Image shows an artwork by Yayoi Kusama in the shape of a giant pumpkin speckled with black spots. A figure in white and orange stands with their back to the artwork. They are outside.

<aside> 🎃 This lesson is all about finding ways to generate work when you are feeling stuck. Or when you want to break a current writing pattern or habit.

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<aside> 🎃 Rituals for Generation—Movement

This is the simplest one to begin with. If you have been sitting down all day and nothing has felt right, try gently stretching your body, going for a walk, or taking any movement that feels good to you. Try doing something that takes you away from your work space because you know that a great idea will come the moment that you can’t write it down.

How do you (or could you) use movement in your own writing practice?

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<aside> 🎃 Rituals for Generation—Tarot

Tarot is such an expansive tool for a writer. Firstly, it can help connect to and open your intuition. It can provide self-care, self-knowledge, and emotional support to counteract harmful myths and to cut through the noise. Tarot is a wonderful guide and teacher, but the act of working with Tarot is also a creative practice full of storytelling and symbolism.

Creative generation exercise

Try pulling a single card and writing a response to the images, words, symbols, and meanings. Then try to pull a few cards and tell the story that emerges from the interaction between them. Don’t worry too much about the traditional meanings but work with your own imagination.

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<aside> 🎃 Rituals for Generation—Oblique Research

This is the idea of looking into something very deeply that at first seems to be unconnected to the project at hand. Try starting anywhere at random, perhaps from a random Wikipedia page or Reddit thread. This could be anything from a type of flower that only blooms one night of the year with the most exquisite perfume to the psychology of participants in an extreme sport. You might be surprised at what becomes relevant to your “real” project. By doing this work you can strengthen your creativity and develop new synaptic connections. You could begin by reading about the life and work of Yayoi Kusama, the artist who created the giant pumpkin shown at the top of this page.

What are some recent rabbit holes you have fallen down? Is there something on the horizon that you’d love to follow?

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<aside> 🎃 Rituals for Generation—Dream Work

If you dream a lot, or remember your dreams, then dream work can be a magical key to your writing. If you don’t remember your dreams you will find, almost by magic, that once you pay attention to them, they become much more available to you.

Dream Work Exercise

Keep a notebook by the side of the bed and write out what you can remember, interpreting the meaning of the dream, the symbolism, how it relates to your experience, and your life. Make a note of the most surprising things that emerge. Try to write up 2-3 potential interpretations, to see how multi-faceted dreaming and dream work can be. You may find that the answer to a story knot emerges in the writing.

You can also use the Dream Diary for this

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<aside> 🎃 Rituals for Generation—Sensory Immersion

This can be a way to deal with writer’s block or a tough story knot. You can do this in so many ways: pay close attention to a candle flame and meditate, writing up your impressions; spend time near a body of water, letting your hands and feet, and the tips of your hair drift through it, and write about how that feels in lots of detail; lie in the sun not doing anything, just feeling what it is like to completely give yourself up to the heat and light.

Which sensory immersion techniques do you (or could you) use?

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