10 Ways to Be Creative in the Summer

Does summertime make you feel creative and want to try new things? Or do you just like to have fun in the sun? I like both, so while I'll be posting all through the summer, I'm taking a break from blog commenting until after Labor Day. Some of you may remember this post from last year, but I felt it needed repurposing!What will You be Doing for Creative Fun this Summer?Summer is a great time to try things you might not normally do. Here are my suggestions for being creative this summer.

1.Build a Sandcastle or a Sand Painting

A.K.Andrew, http://akandrew.com

Building sandcastles are one of my favorite childhood memories as we always had beach holidays. Some of the ones you see are amazing, not just the fill a bucket and turn it upside down kind. I love making a moat with a sand castle too, all that foamy water rushing in. And then at the end of the day you can make it disappear with one sweep of your hand or wait for a wave to do the same thing. Creative things don't need to be permanent. Sand paintings are fun for that very reason. Do one on the beach with a stick or your finger, or buy a sand painting kit.

2.Write a Short Story

This is the time to let go, have some fun with it. And remember no-one but you will see it, unless you want them to. Write about an unexpected sexual encounter. Try out a different genre you don't usually use. Never written about vampires? Now's the time. Write in a different point of view, or from the point of view of a different gender, or sexual orientation. Hey, this is supposed to be fun right?

3.Go see a Film or Make a Movie

When was the last time you went to a cinema? No, not your home theatre, but a big screen-Dolby stereo-popcorn-selling cinema. Treat yourself. If you're a regular cinema goer then try a different kind of film. For me that would be a horror film. Of course, I'd have to take something to hold up in front of the screen though! Maybe you'll be inspired to make a short movie on your phone or camera. One of the best shorts I've ever seen was made by a guy who was stuck in his house in Minnesota one winter, and he used himself as the subject. It was so imaginative, and best of all, hilarious.

 4.Take a Photograph

A.K.Andrew, http://akandrew.com

We all spend so much time on our mobile phones these days, but do you use your phone camera for anything other than selfies or groups of friends laughing together? I love those photos, but it's great to capture even simple things you see that give you a memory of the place you've been and the good time you had.  Better still, take an actual camera!You remember those right? I must dust mine off. I happened to catch these cowboys with my phone while driving home last Sunday morning - I wasn't driving:-)

5.Try a Poem

Lots of people, myself included, sometimes find poetry intimidating. But if you think of poetry as being just the essential information you need, it's not so threatening. Of course, the arrangement and choice of words is what makes poetry beautiful, striking and memorable. Play around with words that come to mind, and put them together in a bizarre order. See what happens.

6. Watercolors and Painting

A.K.Andrew, http://akandrew

I used to think water colors had to be twee little scenes of cottages with roses round the door. They can be if that's what you want, but you can paint anything you want with watercolors including abstracts. Look at the beautiful watercolors from Leora Wenger she painted during a blackout. It's a brilliant medium to take on holiday. I have a little Winsor Newton box that is about 3"x  5 " with a telescopic paintbrush inside. The paints are little squares like a kids paint set. I've had so much fun with that little box. The key to both drawing and painting is really looking at your subject. And don't try and get the whole thing in the painting. Just pick a small section, like a doorway not the whole house, or a single plant, not the whole garden etc. If you really want to be adventurous, try acrylics or oil paints. The textures are delicious.

7.Drawing

A.K.Andrew,http://akandrew.com

Kids have so much fun with drawing , and there is no reason why adults can't either. If you want your drawings to look as if you were classically trained, good for you. But if like me, you don't have that skill, then draw whatever it is you see. If it's stick figures - fabulous.  You know who they are, and I can guarantee that if you forget about it having to look realistic, you will have fun with it. Think simple , but creative. Look at the work of Keith Haring. I used to think drawing was an innate skill. Some people have more of a natural talent, but it can basically be learned by anyone. So you might want to elaborate on your stick figures, and give it a shot. Drawing your own hands is a great way to practise. Or look in a mirror as I did above for this self portrait. Drawing images from photographs is much easier than from real life, so that's a good place to start too. Pencils are great, but charcoal or pastels are also really fun too. The important thing for me is the process.

8.Gardening

A.K.Andrew, http://akandrew.com

Gardening  is a fantastically creative pursuit and I'm often amazed the effects people can get from very simple things eg. putting a plant in an old metal jug, or combining flowers with herbs. It's hot and dry in the summer where I live, and I've seen some of the most amazing succulent gardens in our neighborhood. Years ago I thought they were a very boring plant, but once I saw them in the US, and particularly the ones that bloom, I've come to love them. They're great for needing little water too, which is always a good choice. Watch your back though - gardening is addictive, and it's easy to forget how much work you've done. If you find this is the case then try using raised beds. Here's one surprise I found in a neighbors garden....

