Words Are Art
There is a strong connection between words and art. Not just words used to describe art, but words that form art. Some words look bold and important, others are meant to slip over a page.
Marta's amazing tree. See her website at: wordsareart.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/
My world is on paper. But there are other ways to handle words. Johnathan Harris does it in cyberspace with the Word Count. He’s an artist whose entire body of work exists on computers. Part of Harris’s mind is an engineer’s mind, part is an artist’s mind. Harris created a list of the 86,800 most common words in the English language. He sorted them and posted them. The most common word is “the” and its number is ‘1′ . “of’” and “and” are in places 2 and 3. You can look up a word to see where it is or type in a position number and see what word it is.
Looking at them turns you into an instant numeric scholar. Click on “666″ and you get the word “easy.” There is some wonderful divine justice in that. “God” at number 376, is between “began” and “top.” It starts to make sense after a while. “Death” (number 454) is between “church” and “sometimes.” There are words in sequence that make sense. “Running” and “Feet” and numbers 698 and 699. “Contagious” (2159) is just one over from “Feverish” (2161).
Harris wasn’t finished yet. He started a count to see which words people looked at most often and created another list–the Query List. What’s the most common word people looked up? Of course, “sex.”
You can also see Harris as a speaker on TED–the conference of interesting ideas told by their fascinating creators. And read his 2007 story, the whale hunt.
Have some fun. Type in your birthday, your age, some special number. See what comes up. Words are art. In many ways.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist. See her work at raw-art-journals.com © 2007-9. All rights reserved.
Tutorial: Found Poetry, Raw Art
Found poetry is the discovery of hidden words and phrases in text that was written for another purpose entirely–a catalog or magazine article, for example. The poem is not found all together, you’ll find a word here, a few more six lines down.
I find this accidental discovery a perfect match for raw art--which is drawing abstract patterns that are pleasing, exciting, soothing, or engaging. Both are a discovery and both result in the creation of something new.
You can make up a variety of rules to make found poetry more challenging–mine are simple: You choose a set number of pages from a catalog, book, or magazine and find words or phrases that, when cut out and placed next to each other, make poetry. No fair using song lyrics or pieces that are already poetry.
Be careful to cut out words that are grammatically correct in the place you want to use them. That might mean cutting out extra letters. Because you are creating a collage the words can be different typefaces, sizes or colors.
Then you add raw art–in this case a repetitive topographical pattern, with a suggestion of plant life, to match the seasonal theme of the poetry and to emphasize the word “freedom” and the tribal feel.
Horizon Dust
Time around us moves faster.
The seed that was sown 20 years ago
sweeps into the season raw-edged and tribal.
New growth, striped in rich autumnal hues,
moving to a new feeling and a new freedom
blossoming forth.
All the words in “Horizon Dust” comes from a variety of clothing descriptions in two pages of the Sundance fall catalog.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer who stands in the middle ground between words and illustrations, believing they both make meaning and create art. © Quinn McDonald, 2009 All rights reserved
These Aren’t Your Parents Values Anymore
Finding a creative project (or a job, for that matter) is rooted in knowing your values.
When I ask my coaching clients, “What are your values?” they immediately reach for the “right” ones–honesty, authenticity, conscientiousness, kindness, spirituality.
Startcooking.com tells you how to load a dishwasher at http://tinyurl.com/yff44ev
“Piffle,” I say and hear a shocked intake of breath, followed by a protest.
“Those words don’t have any juice in them. They mean something vague and colorless to everybody. I want specifics.” I answer. Usually followed by a long silence.
The word “value” has been de-valued. Think about the words we used to think of as powerful: “Passionate” now means “I’m interested in it right now, “Authentic” means “I can’t be the real me, because no one will like the real me, but I wanna have a tantrum right now!” “Abundance” is something everyone else has but not you, particularly money. So we need better ideas for values.
When I ask about what a client values, I like them to use examples. Because what I’m looking for is what is important to them in the way they do their work, creative or not.
