IMAGES OF THOUSAND WORDS

How often it is a man takes his words for granted… what images are your words painting?

As man has changed over the years, so has his many habits and flaws changed with him. Writing, like many other forms of activities, has been no different. I do not know how many others perceive writing as a form of art but I do. It is the kind of art that allows one to express their inner thoughts and musings while giving room for creativity in the reader. These inner thoughts, needless say, vary from person to person and it is possible to know what fills up a man by that which he writes.

It takes me back to a certain incident in my pre-adolescent years. We got the beginning of an essay from our teacher that we were expected to individualistically complete and submit. The one essay that caught our teacher’s attention came from a certain young man who went on ahead to describe a dream with highly sexual and explicit content. This was such a shock for the rather conservative school and soon escalated into an even bigger deal. The main idea, however, is that most girls in the class were not shocked: the writer proudly considered himself a sort of 11-year-old Casanova. He just expressed his actions through words instead.

As it is, we as writers have been using this our artistic streak for years prior to even ever writing or have been writing for as far back as we can remember. This familiarity with self’s voice can lead to boredom. Art can be compared to a relationship between one’s self and their medium. The content (therefore words) vary from person to person, with cases of compatibility even playing out to make certain artists best for these genres while others are best for those. Whatever the case, boredom can be the source of some major blocks and from time to time we do need rousing.

With this phase of seclusion playing out, we find that we might need to ruffle our own feathers since external stimuli will be running on an all-time low. Well, there is this one thing that I have found to work best in any one block I face. I stray away from writing and try my hand at other forms of art.

The good ol’ right-handed vs. left-handed theories would make this seem hard but in essence, an artist will always have an easy time blurring lines, jumping over and even removing them altogether. The process of creation (and expression) is similar across all planes, the medium and perfection of it are what vary. As long as I have received the inspiration and have clear set imagery of what I desire to create, what was previously just a tale can easily become a play or poem or song or dance or even a painting. A storyteller needs not just words but any form of an interactive display that passes a message …even food!

From time to time, it’ll come in handy to create a picture as opposed to a word piece. This allows that one gets a clear image of how they work inside, maybe even self-critic to see what one could do differently. Anyone creative has their own signature and style, this cuts across everything that they do. Based on my own experiences my wardrobe, cooking, speech, writing, dancing and whatever else, are heavily influenced by my adapted archetypes. However because the muscles needed to draw vary hugely from those needed to write, one can explore themselves through other artistic expression and media.

You and I both know you consider yourself poor at this but excellent at that. Even I do. Human nature has a tendency to opt for comfort and familiarity. Yet this very familiarity makes life bland at the day’s end. So try dancing, that recipe, painting or sculpting. Get your hands dirty in those herb and flower pots. Just do something different creating in that way you create the essays, poems and articles. Ease and relax the writing muscles as you try and answer this question: if I were a … … how would my creations look?

Writing is more than just words, we may sometimes have to try our hands at other creations to fully understand

Then compare and contrast those to your writing. Ask for opinions where you are comfortable. Find places that may need some polishing up or some toning down, some removal altogether or some additions too. The truth remains that growth happens in the places of difference and discomfort. Seeing as the globe is under one such phase, you can go with the flow and choose a fun way of doing this. Along the way, you can take self-realisation to a new level by naming the fears you never noticed, the pleasures you never discovered and possible hobbies you were always afraid to try.

What picture are your thousand words painting?