Don't Create Without It!
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ByStalkyReaderon November 21, 2017
While Jane Hertenstein’s book Flash Memoir is ostensibly geared toward writers, this book is a must-have for anyone who is creating art of any kind. Filled with amazing historical factoids (check out Hemingway’s lost valise or Wordsworth’s almost-permanent houseguest, Samuel Coleridge) as well as the writer’s personal examples of following her own advice, the main thrust of the book is to get the reader’s creativity flowing, and boy howdy, the author succeeds at that.
Each little chapter or section describes something that can be used as a prompt for creativity, be it old postcards, newspaper headlines, websites filled with breathtaking photos, or basic, evocative stimuli such as certain smells or sudden memories. The author then gives an example of how this prompt can be used, frequently using her own posts to illustrate her point. And what a collection of riches she offers, from exploring deserted or “ghost” houses, as she calls them, to thinking back to old TV commercials that can jog a specific memory loose and give rise to a slew of unexpected and forgotten memories.
As a writer, I found this book to be an amazing discovery. I have had my own methods for getting past writer’s block, or the brief moments of panic I always experience when starting a new work and having nothing to look at but a blank screen and a flashing cursor. But this book offers a startling and insightful way of looking at the world we live in, as well as the worlds we carry within.
I would highly and enthusiastically recommend Flash Memoirs for writers, artists, photographers, fabric-art creators, poets, gem artisans, musicians, and everyone else who is using their creativity to explore and understand the world. Creating is tough. It’s hard. But Ms. Hertenstein hands anyone who reads her book a skeleton key to the treasure chests of imagination that all of us possess.
Each little chapter or section describes something that can be used as a prompt for creativity, be it old postcards, newspaper headlines, websites filled with breathtaking photos, or basic, evocative stimuli such as certain smells or sudden memories. The author then gives an example of how this prompt can be used, frequently using her own posts to illustrate her point. And what a collection of riches she offers, from exploring deserted or “ghost” houses, as she calls them, to thinking back to old TV commercials that can jog a specific memory loose and give rise to a slew of unexpected and forgotten memories.
As a writer, I found this book to be an amazing discovery. I have had my own methods for getting past writer’s block, or the brief moments of panic I always experience when starting a new work and having nothing to look at but a blank screen and a flashing cursor. But this book offers a startling and insightful way of looking at the world we live in, as well as the worlds we carry within.
I would highly and enthusiastically recommend Flash Memoirs for writers, artists, photographers, fabric-art creators, poets, gem artisans, musicians, and everyone else who is using their creativity to explore and understand the world. Creating is tough. It’s hard. But Ms. Hertenstein hands anyone who reads her book a skeleton key to the treasure chests of imagination that all of us possess.
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