For example, you may value the bottom line–love it when people act in quick, decisive ways. Hate people who dither and endlessly consider every crumb of information.
Or, you may value being careful, thinking of a lot of choices, leaving the door open for more ideas, more thoughts. Then, when you do make up your mind, you will have done so after processing information thoroughly.
Neither of these people are wrong. Both have strong values in how they make decisions. But if they work together, collaborate on a creative idea, are in the rolls of “boss” and “employee” they will not form a good match.
While it’s true that we can’t expect to find our perfect matches in a job, a creative collaboration, in a boss, if we don’t find a match for the most important values we hold, we will be miserable. We also need to be able to speak to people who hold different values, because learning to speak to them means listening and being heard–and being heard is a strong value with almost everyone, although listening is not.
You’ve probably had some thoughts (or heated arguments) on what is “right”–
Those decisions are based on our values–what we favor, prefer, feel comfortable with. People who hold the value of “big picture” will brush off those examples as not important to a full life. People who hold the values of “details make or break the deal” will think they are important to a good foundation.
To do your best creative work and to have success at a job, you need to choose the job that matches your most closely held values. The place to start is asking the questions, “What are my values?”
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. She helps people sort out their values and use them to their best advantage.
Tutorial: Easy Travel Journal
The journals I like to make best are ones that are multi-purpose and not too big. That way, I can use them in creative ways, fill them up quickly, and make another one. Like most people who make things, I often enjoy the design and creation more than using the actual finished piece. So I always leave room for the possibility of altering my work some more.
Travel journal made of #10 envelopes. You can fill the envelopes with airline tickets, menus from interesting restaurants, receipts, whatever you want to keep from your trip. You can use one envelope for each day, for each country, for each town.
You can draw or write notes on the envelopes, describing how you got the content of each envelope. Make it before you go, and you won’t lose those small pieces of paper. Make a few, and you won’t run out of envelopes.
Materials: This tutorial uses simple things you already have: cardboard for the cover (I used mat board), number 10 size envelopes, masking tape, bookbinding tape (it’s expensive, you can substitute gaffers tape), cotton thread, a pointy awl and watercolors.
Purpose: This envelope journal has room to write in and room to keep mementos, but that doesn’t mean you can’t draw on it, too.
Assembly: 1. Cut black (or another solid color of mat board) into rectangles slightly larger (about one-fourth inch all the way around) than the envelope you will use. Put them next to each other, long sides together, but about one-quarter inch apart. Cut a piece of gaffers tape* about 2 inches longer than the covers. Center the tape over the covers and place it down gently. Lift the covers, turn them over and smooth down the piece of tape at the top and bottom. Cut another piece of tape to cover the space in between the top and bottom overlaps. Cut it long enough so you have all the sticky part of the tape completely covered.
2. Lay two envelopes, flap side down, in front of you, side by side. They should be about one-eighth inch apart. Tape them together, the long way, using one piece of masking tape. Create three sets of these. If you want to have the envelopes face in different directions, take into account that these pairs of envelopes will nest.
* gaffers tape is the special tape electricians use in theater productions. Not as gooey as duct tape, it makes a cheaper alternative to bookbinding tape, which you can also use.
3. Nest the pairs of envelopes and line up the top and bottom. Place them in the center
of the open book covers.
4. Using the awl, or a self-centering screw punch (you get them from a hardware store) punch four evenly spaced holes in the tape between the envelopes and book covers.
5. Thread a tapestry needle with cotton thread. It should be thick enough not to tear. Starting from the back of the book, come up through the top hole. Go down into the next hole, come up through the third hole, and down through the fourth. If you want to make your book sturdier, come back up through the third and work your way to the top. The needle should exit out of hole # 1. Tie the thread off and trim the ends.
