The following is an excerpt from the "Discover Your Creative Compass" on-line course. If you would like to enroll in the course, click here.
Self-Knowledge Trumps Self-Doubt
Every great love story — Romeo & Juliet, Like Water for Chocolate, Superbad — begins as a love affair of one, enacted inside the storyteller's brain.
In the DREAM stage, you cultivate story. You tinker with and critique your original idea, however gently, gradually improving on it in ways that respond to the substance of your critique. In other words, you talk it over with yourself — it's an internal conversation that, at its best, carries you forward.
Even better: if you engage in this conversation more consciously, you can turn it into a productive technique that will help you to push through self-doubt and inertia, as well as other creative and personal challenges.
We call this conversational technique Dreaming in Dialogue, and we describe, in The Creative Compass, how we elaborated on an approach presented by novelist David Morrell, who himself adapted a daily ritual of novelist Harold Robbins.
Robbins first confided in a television interviewer how he liked to imagine his typewriter as a supportive (female) presence, expressing eagerness to receive exactly what he wished to type. In contrast, the voice with whom Morrell describes conversing is less attentive secretary and more dispassionate yet supportive alter ego.
Once you've made contact with your alter ego, however, we ask you recognize him or her as more than a mere work colleague. Your imagination can take on the world, and dreaming in dialogue can help you address challenges on and off the page.
You may at first feel reluctant to converse with another part of yourself. In that case, consider the possibility that you've already been listening to another voice in your head — the one eager to remind you that you might not be able to do whatever it is you want to do, that it's probably not worth trying.
On some level, of course, you always know that it's you warning you not to trust yourself. Yet we're all willing to ignore the obvious and suspend disbelief now and again.
The ability to suspend disbelief is a valuable one. Just so long as it serves you. By now, you're likely well acquainted with your alter ego as adversary, that stern prosecuting attorney glaring at you from across the courtroom of your life. This adversary has a role to play, as you'll see, but your alter ego can also be seen as advocate.
Your alter ego of the moment can be anyone you choose: a fearless eleven-year-old neighbor who thinks nothing of climbing tall trees, a good friend who's gone off the grid, or even a celebrity you admire — and who (in the context of this exercise anyway) finds you fascinating.
While you do have the option of actually calling someone to discuss any challenges that arise, dreaming in dialogue builds on the fact that you may be more likely to solve your own problem precisely because it's more important to your than to anyone else and because you're more motivated to analyze it to the degree necessary to uncover a solution.
This technique works because creativity is also another word for problem solving. You can solve the problem of self-doubt — even if you may have to do so again and again — when you recognize and put into practice the distinction between judging yourself and exercising your own critical judgment. It's also the difference between resignation and evolution.
In the end, it's not about whether you question yourself or your ideas — by all means, do so — it's about why and for what purpose you're asking questions and whether you're doing so constructively. At any given point, are you playing adversary or advocate?
Your Practice
Set aside some time this week to dream in dialogue. If you prefer to write by hand, we recommend you use two different colored pens. When on computer, we find it helpful to move back and forth between plain text (you) and italics (your alter ego). Bold and all caps each have their place, but they can also evoke shouting, and your advocate will always recognize you as an equal, someone worthy of respect or, at least, tough love.
As we've already implied, beginning this conversation with yourself may resemble going out to coffee with a new friend: Who will your other self turn out to be? If you're usually quiet, your other self might be brash and sarcastic. If you're lively and fast-talking, your other self might be calm and methodical. What topics do you particularly want to discuss? A creative project or a life challenge? What questions do you each have for one another? Who's directing the conversation?
We recommend that you continue the dialogue for a minimum of two pages of writing. Then put it aside for a day or so. When you read it over later, consider: What do you observe about your internal style of conversation? You may benefit from exploring your conclusions in additional writing. If you don't already keep a journal, we recommend that you start one. And don't write in it just this once, set a concrete goal for yourself, such as:
• I'd like to write every day for 5 minutes during my lunch break. • I'll journal one page every day before bed. • I'll start writing two days a week for fifteen minutes each, then add a day each week starting in the third week of the course.
It's not strictly necessary to write every day, but when you do so, you send a clear message to yourself: no matter the circumstances, this practice matters to me. Journaling in particular also connects your craft with your life.
If a prompt would help you to get started writing, here are a few:
• What did you do today that marked a change in your life? • What do you wish you'd done today? • Who's someone with whom you interacted that evokes a strong emotional reaction — why? • When you think about the past, what, in particular, comes to mind and why? • What's one place or space that bears special meaning to your current life? Describe it.
At this point, we want to draw a distinction between free writing, or writing freely as the name suggests, and what we call writing to share, that is, writing — and rewriting — for a specific audience. If you want to get to know yourself better; express yourself for yourself; and/or produce a record of your own opinions and life events, then journaling is a wonderful way to do so.
If you aspire to write for publication, then free writing in a journal is the prologue to your story, the marching pawn to your queen's sliding check, and your Oscar speech to the bedroom mirror. A journal entry can become something more — but when you make it so, you're writing to share.
Free writing plays an important role early in the DREAM stage, when you're generating ideas or free-associating in order to cultivate story — but you're writing freely with purpose. If it's not already clear, dreaming in dialogue is a form of free writing that supports the genesis of a project. To that end, here's your first writing assignment:
Dream in dialogue (for two-to-three pages)* in response to one of the following prompts:
• What memory defines family for you? or • What experience led to a significant personal transformation either in yourself or someone else?
* Save this and successive layers (from each week) in an envelope or computer file and don't return to earlier layers until instructed.
Once you've stopped dreaming in dialogue, read over what you've written and highlight those ideas that you think you'd like to explore in greater depth.
How can we find lasting peace in an ever changing world? In this course, Isha Judd teaches powerful tools for expanding - and stabilizing - a permanent state of inner peace and fulfillment, that will accompany us wherever we go. In this course, you will learn the four "facets" that form the basis of Isha's teaching. Along with practice sessions and useful tips, the course also explores many of the illusory, fear based beliefs that impede us from living a life of joy and freedom in every moment. The tools that Isha shares in this course are a practical and extremely powerful way to reconnect with our true selves and move beyond the fears and judgements of the mind. When you have finished, you can continue using them in your life: you will find that the growth you experience through their practice is exponential and never runs out.
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