 9. Music

How many times have you heard people say, I can't sing? Nonsense! Everyone who does not have vocal chord issues can sing. Some voices are more pleasant to listen to than others, but we're talking about having fun here. Sing at the top of your lungs, and who cares what it sounds like. Or pick up a musical instrument you haven't tried before. Harmonica's and tin whistles are inexpensive. Ukulele's can be very cheap these days. The chords are very simple,  - some only use one finger. It's all about having fun.

10. Cooking

A.K.Andrew,http://akandrew.com

Cooking does not have to be complicated, and in the summer, many of the dishes we eat are cold. Some people are so creative in what they make. Check out Susan Cooper's siteFindingourwaynow.com. She has lots of great recipes, and you can tell she has fun in her cooking. I like simple dishes in the summer. There's nothing more beautiful than a caprese salad - luscious heirloom tomatoes with fresh buffalo mozzarella, sprinkled with chopped basil and dribbled with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Talk about a treat for all the senses.

What else do you like to do creatively? Welding, sculpture, making jewellery, beading, rockhounding? Try something new this summer, and whatever it is, make sure you enjoy yourself.

Have a fantastic summer everyone and don't forget, comments have "Gone Fishing" until after Labor Day!

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Does Internet Dopamine Stop You from #Reading #Books?

Where do you get your nightly dose of dopamine? No, let me put that a different way... What is your preferred visual stimulation of choice before you go to sleep? Watching a movie, the TV, going online and catching up on email, tweeting, texting, Facebook etc... or reading a book?Come on, let's be honest. I guarantee at least half of you did not go for the book reading option. So why is that? What's happened to our bedtime story?This is from a Post published by Susan Weinschenk Ph.D. on Sep 11, 2012 in Brain Wise which says that "Dopamine makes you addicted to seeking information in an endless loop."  This is from Susan's post:

Pleasure vs. seeking 

— You may have heard that dopamine controls the "pleasure" systems of the brain: that dopamine makes you feel enjoyment, pleasure, and therefore motivates you to seek out certain behaviors, such as food, sex, and drugs. Recent research is changing this view. Instead of dopamine causing you to experience pleasure, the latest research shows that dopamine causes seeking behavior. Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search.

Rewards of the Dopamine Loop

So what that's telling us is that one tweet is never enough. We are going to continuously reward ourselves by searching for more information, more connection however tenuous it might be online. Who wouldn't want to be rewarded each time we perform any of these tasks? And there is a sense of accomplishment that we have achieved something. What's not to like?This next part is from a more recent article published in the Guardian in January 2015, and is from a book by Daniel J. Levitin.

In a famous experiment, my McGill colleagues Peter Milner and James Olds, both neuroscientists, placed a small electrode in the brains of rats, in a small structure of the limbic system called the nucleus accumbens. This structure regulates dopamine production and is the region that “lights up” when gamblers win a bet, drug addicts take cocaine, or people have orgasms – Olds and Milner called it the pleasure centre. A lever in the cage allowed the rats to send a small electrical signal directly to their nucleus accumbens. Do you think they liked it? Boy how they did! They liked it so much that they did nothing else. They forgot all about eating and sleeping. Long after they were hungry, they ignored tasty food if they had a chance to press that little chrome bar; they even ignored the opportunity for sex. The rats just pressed the lever over and over again, until they died of starvation and exhaustion. Does that remind you of anything? A 30-year-old man died in Guangzhou (China) after playing video games continuously for three days. Another man died in Daegu (Korea) after playing video games almost continuously for 50 hours, stopped only by his going into cardiac arrest........ But remember, it is the dumb, novelty-seeking portion of the brain driving the limbic system that induces this feeling of pleasure, not the planning, scheduling, higher-level thought centres in the prefrontal cortex. Make no mistake: email-, Facebook- and Twitter-checking constitute a neural addiction.© Daniel J. Levitin. Extracted from The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, published by Viking

Short attention Span

My concern is that all of this information that we constantly both receive and dispatch, essentially leads not to successful multitasking, but to a short attention span. And that is not something you can have if you want to read a book amongst other things.  What I've been in the habit of doing is to start reading and then feel compelled to look up the meaning of a word, or see exactly what part of the world is the author talking about, or when was that in relation to the first moon landing etc etc. Minutiae that I either dont need or could find out later, but have felt the need to immediately find out while I'm reading a novel!!!

Banished from the Bedside

So what I've been doing recently is banning all  electronic devices from my bedside table, as I was often 'just quickly checking my email, twitter, Facebook account, etc, and before you know it an hour or even two had gone by, my eyes were closing and gone was my reading time! So I've been focusing on books and felt more relaxed for doing so.

Bright Lights

I've also read that the bright light from any kind of display monitor also simulates day time which is obviously not very conducive to sleep. How that works for ebooks I'm not sure, but one does tend to have the screen a little darker at night.So I've just started reading The Gold Finch by Donna Tartt and at 700+ pages, I'm going to definitely need to focus on my reading time. And as a writer, as I mentioned in my last post on writing tips, that is essential.What is your opinion on visual stimulation before you go to bed in particular? And what about the Dopamine Loop-do you find it effects you in the ways described? If so what's the answer?

