Linda A. Firestone, Ph.D.

Have a story that needs to be told? I can make it become a reality.

The Spur of Inspiration

What does it mean to be creative? There are many answers to this age old question but most of them depend upon your perspective. I sit day after day writing about the same subject. It is the first time in my life that my creative energies have been so one dimensional. It has grown to be a tedious task. My creativity comes from ability to make connections from a variety of sources. The more I can make these connections the more creative I can be. When, as it has been for the last several months, the days seem to drag on my mind begins to feel numb. I am longing to be spurred on by inspiration.

Change, as I have written before, brings intense moments of chaos and feelings of little to no control. Staying calm is crucial during these times as in truth they are a necessary part of the process. It is a creative process this change! It is an extraordinary process that is fraught with pitfalls, negative thinking, and negative judgments. Ah, the wonders of the creative process. Tolerance for the discomfort is demanded to move successfully through the chaos to that moment or series of moments when the pieces begin to fit together and the light at the end of the tunnel appears or the solution begins to materialize.

Thus, sitting at my desk desperately trying to break through this mind numbing sensation, the realization of a necessary change arrived. What may come is unknown-- though the uncertainty is more alluring than the mind numbing reality of my present. The spur of inspiration must come to me through those gloriously haphazard connections. Without a conducive environment for creativity, the making of random connections to bring life to an idea becomes impossible. Openness, courage, tolerance, and patience are needed to make a change and for my creative juices to begin flowing again. I look forward to being at the start of a new phase and bid the mind numbing creativity killing phase farewell.

Life on life's terms

We all have dreams and may even take action to make those dreams come true. But life has a funny way of creating chaos. Plans so carefully made and implemented, are thrown to the wind, as it were. Instead, a new plan must be created that is based upon other's realities.

For many years in graduate school, I studied the creative process. I even learned about my own creative process --that was enlightening. I learned the place that chaos has in moving us from one state of being to another. That is true whether I am writing a book or making plans. So, when life reminds me that stuff happens and I have to go with the flow, I am thrown up against what feels like chaos again.

I have also learned through other experiences that getting hysterical won't change the new reality. Acceptance and action move me forward. New decisions, made with a calm thought processes allow me the best way through the chaos. I sometimes laugh about having written a much acclaimed book on creativity for women which explores process etc., and still I can resist the process of change.

And, speaking of change, work on my novel has begun again in earnest. I admit that it is difficult to leave a work for a year or more and pick it up again with the hope of the same connection. I am finding the characters voices again. There may have been a change in voice but then it happened at a turning point in the novel, so perhaps it will work to my advantage.

Stay tuned...

Writing for myself

That would be the goal. To be paid to write for myself, what a glorious thought. But, as that is not my present reality, I gladly write for others. I have been spending the last few months writing and rewriting a site that got into trouble with Google. The first round was reasonable, the second and third rounds were not, especially when I see what appears on page one of the Google search and how so much of those sites are spam, plagiarized, and pure selling, including sites that have stolen content that I created!

I do not believe in writing useless information for selling. I write about addiction and treatment etc. I write to help save people's lives. So, it pisses me off that Google has such power without rhyme or reason. There is something wrong with the process...

I haven't been to my own website in a while as I have been tired at the end of each day. But, I am back. I have begun work on my novel again, and finally began my other project about women's health with a doctor. It may turn out to be a huge, exciting project. But, then, everything changes.

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to redo my site. Well, that is about to finally begin. New pages. New writing samples. Perhaps, even a peek at the novel. Stay tuned.

News in the making

Life moves along bringing challenges, joys, and everything in between. I recently interviewed Dallas Humble, notable motivational speaker and Nickey Pettineo, private South Florida Chef. Look for these interviews in the upcoming issue of Nothing But Good News Magazine, March 2011.

I began working on an exciting, provocative, work on women, peri-menopause and menopause. The work focuses on Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy in treating so many ailments women suffer during this transitional time. Working with a Dr. who actually specializes in this specific field. An authentic, expert who actually cares about the health of women.

Haven't worked on my novel...but have promised myself that it will be completed this year. Enough is enough!
I continue to write about drug and alcohol addiction and treatment--that can be intense at times. The sad reality of our country is that we have many addicted souls. Many addicted because Drs so easily prescribed pills to "cure" everything. The U.S. has the highest number of pill addicts in the world.

On a totally different note, I am going to be redesigning this website to provide more articles for your reading pleasure and an updated look and navigation. Stay tuned.