The Creative Spark and How to Re-Ignite it

by Julia Buckley
I haven't written for a while. The other day I tried venturing into the shallows by attempting a short story. My husband read it and said it didn't seem "like something I'd put my heart and soul into." My soul? I don't know that I put my soul into my writing.

But I do know that the creative muse is hard to pin down.

My oldest son (newly thirteen) asks me to type his assignments for him, so I am given access to writing that he would normally not bother to show me. Recently I looked at his freewriting--journals that they must do in class but which the teacher doesn't always read. Her philosophy is that they should be writing all the time, whether she has time to go over it or not. I think that's a good idea.

In any case, I read Ian's journals and was amazed by their energy. They were fun, creative, interesting--everything I want my own writing to be. Perhaps, though, I want it too much. The advantage of Ian's writing is that it's done without pressure. Come up with a journal, jot it down. No fear of whether or not it's quality stuff, no fear of rejection. He's not writing for publication, he's writing for himself.

He did, however, give me permission to publish one of his journals here--one that struck me as a humorous modern day fable. Here it is:

The Snowman Who Could Turn Invisible

Once upon a time there was this snowman that lived in Queens. He was made by some kid who abandoned him in a park. One day he was pelted by freezing rain, and gained a thick coating of ice. That night two losers who had nothing better to do put the snowman on a sled and pushed him down a hill. He stayed in one piece the whole time because of the coating of ice around him. Eventually, he crashed into an electric fence. Then he passed out.

It took him until he woke up to realize that he was ever alive. And then he realized that, for some reason, he could turn invisible, probably from the power jolt from the electric fence.

First he thought he should use his powers only for good. Then he decided to use them just to annoy. So for the next few weeks, he’d turn invisible and push someone into the snow, or tie someone’s shoelaces together.

One day, he made a mistake and didn’t turn invisible when he pushed one kid over. Then everyone knew that a snowman was causing the problem, so they thought of a solution: they used a guy as bait, making him wait in the snowy park. Now they could see the snowman’s footprints as he walked through the snow.

Then someone ran out with a blowtorch and melted him into a puddle.

The End

What do you think? Does he have the creative spark, or is it my imagination? :)

(Photo courtesy of me--that's a candle making cool lines on my wall.)