6. Decorate the cover. Paint geometric figures on the plain side of the envelopes. Leave enough space for writing.
–Quinn McDonald is an artist, writer and certified creativity coach. She teaches journal making. Images: Quinn McDonald. (c) 2008-9 All rights reserved.
Theme Thursday #24: 11.5.09
There are times you need to clear your mind and do something. . . fun. Look no further. You can doodle to your heart’s content, finishing the doodles and connecting the dots. (I drew a raptor, but you can be more peaceful) on the Procrastinator site. It will also play rock, paper, scissors against you!
You can pit your wits and your deep knowledge of culture and play Cheese or Font? It’s simple–you see a name and guess if it is a typface or the name of a cheese. You will ponder, you will laugh, you will not know cheeses had so many goofy names!
Want to get to the C-level suite where all the CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs live? You can do it. Here’s the stairway to ambition.
You know it’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Well, it’s NaNoJouMo, too. If you art journal, you are welcome to join Pam, Dawn, me and lots of others. There are no rules. Want some inspiration to get you started. There is a Flickr Group with great art posted already. and D’Blogala’s blog posts daily prompts to get you started. (Check out the cool art, too!)
You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.
Five Most Recent Theme Thursdays: * * * Creative Play 10.29.09 * * * Creative Play 10.22.09 * * * Creative Play 10.15.09 * * * Creative Play 10.8.09 * * * Creative Play 10.1.09* * * Creative Play 9.24.09 * * * Creative Play 9.17.09* * * Creative Play 9.10.09 * * *
—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also wonders what you would like to say that you didn’t?
What Did You Leave Unsaid?
You know the feeling. You think of what you should have said hours after the opportunity is gone. Or you missed the chance to say “Thank you.” Or you should have said “Yes,” and you said, “No.”
Now you have a chance to say what you should have said. What you wanted to say. It’s another chance to get it right. Put it on a postcard–any size, any way–if the post office takes it, it counts. Sign it, keep it anonymous. It’s all up to you to get it right this time around.
Mail postcard to: P.O. Box 12183 Glendale AZ 85318
Here is the first batch.
- “Right Words” © Peg C.
- Blank, anonymous
- “Thank You” fabric on paper.©, A. Esqueda
- Silence © Journey C.
DIY: Making Meaning Your Way
Making Meaning through your creative work takes courage.
It’s an intensely private work, which in our culture is always slightly suspect. When you see the serial killer being led away from the crime scene, you always hear, “He kept to himself,” or “He was a loner,” as if those things are somehow intrinsically bad and wrong. Yet that’s where a lot of creative work is done–by yourself. Alone.
One person's chicken is another's Little Red Hen
Making Meaning starts from scratch.
Sure, you may have played with kits. And you may well be using many leftovers from various kits to make your own stuff. But you are working with your idea. You aren’t assembling anything, and you aren’t using directions supplied with a kit. You are moving into uncharted territory, and you are alone. And you love it.
Making Meaning means you write the rules.
The way you make meaning is your way. Not your neighbor’s, not the rich and successful writer, musician, dancer, or gardener you admire. You get to fail, try again, and then succeed. And that trip is what makes it so very satisfying. Because it involves creative play, messing up, and fixing it all by yourself. Making meaning brings satisfaction because it involves triumph over obstacles. The major obstacle is often your own thinking.
Making Meaning is not a consumer activity.
You can buy a kit and make something, but it doesn’t make meaning. You can buy paint-by-numbers, scrapbooking kits and cards, you can complete step-by-step wire-wrapping jewelry and wind up with a product without one scrap of meaning making. You may feel empty after such an activity, even if you have completed a gift-quality product.
Making Meaning is a Little Red Hen project.
You remember the story of the Little Red Hen. Her friends–the cat, dog, mouse, chick (it varies from story to story) don’t help her plant the wheat, cut the wheat, take it to the mill, or bake the bread. But they all show up to eat the bread. And after all that work, she doesn’t share the bread. She eats it by herself. Is she selfish? No, in this story the other animals aren’t starving, they are hoping to share in her success without having done the work. The Little Red Hen has made meaning in the bread and is eating the joy of her work.
