Imagine the biggest, shiniest art store...

Aisles and aisles of surfaces, from wood to canvas and everything in between. There are shelves upon shelves of supplies for creating colour -- everything from paints to pastels -- gouache, watercolours, oils, acrylics and ink; chalk, fusain, and grease. Around the corner, you find soapstone, maple rock, balsa and hardwoods, to name a few, and your mind turns to sculpting. A few steps further, there are fabrics and yarns and beads of every colour; there are notions and fittings to trim any project into something never dreamt of.

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When you walk into that store, you're told, Go... choose.

 

Immediately, your soul panics a little, feeling small. Your mind begins to remove options; to reduce all of what you see into something manageable. And, your tiny little creativity begins to recede into a place where it might find something with which you can create.

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Now, imagine this...

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Imagine that moment when you feel your creativity, by turns glowing and dimming inside you. You're just waiting for a spark to touch it, turning it into a hot and roaring flame.

 

Someone hands you one, crisp, white sheet of paper and a pencil, and you're told, Now go... create.

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This time, your soul pauses for just a second and holds its breath. A smile spreads on your lips as your mind begins to gather ideas; you feel yourself beginning to expand and soar. The sky's the limit!
 

You can create anything you want. As long as you use that one sheet of paper and that pencil.

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The point is not the magnitude of your creation,

but the soaring of your creativity.

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As a kid I sat at the kitchen table staring up at the ceiling, desperate to draw my best drawing of the day, but my mind was blank. "Maman, what should I draw?" She'd wearily reply, "draw me a shoe" or "draw me a dress I can wear to tomorrow's gin party"... and my creativity would whir into action. Suddenly the world was as it should be, once again. And I could breathe.

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If you can relate to that kind of awakening (maybe without the gin party part), then prompted creativity is for you.

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It's for you if you are struggling to find ways to keep stoking the fire of your songwriting, in the absence of ready ideas.

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What's so special about working with me in this songwriting group?

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Through prompts of all kinds in SongWriters Block , I work to create a space where you can let your creativity be sparked, challenged and encouraged. I also encourage members to share and comment on each others songs, fostering a nurturing sense of lifting each other up to create, again and again.

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Through meetups every couple of weeks, SongWriters Block creates a time when you can share about what's sparking your creativity, what's causing struggles for you as a creative, and get support from a like-minded community.

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The point is not what you will create,

but that you will create.

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