Transform Your Writing and Your Life: How to Open Yourself to Creative Possibilities

In order to create, we must be open to a full-range of creative possibilities and artistic choices. We must come to believe that the seemingly impossible is potentially doable.

Shunting by John Spooner

Without creative possibilities, our poetry and our writing practice suffer. We become stuck within our preconceived notions about what makes for “good” writing and ideas, and we limit not only our creative endeavors, but our artistic selves.

What is Possible

The word “possible” means an event is capable of happening, a thing is capable of existing, or an action is doable. Creative possibility, then, describes what can happen in our writing.

Creative possibility is potentiality as well as openness to new ideas. With it comes the transformation of our writing and our lives. It is only through creative possibility that we come to deep and lasting truths about ourselves, our experiences, and our world.

Opening ourselves to new possibilities can be challenging in a field in which traditional standards and preconceived notions about what is “good” rule. When we limit ourselves to these conventions and to preconceptions about “how things must be done,” then we can end up knocking our creative heads against proverbial brick walls.

Without creative possibilities, our poetry can be good in a literary sense, but completely devoid of the playful, experimental, and messy stuff of life; it can be literarily perfect and yet not at all innovative. In contrast, creative possibility spawns originality and innovation, and it teaches us to speak truths that have not yet been spoken and to speak them in entirely new ways.

Yet how do we open ourselves to creative possibilities? How do we let go of preconceived notions about what makes for “good,” or conventional poetry and writing and create a context in which original ideas and new truths flourish?

Open Yourself to Creative Possibilities

I have a lot of experience struggling with literary conventions and what is ultimately possible with language. I’ve discovered in this struggle that there are some concrete ways in which I can creatively open myself to new possibilities. Here are a few of them:

Challenge your core beliefs about poetry and writing.

What do you believe makes for “good” poetry? What do you believe about writing and language? What do you believe is possible in your poetry and creative pursuits? Now, question those beliefs. Try to detach from them emotionally and consider for a moment that they are simply thoughts and opinions and they may or may not be true. In other words, forget what you “know” by suspending those beliefs, and let yourself write about and explore the expansiveness of what else may be possible for poetry, language, and experience.

Be positive.

Negativity is a trap, limiting our minds to impossibilities. In my opinion, we cannot be negative and write brilliant poetry. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t write about negative experiences; certainly many poets do. But writing poetry relies on the positive belief in language to create experience and meaning. Believing in creative possibilities means we have set our minds to positive thinking. So try to focus on what can happen in your poetry and in your creative life, rather than on what can’t.

Live the questions.

In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke offers profound advice about life and writing:

Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.

What does it mean to live the questions? When we believe we have poetry (and life for that matter) all figured out, then we limit ourselves creatively and we’re closed to new truths. Or, in fear or complacency, we may find ourselves looking to others to give us the answers which, as Rilke suggests, we won’t be able to fully experience and thus won’t be able to fully write about. In my mind, to live the questions means to focus on exploring what’s possible for poetry, language, and experience. And it means to be less pre-occupied with seeking a singular, absolute answer and more concerned with discovering a range of possible truths.

Significantly, Rilke states “Live the questions now.” It’s that “now” that always gets me—its urgency, its reminder to stay in the present moment, and its suggestion that only by living in the present can we begin to live what we do not yet know is possible. In short, creative possibility springs from “the now.”

Be mindful.

Being mindful is a way to live in “the now.” It means we are aware of ourselves and our surroundings at any given moment. Mindfulness is a practice that opens us to what’s happening in the present moment, which may or may not fit our preconceived notions for what “should” be happening. When we are mindful in our lives, our poetry can reflect this awareness and express new and rich creative ideas.

As an experiment with how mindfulness can open up creative possibilities, try to experience the fullness and expansiveness of your present moment by becoming aware of your thoughts and the details of what’s around you. Focus on your physical senses and how your feelings connect with your thoughts and perceptions. Now, write a poem or description about this mindful experience and see if you discover something new about yourself, your life, and/or the world. Be careful not to judge what you write. Instead, check your inner critic, and simply let yourself write what comes in whatever form it emerges.

Experiment and play.

As the above exercise exemplifies, experimentation is one concrete way to open yourself to creative possibilities. Experimentation allows us to play with words, meanings, forms, and techniques. And I use the word “play” intentionally. Experimentation in literature is a kind of playing around with ideas and forms, and it emphasizes and produces innovation. In other words, experimentation and the artistic practice of play are great ways to discover new creative possibilities.

Experiment and play with your poetry and writing by trying something new. For example, if you usually write free verse, try a little formalism, or vice versa. Or if you always write in stanzas, then try writing a prose poem. Or try looking at other genres and traditions of art and consider how these artistic forms may inspire literary innovation and open up new possibilities for your writing.

Dream.

What are your artistic and creative dreams? Are they limited by social conventions? Are they limited by what you assume is possible? Or do you want more? For instance, do you dream of getting your poetry published by a traditional publisher? That’s an exciting and very fine dream. But there’s so much more that can happen with your poetry.

Poetry has the potential to change hearts, minds, and lives. In some cases, it can change the entire way in which we conceive of literature itself, and it has the potential to shift cultural consciousness. If I sound naively grandiose in my assertions here, then check your own beliefs about poetry and its importance to history, culture, and the world at large. And, if you need evidence, then look to examples from history, such as the wild cultural popularities of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg, both of whom eschewed traditional conventions of poetry and changed the way entire generations wrote and thought about literature and the world.

So, when you dream, dream more and dream bigger.

Don’t limit your dreams to modest social or literary conventions. In other words, dream of making the seemingly impossible probable. You absolutely do not yet know what is possible until you dream it and try to make it happen. And ultimately, that’s what creative possibility is all about.

Making the Impossible Possible

By opening yourself to creative possibility, you’ll not only enhance, broaden, and strengthen your writing and creativity, but in my experience, it can change your life.

For instance, during my young adulthood, it was my dream to create a life and a living in poetry. And it has only been by tenaciously believing in that possibility (despite the disbelief of my “well-meaning” family and friends) that I’ve been able to create such a life. No, my life and my living in poetry are not what I assumed they would be when I was younger; they’re better and bigger than anything I could conceive of in my youth. And it’s only been by opening myself to innovative possibilities for my art and my creativity that I’ve been able to create what is for me a full and rich creative life.

Creative possibilities ensue when we get experimental, innovative, open, mindful, positive, and playful. And perhaps, most significant of all, when we dream of making possible what is seemingly impossible, then that’s when creative possibilities emerge to transform our writing and our lives.

How do you open yourself to creative possibilities?

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Flickr photo courtesy of John Spooner