Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer - Softcover

Couturier, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569754764 ISBN 13: 9781569754764

Publisher: Ulysses Press, 2005

Synopsis

Learn incredibly powerful techniques for tapping into your subconscious while composing prose to transform and enhance your creative writing abilities.

Powerful writing comes naturally when your mind is energized and experimental, when it can take risks and follow the unexpected. Use the techniques in this book to jump-start your creativity, learn new tricks and expand your writing repertoire.

• Use the surrealist technique of "automatic writing"
• Play with archetypal imagery from the Tarot
• Learn from the resonances of the body
• Write in diverse voices and styles
• Connect with the luminous natural world
• Scramble word sequences to break the habit of making "sense" in a linear way.

Writing Open the Mind is a rollicking guide that opens dozens of gateways to the subconscious world. Whether you are writing for publication or for personal pleasure, the practical tools and liberating philosophy found in this book will release the genius of the intuitive mind.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Ulysses Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569754764
• ISBN 13: 9781569754764
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248