Nancy Springer: "Hey Hey Play" (And, yes. Another book giveaway!)
Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 11:52AM 
Author, Nancy SpringerWe are delighted to have Nancy Springer as our second creativity blogger. She is the author of many, many wonderful and award-winning books (of course!) and both of us are huge fans of her Enola Holmes series. Ellen was the first to read the series. She raved about it so much that Anne had to run out and read it, too. Now Anne babbles praise for Enola to everyone who asks her for book recommendations. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT! Even if you think you're too old or too young. Enola Holmes is the kind of heroine that everyone can love. And you don't need Sherlock Holmes to find out why . . .
Born in New Jersey, Nancy moved to Pennsylvania when she was thirteen and spent the next forty-six years there, marrying a man named Springer, producing off-Springers, and writing more than fifty fantasy, horror, mystery and contemporary novels for adults and children. In 2007 she and a second husband moved to Tri-County Airport in the Florida panhandle, at first living in the hangar, although they have now purchased a house. Nancy very much enjoys the area wildflowers and butterflies, alligators and other lizards while completing THE CASE OF THE GYPSY GOOD-BYE: AN ENOLA HOLMES MYSTERY, sixth volume of her series about Sherlock Holmes’s younger sister. Her books have won her many honors, including two Edgar Allen Poe awards from the Mystery Writers of America.
Hey Hey Play
Nancy Springer
Creativity starts with child’s play. No matter how serious the material you’re writing, the key to success is playfulness – your ability to turn it around, try it a different way, imagine something new—play with it. Right? Right.
But if you’re all business in every other aspect of your life, can you expect to sit down to write and, just like that, become creative and playful? Of course not. Therefore, it’s part of your job description as a writer to go around being playful in whatever way appeals to you, within reason.
For instance: down the road from me lives a woman who has three large plaster ducks on her lawn. When it’s raining, she puts ponchos on them. Otherwise, she clothes them according to season, sundresses in summer, red frills for Valentine’s Day, sweaters in the fall, and of course their best outfits every Sunday.
Kind of reminds me of the time I bought a life-sized airbrushed ceramic groundhog at a garage sale, provided it with a flowered straw hat, then painted a portrait of it.
Not that one need go to such lengths. Just being willing to get down on the floor with the baby and play with blocks will do the trick. Or with any simple toy, a ball, a top, a doll with no name, a bowl of clay, a cardboard box and some crayons, and maybe you could manage without the baby.
Never mind what people think. This sort of behavior not only nurtures creativity, but it can give you story ideas. Me, I collect bottle caps, or maybe I ought to say carton caps, the bright colored plastic ones off orange juice and milk and fruit punch. I have a bunch of them, red, white, pink yellow, orange green, blue, purple, in a basket, and no idea why I keep them. But I did write a very good short story about a woman who collected bottle caps and did end up doing something with them.
My brother Ben, when he saw the bottle caps, arranged them into a circus ring and posed my little rubber horses on top of them.
By the way, he writes too.
Thank you, Nancy! For a chance to win a copy of Spilling Ink, please leave a comment below - we'd love to hear what creativity means to you. Two winners will be chosen at random on April 25th, 2010. Good luck!
Reader Comments (9)
Anne...Ellen...and oh hey...Nancy! Just wanna say you guys rock!!! It would totally be a dream come true to win a copy of Spilling Ink! I've been reading you guy's books at the tender age of 7, (I'm 10 now!) So...please let me win. Please...please.please...please...please...please...please...please...!
Hope that's enough pleases! :)
-Aishah
Thank you so much for an inspiring post about the power of play. Although in teaching kindergarten there would seem to be innumerous opportunities to infuse play into my day, there are many stresses that seem to squelch the natural tendency. In reading your post I am reminded to incorporate more spontaneous, playful moments into my life whether in the classroom or during other times. Creativity comes, in particular, when I free myself to explore through writing, playing with painting and card-making, or even during a run on the beach. I would love love love a copy of Spilling Ink as well! Thank you for inspiring me on this rainy morning :-)
The power of play is important to creativity and can be expressed in many ways: cooking up something fresh on the stove, digging around in the garden or working with your hands. The play part comes when it goes beyond just doing the motions.
I like taking found objects or misshapen pottery projects and come up with new ways to create sculptures in my garden "rooms" around the house. With projects using my hands, making a 19th century corset for my 1860s schoolmarm persona or learning how to spin wool on my thigh Tlingit style comes to mind. In some ways, this is research to understand my fictional characters, but they do give me ideas and it's just plain fun. No plaster ducks, but I am thinking of how my little granddaughter will approach my home when she comes to visit.
Fabulous post, Nancy - and a big thank you to Anne and Ellen for hosting her today!
It's a good question you've posed -- often I think creativity belongs to the fine arts yet, as Nancy mentioned, it' a persona of playfulness. I'm not a fine artist but I do play with words and ideas. Even in my dullest moments as a writer orteacher, I still find that creativity has never left me. Usually, I'm just to busy or tired to play. When I do, she's right there waiting for a chance to dance.
You are so right about the playful attitude!
I used to think that it was strange when people would say they like to cook or bake as a way to express their creativity. In those naive days I saw the production of food as a necessary task about as creative as brushing one's teeth-- merely a means to an end.
Fast forward a few years and I have since discovered the deep satisfaction of cooking a meal or baking bread. I have even heard myself use that word-- "creative"-- to describe how it makes me feel to create something good to eat. It has made me ponder just what I have learned about creativity in the interim.
Upon reflection, I think creativity has something to do with taking raw materials, and rearranging (or playing) with them until they please me. The raw materials can be anything-- food, words, paints, paper and pencil, ideas, furniture, clothing or scenes in a story. I apply my attention and alter the materials until I am satisfied.
It's that sense of absorption, and then satisfaction with the result, that makes it fun.
Creativity often means to me doing something differently than you are used to - writing with a different hand, going home a different way from work, eating someplace new....it makes sure that you are not in surface mode with your brain!
To me, creativity comes from mixing things together in unexpected ways, and playfulness is certainly part of it. But also, it's important to "fill the well" with all sorts of different experiences and tidbits of knowledge, so that you have a wide variety of things/ideas to play with.
Dear Ann,
My students and I are looking forward to your visit to our school in Pasadena, CA. We have also been reading your book Abby Hayes doing the advice column for her school's newspaper. My kids have turned into advice columnists. Can't wait for your to see their work.
With Anticipation!
Debbie