Author Monica Wood speaks about creativity and its myths
LEWISTON – Assumptions about creative folks bug author Monica Wood.
They need not be scatterbrained and sloppy. They don’t need to possess tortured souls and deep wells of innate talent.
They only need to be people, said Wood, who led the Great Falls Forum on Thursday at the Lewiston Public Library’s Marsden Hartley Cultural Center.
“Being creative is part of being human,” said the Mexico native. “It’s built into our DNA.”
Of course, creative and being successful is another matter, said the author of “Ernie’s Ark” and “My Only Story.”
This spring, she plans to tour several Western U.S. cities to tout the paperback edition of her newest novel, “Any Bitter Thing.”
Wood said she’s looking forward to meeting readers as she is escorted through city after city, holding readings, signing books and doing interviews. But it will take her away from her own work, a novel set at the start of the 20th century in a town modeled after Rumford.
“I won’t get very much done while I’m away,” she said.
Of course, Wood also has a quibble with the modern world’s noise.
Her advice to anyone who wants to write or paint or do anything creative: Begin by pulling some plugs.
“Turn off everything electronic for just a day,” she told the audience in the library. “No e-mails. No cell phone. No TV. Just see if you can do it.”
Wood, who writes in a studio erected in her Portland home’s backyard, believes noise is the enemy of creativity.
“When do you get to hear anymore the voice inside your own head?” she asked. “What are we afraid of hearing if we turn off all of the noise?”
In her quiet studio, Wood said she bucks the sloppy stereotype of the creative mind. When she can’t think of what to write, she cleans.
“Every single thing has its place,” she said.
Not that she has rid her world of the chatter.
She tried eliminating her home of its TV, unplugging it and including it in a pile of items for a garage sale. Then she rescued it a few days later so she could catch her favorite show, “American Idol.”
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