Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit

by Messer and Mari Messer

Book Overview

Pencil Dancing offers readers a fresh take on developing creative confidence, overcoming blocks and taming their inner critics. They'll discover fun and effective ways to achieve satisfying creative... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582970777
• ISBN13: 9781582970776
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Walking Stick Press
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Giant Squid of Confusion

"Pencil Dancing" is aimed at anyone who wants to be creative with his life. It takes a deliberately silly tone, designed to get the reader to loosen up and let go, try new things, and take off in new directions.Mari Messer delves into "hurry sickness", the psychology of "devoted attention", the relationship between our creative and logical minds, playing, collecting useless information, visualization, "practice without purpose", taming your inner critic, and facing the giant squid of confusion(!).All sorts of things are expressed in terms of weird, extensive, ongoing metaphors; this gives us an idea of just how creative and weird you can get if you try. It does get a little ridiculous (I suspect deliberately so), which might tweak your sensibilities a little if your inner critic is raging. (But then, perhaps that's the point.) Ms. Messer is honest about some of these lessons being not only tough to learn, but difficult to remember. She isn't shy about explaining the times when she's fallen down. She uses interesting examples from her life, her students' lives, and famous people's lives. These make the principles she discusses come alive.I've learned a lot in here that's been directly applicable to how I live my life, how I work, specific projects I'm working on, how I deal with people, how I let other people deal with me, and so on. The discussion of criticism, constructive criticism, and their place in the creative process has convinced me to be less harsh and critical in my judgment of others' work. Criticism does have a crucial role to play in creative work, but it's also important to be careful not to apply it too early.Before I read this book I had forgotten what it was like to have so many ideas for material to write that I constantly had to carry a notebook around with me to catch even a fraction of them. I got halfway through this book and I had to make a trip to the drug store to pick up some pocket-sized notebooks to catch the sheer flood of ideas! It's hard to give the book a more glowing recommendation than that.

Pencil Dancing

I like this book because its ideas spark my creative spirit. There are many interesting exercises and discussions that foster different perspectives related to ordinary things. The book should appeal to readers who want to become more aware of themselves and their envionment, who want to view the world through fresh eyes.

"Dancing" in Idaho

All I can say is that this is a great book. I am a 48 year old junior high art teacher, wife & mom. Reading it gave me a much needed boost. Using our creativity is lifesaving. Mari Messer's book is easy to read & fun. The book itself is beautiful. I know you aren't suppose to judge a book by it's cover, but I do sometimes. This is a beautiful book - inside & out. Don't you just love the title? Read it and recommend it to friends!

A Great Creativity Boost

Pencil Dancing is a great creativity boost. It helps you think "outside the box". As a writer, I find Messer's book as refreshing as a new writer's workshop.Anne Jones

Move Your Ideas from Concept to Completion

Are you a budding writer full of ideas and not real sure how to move them from your mind to paper? Or are you an experienced pro feeling creatively blocked? Whether you're a writer, actor, painter, parent, even an athlete - "Pencil Dancing" is designed for anyone with a desire to live life on a more creative level. This guide is broken up into fun, easy to read sections written to show you you're not alone in your creative frustration and the best way to unleash the creative you. Page after page shows you how to remove anxiety from the writing process, what you should look for in a critique group, how to tame your inner critic and so much more. At the end of every chapter you'll find special exploration sections. These exercises contain projects, research, reflections and even mental push-ups to get those creative juices flowing freely. You can read this book from cover to cover or you can skip around to tackle your trouble areas head-on. Sections include: * Creativity 101 * Polishing Your Powers of Observation * Creating with Your Whole Self * Losing Your Logical Mind * Freeing Your Creative Elves * Befriending Your Beasts * Creating from the Inside Out * Dancing with Your Creative Spirit If your creativity's smothering, hiding or driving around in circles within your mind, break through those road blocks. Your writing success depends on your creativity. Discover how to get on track and eliminate your creative boundaries. Author Mari Messer teaches creativity, writing and art workshops. She studies the creative process and uses real-life situations to transform your creative spirit into a healthy, productive muse. "Pencil Dancing" covers every aspect of inspiration and provides the motivation and tools you need to take your creativity to a whole new level.