Creativity Inside a Supportive Group
Today in writing group, I wrote about how practicing law haunts me. Why the hell do I dream about it every week, every ten days, every two weeks. Never more than a month goes by without a “practicing law” dream. Inside the writing, buried as deep as the pea beneath the hundred stacked mattresses, was the question: what gives you your image as a writer? You knew your image as a lawyer, but as a writer? As soon as the Zoom clicked off, I heard myself blurting out at the end of another conversation, apropos of nothing: “My thing is individual creativity inside a supportive group.”
Cross Making Creativity in a Supportive Group
We did it with the cross making. Gather in a group. Set the tone for support and non-judgement of yourself or others (but mainly yourself). Honor your creations and understand whatever hurt you about being creative was wrong. Then have at it, knowing we will love the you in the cross you make.
Door of Hope Creativity in a Supportive Group
We did it at the Door of Hope Writing Group. Come. Write. Forget red pencils circling errors and standard English and the way you’re supposed to think. No, “I’m such a better writer than she is,” or, “I’m a terrible writer compared to him.” Trust the truth of creativity within a supportive group. Have at it, knowing we will love the you in what you write.
Writing Together as a Supportive Group
We do it in my little writing group of extraordinary writers. There, we don’t actually write with each other. But we read and sit quietly and absorb the words and love the you in the writing you do. We do it at the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis where Rachel is kind enough to call me Writer-in-Residence. There, we gather for no reason other than to be writers together. We write our creativity inside a supportive group. Listening to what we have created, we love the you in the writing you do.
And now we are doing it in this Contemplative Writing group.
The Epiphany
This is my thing, y’all. It’s been my thing all along. Only the vector changes. Crosses. Homelessness. Types of creativity. Contemplative writing. But the theory is the same. You come. Trust we love you. Create.
This isn’t hooey. No New Age kumbaya fakey-fakeyness. I truly love the incredible individuality of what people create. And the courage and vulnerability it takes to share those creations. People. Are. Amazing.
So, yeah. I accept the truth: I do not identify as a writer. Blame the Oxford Conference for the Book where I was exposed to panel after panel of writers. I prayed, Lord, do not let me turn into a writer turd like those people. The egos. The self-absorption. The inability to connect outside of themselves. I rejected that.
I am such a jerk, judging people in their fear and insecurity.
What is New is Old Again
But I didn’t identify as a lawyer, either. Yet, I LOVED practicing law. To write about the end of it grieved me as if I had touched an open wound where the skin draws back from my finger. That’s why it haunts my dreams. Practicing law, I was happy as a pig in slop. Even if the lawyer clothes I chose were not the standard. And a woman heading up the office of a major law firm wasn’t standard. I was in the midst of it. Ready for the next big thing. And what was the next big thing? The end of this thing, or course.
She exits the door. Locks it. Steps over the parking lot divider. Careful in her heels that she called high but weren’t. All is dark behind her. No clients, no work. No next big thing. It is over. And for that she has never grieved.
creativity inside supportive groups, how to make a writing group work
Sybil MacBeth
I love this, Ellen. I probably should think more about it before I write, but then I’ll forget to write! You articulate so well how I like to be. I, too, love to work surrounded by other creatives and explorers. My favorite Praying in Color experiences have been in community. We are individual pray-ers in our little prayer closets of paper, pen, and markers, forming a great big prayer closet of people floundering to pray but supported by the bodies around us.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
“Explorers.” I love that descriptor. Who ever hears about explorers going out on their own? It’s always a group of supportive people. Creatives and explorers, that’s us. ❤️
Marie Bailey
I love every word of this. Since I retired, I find myself identifying less and less as a writer with a capital W. Writing is something I do as is knitting, weaving, and living. When I was working, I needed to think of myself as something other than what I was at the job. I no longer have that need. So now I just am, and I’m relishing in the process of everything. I might still call myself a writer for simplicity but, these days, the label evokes more of what I do, the creative process rather than the ego image.
And there is so much creativity in all that you are doing. Have at it! 🙂
Ellen Morris Prewitt
My poor website no longer notifies me of comments–I’m sorry to be so late replying! Your view of writing sounds very wholistic and fluid, as is life. Being “just am” is such a nice place to be. The quotes I get every morning from the online Abby focused today on productivity, asking, what would you be if you dropped measuring yourself by what you produced? Made me wonder if I can truly drop that definition of myself. But I may be doing it gradually already. As someone recently said in an email, baby steps.
Joanne Corey
Ellen, I love this and totally “get it!” I very much identify with groups and tend to think “we” before “I.” I’m sometimes criticized for my writing bio, which emphasizes my groups over my individual publications.
I’m (I think) about to seek out an experienced editor to look at my full-length poetry manuscript, which has already been through three major re-imaginings plus lots of smaller revisions. One of the common criticisms of it is that people want there to be more of “me” in it. I’ve tried to do that but feel that the strength of the collection is that it is about a place and about those of us connected to it. I suppose it is somewhat a matter of preference, except that I need to find a publisher willing to enter into something that is, perhaps, different than expected. We’ll see…
Ellen Morris Prewitt
How fun about the editor! I love the description of the manuscript–“a place and those of us connected to it.” So there are those of us who would be attracted to that. I know you’ll keep us up to date, and I do look forward to it.
Whenever I write about my childhood, I almost always use “we” because it was me and my sisters, always, all the time. I have to really examine if what I’m writing would be more accurately described using the “I” perspective, and often it absolutely would. But that is conscious. The “we” is the default.
Joanne Corey
Growing up with sisters is a special experience. <3
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Yes!
Luanne
Yeah, I hear you about identifying or not. I’m me.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Yet, I was always looking for a place of belonging. Life (read that: me) is so strange.