A pen, a pen, my Kingdom for a pen!

Happy New Year to all you readers of Advice to the Players! As we start off 2011, I know many of you are making resolutions and gearing up goals for the new year. If you are like me, you set Dreams/Goals, (my dreams are my goals and vice versa), and I try to make sure they all come true. Amazingly a high percentage do.

But as we are prepping to start new ways of living, I want to make a suggestion to all actors, speakers, dancers and performers.Simply, write more.

Interesting studies tell us that a great way to get the creative juices flowing and keep them going is to write. Ideally a bit of writing each and every day. In THE ARTISTS WAY we read that a daily dose of writing, 3 pages of even nonsensical stream of consciousness writing, does wonders for the creative mind. It gets your brain perked up an flowing. This should be by hand, as this seems to do the most good, physically journaling. But hey typing works too for you high tech readers.

Oh but wait, here is another suggestion. Many of us carry around grudges for years, someone slights us and we get and stay, angry. Now we know the most effective way to get over it is to write the incident out, and then write out how you feel. This actually lets us move on more quickly than talking it out or even therapy sessions.

But let me add another layer to these two great ideas, and tell you that one of the things you should write about each day, (despite it being OK to just go stream of thought), is to write three things that you are grateful for. This simple act, jotting down 3 things you are happy to have in your life, will actually improve your day, and keep you in a better overall mood. Because when you are grumpy, no on, no one, no one likes you. Not even you.

I should mention that as an actor, I do keep a journal of my roles, what I am playing how I feel about the show, ideas for characters etc. I am far from perfect in this, many times I skip a month or more, but I still try. And I am glad to have something to go back to that reminds me of how I attacked a role or what crazy things happened at rehearsal.

So start trying to journal in some way each day. Remember it takes 6 weeks to make a habit, so get going now while you are motivated.

J.T. Turner, The Actors Sensei