Making Meaning is a goal in itself.
You’ve written a book? That made meaning. Publishing it is another story. The joy you feel in writing is the success. Publishing is an administrative task that will make you feel proud, inadequate, fill you with “shoulds” and bring out detractors, admirers, and hangers-on. That’s a step beyond making meaning. Making meaning is a journey. It can have many goals that don’t make meaning. Make sure you notice when meaning-making stops, you don’t want to confuse the journey with reaching a destination.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. She has a website for writers who want to keep an art journal, and a website for her business training. Both have coaching sections.
Publishing Your Book: The Book Proposal, Part II
Yesterday, I wrote about getting started writing a book. People have been telling me how “lucky” I am to have a book under consideration, and I thought it would be great to help others do it the same way I did it–step by step. Because it isn’t luck. It’s a lot of hard work. And it’s worth it.
There is a giant truth about writing a book–and it’s good to know before you start. You do not write a book to publish it. You write a book to write well. To say something you wanted to say. If you write a book mainly to get published, you’ll be disappointed no matter what happens.
Book drop
Today, we’re talking about the book proposal and choosing a publisher. At this point, you have a non-fiction book outline–it’s pretty detailed, you could write it by following the outline. You also have 12-24 illustrations to show your point.
1. Write a few chapters. You don’t have to start at Chapter One, but you have to be clear on what you are writing and how it fits into the whole. Finish them, file them, forget them for a week or so. Open the file, read it. Is it still interesting? Does the sequencing seem right? Does it make you want to write more? Is the grammar right? Show it to someone you know well enough to ask a favor of, but not so well that they will lie to you to keep your friendship. Ask them to follow the steps, see it they get the result you meant.
2. Go to a bookstore to check out similar books. Sure, you can do this online, but you need to get out of the office. Look for books that are similar to yours in content or intent. Is this a how-to? A step-by-step project book? A book for inspiration? Is it paper arts? Mixed media? It can be more than one thing. Look at the books to see how the chapters are arranged, to see how you react to the material. And then see who published them. Take notes.
3. Look at the list of publishers. Publishers have niches. Your book should fit into their niche. You don’t want to be the author who writes, “When you read my book proposal, you will certainly want to add non-fiction to your publishing goals.” Now check out all the publishers on your list. What do they publish? Cross out all the publishers who specialize in categories your book doesn’t fit into– textbooks, coffee table books, fiction. Cross off all the publishers who want you to write about their ideas for pay. You might want to do that, but you already have a book.
4. Read their website carefully. Most publishers have submissions guidelines somewhere on the website. Don’t submit anything until you find it, read it, and understand it. Then follow it. Publishing companies receive hundreds of proposals. The first way they sort is by people who follow directions. If they take your book, you will have to follow a lot of directions with an editor. Publishers do not willingly buy trouble. Even if you are charming and special.
5. Follow the directions. If they say submissions through agents only, you will need to find an agent. That’s another step. In general, non-fiction writers don’t need agents for their first book. If the guidelines say no submissions through email, follow the instructions. Buy an envelope big enough to return your proposal, and one to hold all the material. Put enough postage on the return envelope to send it back first class. Make a checklist of all the pieces, there may be several.
6. Write professionally about yourself. You will be asked for a biography, reasons you can write this book better than others, the outline, the illustrations, and some other questions. It is excruciating to write about yourself. Do not include everything you’ve ever done. Don’t write your bio as a poem (particularly if the publisher doesn’t publish poetry). You may need help with this part from a friend who is also a good writer. Oddly enough, a simple, straightforward approach works best.
7. Find a name. Sending your proposal to a person is better than sending it to “submissions.” This is the time to use your social network. Ask if anyone in your network knows a contact. People know people, and this is the time to ask. Phone the publisher and see if you can speak to a real person. It’s not impossible, but you may have to be inventive to get through the menus.