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#Muse media #Annie Proulx on Love

Love...#Muse media

#Muse Media are a series of short posts that combine different media with a notable author.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpCaQSRwdd0[/embed]“Late in the afternoon, thunder growling, that same old green pickup rolled in and he saw Jack get out of the truck, beat up Resistol tilted back. A hot jolt scalded Ennis and he was out on the landing pulling the door closed behind him. Jack took the stairs two and two. They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack’s big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis’s straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other’s toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and his daughters, little darlin.” Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain

Love is portrayed in novels in as many ways as there are to love. But in the quote above from the novella Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx manages to capture the most intense sense of passion and desire to make it a visceral need. If it's not already obvious, the two characters have not seen each other for a long time - at least a year if not longer as I recall. If you want an example of writing that makes every word count, this is it. And she conjures not only love and passion, but by her use of phrases such as "stubble rasping" and repeating "son of a bitch" she manages to impart the sense of maleness that is integral to the scene, and the love affair the book portrays. And yet even then, there is a tenderness as Ennis calls Jack "little darlin".  It's one of the few books that I have read, then seen the film, and then  reread the book and still cried at the final scene.

In the video above, Annie Proulx talks about the making of Brokeback Mountain and gives some insight on her process of how she came up with the story and well as the film being made. Even watching the first minute I think you will find worthwhile.

Perhaps her love of the printed word helps to give us some insight as to how she can portray her signature characters from the American range so vividly.

 “You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”

Annie Proulx

 What  kinds of love scenes  do you like in a novel? Do you have a favorite love story ?

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PEN - Do You Have the Freedom to Write?

English PEN is the founding centre of PEN International. This association of writers, campaigns for the promotion of free speech and literature around the world. It's slogan is "The freedom to write, the freedom to read." In the recent newsletter, the following caught my eye.Burmese poets perform in unique UK tourThis month English PEN supports the promotion of Bones Will Crow, the first anthology of contemporary Burmese poets published in the West. Edited and translated by ko ko thett and James Byrne. Published by Arc Publications.Bones Will Crow features the work of Burmese poets who have been in exile and in prison. The poems include global references from a culture in which foreign books and the Internet are regarded with suspicion and where censorship is an industry. The poets have been ingenious in their use of metaphor to escape surveillance and censorship, writing post-modern, avant-garde, performance and online poetries.I'm glad I don't have to rely on my brilliant use of metaphor to evade censorship! All joking aside, the fact is, many of us reading this blog take for granted the freedom we have in terms of what we write. Can you imagine what life would be like if you were afraid your writing posed a threat to your safety?  I don't always remember to value the freedom of being able to write whatever I want.Do You Have The Freedom To Write?That said, within the freedoms of western society, there are pitfalls. On a much lesser scale than fears of imprisonment or torture, individuals do not always feel free to express themselves. Homophobia, sexism, racial and religious intolerance all plays a part in people feeling threatened, unable to be who they are.Political oppression works on the same principles as bullying -  intimidation, fear, punishment and isolation. Bullying on on a grand scale you like.  But at a simpler level, bullying in the playground, while in a completely different league from national oppression,  is a horrible phenomenon, often with awful consequences. Most children don’t want to be seen as ‘other’. To avoid being associated with someone who is being picked on, some kids lower their tolerance levels and cave in to peer pressure. Which only increases the number of bullies, and makes the problem worse. This issue has been well highlighted in the TV musical comedy drama series  ‘Glee’.Being constantly pushed around  by a playground bully is a long way from being put in a Burmese prison. But it can have a devastating effect on the life of an individual. Victims of bullying often feel too scared to speak out, let alone put down their concerns in print.The Burmese poets whose work is in ‘Bones Will Crow', did what they could to avoid censorship.  I wonder if I'd have their courage to write, if I found myself living in a society actively preventing freedom of speech. Would I write about my oppression? Or would I want to write a simple story that might be an escape from the harshness of the situation.The issues in this post are separate, but related. What would you write if you found yourself living in an oppressive society? How important is it that people continue to write, no matter what? Do you know of any children who’ve been bullied and the effect it had on them? How well have they been able to write about what’s important to them? Connect with me on: -Twitter: @artyyahPinterest: http://pinterest.com/artyyah/Like my Facebook page : http://facebook.com/akandrewwriterFor regular updates of my blog: Subscribe Here  Related Information:http://www.englishpen.org/http://www.pen-international.org/http://www.englishpen.org/about-free-speech/PEN has published a free PEN Atlas e-book for PEN members and friends to enjoy! The e-book features ten literary dispatches from around the world, taken from their online series. Contributing authors include Yan Lianke, Diego Marani, Samar Yazbek & Dubravka Ugresic. You can download your free copy here.http://www.englishpen.org/poems-for-pussy-riot-ebook/ On October 10th one of the members of Pussy Riot had their sentence suspended. Leading up to the court case, PEN organized  Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot, an ebook international anthology. Click the link to download. 

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