Someone wrote a few tips on a creative writing website I read recently. They talked about treating your writing like a muscle. USE IT DAILY, they said. Write a letter, an email, jot down a short poem, scribble a note to a friend, or if you really have the motivation, tackle a chapter of that great novel you've been dreaming about. Whatever the medium, flex your writing muscles and strengthen them with daily use.
Well, the idea of daily seems out of reach given the fact that I'm a stay at home Mum to two gorgeous children and other commitments, but perhaps I can ascribe to the 20 mins a day 3 times a week strategy they used to encourage for physical fitness.
So far I have been writing mainly children's stories. After reading so many books to my two year old son, who I will call Ewan for privacy, I started to become a little frustrated with what I was reading. I was even more disturbed about things that I have been seeing on the ABC 4 Kids television shows. I feel as though whoever produced 'Yo Gabba Gabba' must have been taking illicit drugs; the psychedelic themes make my head hurt. Then there is the absence of educational value in ridiculous shows such as 'In the Night Garden'; "Oh look, we're going to ride the Ninky Nonk", (next day) "Oh look, it's the Ninky Nonk", (next day) "Oh look, Iggle Piggle is on the Ninky Nonk". Can you hear the beat of my head thudding repeatedly on the table?
Alas, they fall very short of the expectations I had when I entered Motherhood, and perhaps that's more where the problem truly lies - my expectations.
Of course I don't remember what my interest in books was like when I was two, or if my mother let me watch much tv except for Play School (or if there was much else other than Play School for toddlers to watch in 1989). But as I grew a little older my mother would read to us books such as the Chronicles of Narnia, The Secret Garden, and Beatrix Potter's tales.
I've realized that these books are really beyond the interest of a two year old. Beatrix Potter will be the closest bridge in the gap between simplistic writing and pictures that aim to get a child to develop a love of books as they grow, as Beatrix Potter combines a more sophisticated vocabulary, more engaging themes, and has the benefit of drawing further attention with beautiful illustrations.
This is how I wanted my writing to be when I decided to write something for Ewan to read and enjoy someday. I loved the idea of having beautiful illustrations with words themselves that induced vivid imagery in the readers imagination; perhaps vivid enough that the pictures would be made a little redundant. To foster the imagination. To encourage the idea of constructing things in your own mind without being spoon fed what everything is supposedly meant to look like. After all, if our children can't learn to challenge what's given to them then we are essentially deviating towards a totalitarian society. Dramatic, perhaps, to suggest such a degradation of life as we know it, but it is something to ponder. Where exactly was it that changes in our society happened? There is not always a clear big event that changes in history have pivoted around but something more invisible; in the daily little things where we decide to make change.
Can we keep creativity alive? Can we nurture curiosity that leads to invention and innovation?
Just spare me another riveting adventure of the Ninky Nonk because I already know that Iggle Piggle will be the last one to get to bed.
Whoa what a workout... muscles flexed...must be time for chocolate :)
