Failure (yes!) and Imagination

To kick off our creative and magical new year, here’s one of our alchemy icons J. K. Rowling talking about The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination at the Harvard Alumni Association last June.
Enjoy and be inspired!

Bones Festes -Felices Fiestas – Happy Holidays

Inspiration from Ekhart Tolle:

New earth / nova terra / nueva tierra

Que 2009 sea el año de la nueva tierra.
Que el 2009 sigui l’any de la nova terra
May 2009 be the year of the new earth.

The World of Touch

At the workshop we mentioned engaging the senses as an essential tool for bringing places and people to life in our writing, and how in order to engage all the senses of the reader we need to become very observant ourselves and to remember to focus on our perceptions through all our senses.  Here’s a fascinating interview (in Spanish) with a young woman who is both blind and deaf, and depends on the sense of touch for all communication. Impressive and humbling.

Fire Rainbow

At the workshop on Saturday, we used words, objects and pictures to help us tap into the stream of ideas and images and stories that are happening just beyond the part of the mind that gets us through the day.   A tennis ball, a Bulgarian clock in the room,  the name Zanzibar, for example, all triggered off ideas and memories to start writing and generating raw material.

This stunning photo was sent to me precisely when we were thinking about posting some writing triggers or ways in as we called them.

The fire rainbow is the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena. This one was captured on the Idaho/Washington border. It lasted about one hour. Happy writing!

Valerie

You Are Creative

Here’s an interesting post about creativity in general. It’s in line with the basic premise of Alquimia 101, that everyone is creative, that the way we are educated tends to cut us off from our natural creativity, and that we can easily reconnect using appropriate tools.

Alquimia/Alchemy

1 : a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life

2 : a power or process of transforming something common into something special

3 : an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting

Welcome

Welcome to Alquimia 101, where Creative Writing Magic happens.