"...wholly inspiring, effervescent, and wonderful." ― Catherine Newman, author of Waiting for Birdy
"By far the most interesting and provocative book on the creative process I've read in many years." ― Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn
Andy Couturier, MA, is an essayist, a poet and a professionally trained writing teacher. He has written for newspapers, magazines and literary journals including Adbusters, Creative Non-Fiction, The Japan Times, The North American Review, Fiber Arts, InvAsian Journal, and others. A recent essay was just nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and a new work has just appeared in an anthology of ecological writings put out by MIT Press, Writing the Future. He has taught writing at Cal. State University, Hayward, and is currently on the faculty of JFK University. He is currently researching how intuitive collage in writing can lead to new states of consciousness. Follow these links to read an essay by the instructor which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize Selling Indulgence in Corporate Japan, and an essay on writing Using Intuitive Collage to Tell The Story of Your Life.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 A Tasting of Techniques:Experiments to Get You Started 15
1: Cobblings 16
2: Oysters in the Mouth (and Gravel) 23
3: Glimpses through Fog 27
4: Shape-Shifting Writing 30
5: Writing What You Don't Know You Know 36
Chapter 2 Subliminal Realms:Dropping into the Deep Subconscious 42
6: A Shifting Book of Images: The Tarot 43
7: Falling into Natural Beings/The Lure of the Sensuous 47
8: The Gateway of Place Memory 54
Chapter 3 Shatter/Scramble:Finding the Power of Fragmented Meaning 61
9: Shuffle the Nuggets, Re-sequence the Mind 62
10: Counting Splice! 66
11: Scissors and Tape 68
Chapter 4 Sway: Triggering New Mindstates with Scent, Light, and Sound
73
12: Aroma Shiftings 74
13: Through the Subtle Moodshift of Place 78
14: Dilated by Sound 81
15: The Ragas of 2 p.m. Mind, 6 a.m. Mind 83
16: Moved by the Muses of Visual Art 86
Chapter 5 Oscillate and Push Against:Pushing the Boundaries at the
Edges of Your Work 90
17: Wild and Stuffy 91
18: Observe-Abscond-Observe 95
19: Translate Natural Beings into Syllable Sounds 102
20: Accordion 107
21: Turn and Look Again; Turn and Look Again 111
Chapter 6 Architectures: Building Your Writing with Everyday Objects
(and Some That Are Not) 115
22: Gameboard 117
23: Altar 123
Chapter 7 Prismatics: Faceting the Psyche to Gain Permission, Insight,
and Surprise 129
24: Interior Voices in Contiguous Soliloquy 130
25: A Tinderbox of Attitudes 136
26: Seeing through the Prism of the Multi-Purpose Mind 141
Chapter 8 Shaking up the Curmudgeon:Writing from the Kinetic Body 146
27: Rustling Up Energy Textures 148
28: Corporeal Antenna 152
29: Sculpt Yourself into Your Own Words 162
30: Automatic Writing from the Interior Terrarium 166
Chapter 9 Re-Visions: Working on Your Piece from the Improvisational
Mind 169
31: Mess-Makings and Energy Risings 171
32: Break the Art Museum Rule 176
33: The Great Gateway of Dissonance 180
34: Micro-Detailing and Sensory Infusion 185
35: Tuning Fork 188
:36 Radical Subtract and the Creativity of Minus 193
Chapter 10 The Inter-Subconscious: Working with a Writing Group to Find
Your Own Mystery 197
37: Gentle and Generous Principles of Working with Other People (or,
how to deal with the other rutabagas) 201
38: Word Kleptocracy 207
39: Readback-Feedback: Fertilizing Others' Writing without Hijacking
Their Work 209
40: Gift Economy: Re-sequencing Via the Kaleidoscope Sunglasses of
Others 212
41: Object Transmutation 216
42: Impressionisms: Giving Feedback from **the Interior, Guess-Making
Mind 219
Chapter 11 Inventing Your Own Experiments:Some Theory for This Practice
224
43: Asking Questions of the Good: Appreciative Inquiry 227
44: Asymmetry, Writing, and the Mind 229
45: What Is Postmodernism, and Why Should I Care? 232
46: The Secret Order of Hermeneutics and the Text of the World 233
47: Is This "Writing Open the Mind" Stuff Therapy? 236
48: Getting "Better" at Writing: Following the Wisp of Smoke Coming
Out of the Forest 236
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