiction, writers can manipulate the truth to tell a story that they feel needs to be told. Life can be difficult to process, but being vulnerable with our emotions to our readers can help start processing it.
I practiced creative vulnerability in a TikTok series of building a creativity journal. The journal entries contained artwork of varying mediums and writing excerpts of poetry and prose. Many of this entries lead to larger pieces of work—some of which are included in my first book publication Bluebottle Fairytales.
Creativity Journal Entry: Follow The Water
This zine collage, painting, and writing inspired a larger piece of fiction entitled "Follow the Water" and was published in Bluebottle Fairtytales. Watch the creation of this journal entry on TikTok.
The goal with this creativity journal was to get out of my comfort zone, go with the flow, and reach new bounds with my creativity. By the end of the journal project, I believe I accomplished this goals. However, it would not have been a success if I didn't challenge myself in doing what was uncomfortable.
Although I made several journal entries to experiments with new art forms to broaden my creative mind, the practice of vulnerability started with I was feeling the worst mentally. Instead of sulking throughout the day, I decided to express my emotions creatively and made an impromptu journal entry.
At the time, I was reading Hopper's Women by Kendra Kopelke. This collection of poetry explored the emotions of the women that were subjects in Edward Hopper's paintings. Since the book was on my mind, while feeling extremely emotional I decided to paint and write about myself as if I was a Hopper women.
Creativity Journal Entry: Tell Me When You're Ready To Look At Her
This journal entry let me write about myself in a way that I normal don't. Not only did I create a piece of prose that had my emotions embedded in the page, but I also felt a relief from emotional weight being lifted. The heavy feelings I was suffering from that day were a little lighter after the journal entry.
One particular entry was the most vulnerable as I did something that I dread to do on a daily basis: look at myself in a mirror. I've written about my struggle with anorexia on a few occasions—the prose-poem "I Was A Ballerina" being one of them. However, despite being comfortable with writing about my experience I still had difficulty accepting my body and welcoming my self in the mirror.
To embrace the "getting out of my comfort zone" for hte creativity journal, I practiced vulnerable art by drawing a self portrait of myself naked. During the process, I was cringing and felt uncomfortable in my skin for a while. But when I started thinking looking at my body as a model for art I started to view myself more positively.
By the end of the journal entry, I not only felt more comfortable with myself and my body, but I also began to develop a new prose-poem that embraces body positivity and showcases my emotional struggles with body image.
Creativity Journal Entry: The Color of Beauty
While creative the journal entry, I was not willing to color the sketch of my body but I was willing to color the background. This lead to a writing prompt about what color means for beauty and how we can embrace it and share it to overcome body negativity.
By doing something that made me feel uncomfortable (drawing my exposed body), I was able to write an emotionally moving piece that I would not have wrote otherwise. By becoming vulnerable with ourselves, we can be vulnerable with our readers to create powerful pieces of writing that will impact readers minds and hearts.
So the next time you are pondering about what to write, try practicing vulnerability and express emotional writing. You may surpirse yourself with what you create!
Watch literary film "The Art of Vulnerability," which combines writing from my creativity journal entries.
Comentarios