8. An acquisitions editor looks for good ideas to pitch. She or he may read your outline and make suggestions for changes. This is not the time to brush off any ideas but your own. This is not the time to prove that every word you write is golden and untouchable. This is the time to be a good listener. If the suggestion makes sense, offer to make the changes. If you don’t know how the editor’s idea fits with your project, ask. Your decisions make a big difference at this step.
9. Be polite and open to suggestions. The nicest treatment you are going to get is during the back and forth process. Be polite, prompt, and friendly. If you think the ideas won’t work for the book, say so. Be prepared that the editor knows what will work for the audience. If your book won’t, better to know early.
10. Be prepared to wait. Even if an acquisitions editor likes your work, you’ll have to wait. Wait for a proposal meeting, in which the acquisitions editor pitches her book. Each publisher has a different schedule. You could wait a week, a month, a quarter. It’s fair to ask how long the wait is, it’s not fair to email-stalk the acquisitions editor.
11. As soon as the wait begins, keep busy. See if you need to do more research. Prepare more illustrations. Think about the next book idea. Do NOT think about what you should have done differently. Now is the time to keep looking ahead, not back.
Be prepared for people to tell you how “lucky” you are–as if the book that’s been six years in the writing took a month or so. If you haven’t talked about your book a lot–a good idea to keep your ideas focused–people don’t know how long you have been working at it. Almost all “overnight success” stories have a five-year start-up. But it’s fair to tell people that luck had nothing to do with it. It takes a lot of work to write a book, and it’s fine to say so.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. She has a website for writers who want to keep an art journal, and a website for her business training. Both have coaching sections.
Publishing Your Book: Step-by-Step to Getting “Lucky”, Part I
Right after I celebrated having an acquisitions editor express interest in my book, friends started congratulating me in sort of an odd way.
“You are SO lucky to be able to write a book and get interest right away.”
From school.discoveryeducation: http://tinyurl.com/yzjs7z9
“Aren’t you lucky to get interest in your first book so fast!”
“I could write a book too, but I don’t have time.”
“I’ve written a book, but it’s not ready to go out yet.”
“Ive been working on my book for years. I’m just not as lucky as you.”
You, too, can do exactly what I did, and I’m going to tell you how I did it, step by step. No secrets. No holding back. First, truth in disclosure: I do not yet have a contract. I had an acquisitions editor express interest. There is still the giant leap to acceptance. More about that part later. First, the step by step.
1. Write every day for 50 years. I wrote my first book when I was seven years old, in a spiral notebook. (It didn’t get published.) I’ve been writing almost every day since.
2. Take on different writing assignments. I wrote my first published book when I was 30. It was a “book for hire” deal. I hated it. It wasn’t my idea, it was me writing about someone else’s idea for pay. Since that time, I’ve written for ad agencies, PR firms, financial institutions, insurance companies, huge manufacturing companies, small struggling businesses. I’ve worked at a newspaper, at a magazine, at an editorial think tank. I’ve written for people I agreed with and people I despised. On topics I loved and topics so boring, watching the barometer drop was more interesting. But I wrote. Now, fast-forward to this book.
3. Find a topic that fascinates, mesmerizes and fires you up. Mine was One Sentence Journaling. (Here’s an article I wrote about it last March.) I have notes that go back six years, but I organized and taught the course four years ago. Each time I taught it, I took notes, listened to comments and changed the course to see if it improved.
4. Do the same thing with two more topics: find topic you really like, develop a course, teach it, listen to feedback, change parts of it until you feel it is a good course that people will pay to attend. (This helps you gauge interest in the material.)
5. Once you’ve taught it in person, teach it online, to make sure you have written exercises that are clear and make sense. Teaching a class online takes about 8 x the length of time it takes to teach the class in prep, set-up, running and comments.
