Great news! My article with tips for doodling and writing was published today at Women on Writing! Read on for some tips and info about my online drawing class that begins Monday, August 3rd.
“4 Ways Doodling Enriches the Writing Process”
By: Melanie Faith
Like most people, when I was in elementary school, I loved art class and drawing. I always went at whatever project our art teacher, Mrs. K, assigned with gusto, if not precision. By 7th grade, art became a club by invitation only (I didn’t get the invitation) and other activities like writing and surviving as a teenager took over.
Although I didn’t talk about it much, throughout the years I always liked filling margins with shapes and signing greeting cards to friends and family with a little mini-me sketch. In the past five years, especially, I’ve started to draw more frequently as its own activity and filled pages with new artistic adventures, from oil pastels and alcohol markers to enjoying fine-liner pens, gouache, and beautiful, gifted colored pencils.
How does doodling enhance our experience as writers?
Showing up for Ourselves: There is something refreshing about a low-outcome or no-expectation activity. Like walking, running, hiking, cycling, gardening, and other physical activities where the point is most often showing up, putting in practice, and enjoying the time that is separate from the to-do list, drawing also encourages us to grab a time and show up for it—and for ourselves in a way that is often shoved aside in daily life’s deadlines and expectations. Both drawing and writing tap into a relaxed state we seldom feel in our rushed everyday lives where responsibilities and obligations stack up. Showing up for our art and seeing what comes of it can be the best gift we give ourselves.
Experiencing the Moment without Rush or Worry: When we grab a pen or pencil or brush and begin to noodle around, as I like to call it, just as when we sit before a notebook or a computer screen and begin to draft, we are opening ourselves up to a side of ourselves that responds to discovery. Whether or not the draft or sketch turns out as we like, we are practicing showing up and seeing what we can make. When we are drawing, we get to experience again what kids feel as they make things: kids don’t care yet what the end piece becomes; they just enjoy the physical and emotional experience of using the art supplies and covering the table with them and filling a page.
Perseverance or Freedom to Begin Again: I opened up my camera roll recently and chose some recent photos to doodle. I expected very little out of the sketches—mostly, it was for the joy and the practice, and to have a prompt that could help me to leap into making marks on paper quickly, without sitting to think about it for too long. Did the doodles match my photos precisely? Not at all, but precision is not my goal. In the drawing, some fingers were slightly bigger than the others in the peace sign my elder niece flashed to me in the yarn store and my younger niece’s arms under the pizza boxes were too short, and I didn’t quite pencil in the funky sunglass lenses completely on the self-portrait doodle. But does any of it matter? Nope. The hour and a half I sat outside with my little square sketchbook surrounded by art supplies, my hand and mind moving across the page, was the complete goal, and honestly, it was such fun that it felt like about ten minutes. I was surprised to look at my watch and discover it had been well over an hour.
We can put a lot of pressure on ourselves for the first sketches or the first drafts to be beautiful or remarkable, and yet, it’s a great reminder in both arts to invest without expectation of outcome. Also, we learn when we’d like to continue and when starting over is best. Some drawings surprise me that even if they don’t look objectively great, if I keep finessing them, they can become something remarkable anyway. Or it’s just time to scrap and try again, no penalty. If what I draw starts off wonky and keeps going astray, I can just give a chuckle and turn to the next page. Either way, the experience in knowing when and how to continue or to laugh it off and begin afresh serves well in both drawing and writing (and dare I say? Also in life).
Fulfillment. This one needs little explanation. When I’ve been meaning to write or to draw or photograph for a while but haven’t gotten around to it, I start to feel…deflated, agitated, and distracted. Once I’ve given myself the gift of a few minutes or an hour making something, I feel more content. I’m just happier when making new things; maybe you are, too.
Try this exercise: Give yourself 20 minutes today that you hadn’t expected and shower yourself with attention, by which I mean: grab a piece of blank paper or a notebook and make some marks, weather that’s a squiggly doodle you shade in, a few sentences about your day so far or your day yesterday, a stanza of a poem, or something else. Need inspo? Give your camera roll a spin and stop on an image that speaks to you. After your 20 minutes do a self-inventory: How do you feel? Are your shoulders more relaxed and less tight? How does your spine feel, and your breathing? Do you feel as if it’s been 20 minutes or a lot less? Repeat this exercise again later in the week and as often as you’d like. 😊
Care to learn more? I’ve got a class for you: Doodling Class clickety-click.
