In spring 2020, I attend a Zoom workshop with Jenny Offill on Writing Erasure Poetry and Flash Fiction. The entire session was insightful, but one of the main things I took away from the session was Offill’s idea of “Stretching the Canvas.”
She told a story of being at an artists’ residency where she spoke with one of the other creators there, a painter. They were talking about those moments where you feel blocked, and you can’t find your way into a particular project or your usual process.
Offill told the painter that she dealt with these kinds of creative days by just pushing through. It’s a sensation that felt very familiar to me, showing up day after day after day, maybe for weeks on end when the writing just isn’t coming, when the connection to your work feels forced, the act of creativity done through gritted teeth.
After describing her own approach to these periods, Offill asked the painter how she handled these blocks, and the painter said she stretched canvases.
Offill told us how she now embraces this idea in her practice finding other ways to be creative rather than trying to force the work on her current project. I loved the concept too, the way we can still be present with our work, prepare materials for it, play in other areas, find or re-experience inspiration, do all sorts of activities that allow us to still be creative but without remaining in that forced state.
On one of the bulletin boards in my writing hovel, I now keep a list entitled “Stretching the Canvas” (aka “Things I Can Do When I Think/Feel I Can’t Write”). Here are a handful of things from that list:
- Engage in some deep noticing. Pick something in your environment and write about that object or person for 10-15 minutes.
- Create an erasure poem.
- Research something that interests you. It could be for your current work-in-progress or it could be something totally unrelated.
- Copy out a short passage by an author you love.
- Write about your writing—or read about writing or listen to an inspiring podcast about writing and the creative process.
What about you? What kinds of creative play and exploration would be on your “Stretching the Canvas” list?
Sources:
Erasure poem created from “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee
Canvas photo by Justyn Warner on Unsplash
Pile of Covered Books from Pixabay
Photo of a Woman Writing on Paper by Victoria Borodinova
Pile of Books from Pixabay
Painting Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