6. Examine the classes and discover a new path to the same information. This is called discovering another perspective. Not everyone learns the same way. You are broadening your audience. As you teach other classes, see what people wish they could develop their creativity to do, what they are missing in their lives, how they can make meaning. Take lots of notes. Be willing to be confused and not know what to do next.
7. Stay open to new ideas. Mine hit me during morning walking meditation. It was a good idea but it doesn’t hang together with the rest of the material. Be willing to spend months trying out ideas, messing up, failing, starting over, trying, polishing, until one day you are too exhausted to care anymore. You put the idea aside. The next day, in the shower, you have an idea. It fits! You work another three months fitting it into the writing portion.
8. Blend the new ideas and put them in front of your audience. In my case, that was the beginning of raw-art journaling. Blend the new approach with the old, turning it into the same step, so people who learned visually, auditorially (by hearing), and kinesthetically (by moving), could learn. Create a ton of examples. Create a website. Listen to comments from people who like and don’t like your website. Think them through. Be willing to be wrong, to fail again.
9. Develop a class that combines the final version of your idea. Teach this class and all the variations 10 times, each time making changes that improve the class. Listen to feedback, criticism, questions, and people who tell you it’s weird. Ignore the last one. Note on teaching: It will not make you rich. Do not teach to make money. Teach to try out your ideas, to spread your discoveries, to get better teaching. Teaching is not about you, it’s about the participants.
10. Gather up all your notes and create an outline for a book. Do this while running your own business, because no one pays you for this stage. Work on the outline until it looks like information people would pay to play with.
You now have reached the stage where you can write a book proposal. At this point, I’ve spend 50 years writing almost every day, and six years in some stage of book development. I haven’t started writing the book yet, although every shred of it has been taught and evaluated.
Tomorrow: How to write a book proposal and find a publisher.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. She has a website for writers who want to keep an art journal, and a website for her business training. Both have coaching sections.
To-Do Lists that Help You Work
To-do lists can work for you or make you crazy. There are many ways to create them, and the only one that works is the one that works for you.
First, I have to admit that I use a paper to-do list. Even with all the electronics, the fastest, most efficient list-making for me is done with a pencil and index. card. I don’t have to boot it up, recharge it, or open it. It’s available to me at all times, and a pencil doesn’t need to be connected, opened, or tested. It’s always ready to go. I’ll admit I have a pencil thing.
Here are two ways to use a to-do list. Both involve 3 x 5 index cards, or 4 x 6 cards if you write big. (I turn the cards and work on them portrait-orientation.) I work on several projects at a time, so I use one card per project. Each project’s name is written on the top of the card, and the to-do list underneath. That way, I can put all the project to-do lists next to each other and see how much work I have and which project needs to take priority. When I have a lot of projects going at the same time, it’s wonderful.
When I get really into projects, I assign one color to each project, and color code the cards to match the project. (You can also use different color cards.) Color coding gives me overviews and helps me draw conclusions faster. (“A lot of blue cards, do I need to farm some of this out?” “The yellow project is due in a week. Why so few yellow cards? Am I done early, or is there something missing?”)
Then there is the worry list to-do list. When I wake up at night, unable to sleep and busy worrying, I make a list of things I’m worrying about. Having written down the worries, I go back to sleep. The next morning, I tackle the things that need to be done.
The last to-do list is called the tag-cloud to-do list. Because I use the same method as tag clouds–the more important a task, the bigger I write it. Because I have small handwriting, I draw a box around each item on the list. The bigger the box, the more important (or worrisome, or pressing) the item. That gives me two facts at once: the item and the importance, all in one glance.
You can use a mix of these methods. Color-coding works with tag-clouding very well. Tag-clouding works with worry-list well, too. And no matter what method I choose, writing down all the things that need to get done helps me free up more memory cells.
Image: www.ontimesupplies.com
–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and a trainer specializing in communicating. That includes Writing for the Web and Giving Powerful Presentations. See all the topics at QuinnCreative.com © 2007 -9 All rights reserved.
