by Eric Maisel
She’d never had that much interest in islands. On a scale of one to ten, she would have rated her interest as a modest five or six. She hadn’t read Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, or Swiss Family Robinson. Unlike her hunger for Paris, she had no hunger for Hawaii, the Bahamas, or Tahiti. She was a city girl at heart, indifferent to the glories of barrier reefs, secluded beaches, or azure bays. But her all-girl band needed the right island. Phoebe dove in.
Over the next few hours she researched a zillion islands: Socotra; the Turkish island of Bozcaada Adasi; the French island of Porquerolles; even mythical islands like Bingfield’s Island, Luquebaralideaux, and Harmattan Rocks. Nantucket. Australia. Islands in Micronesia. Islands in the Black Sea. Famous Greek islands and unknown Greek islands. Islands no bigger than your thumb. Islands that were continents. Islands as long and thin as a licorice whip, L-shaped islands, U-shaped islands, even K-shaped and P-shaped islands.
Some were incredibly barren. Many were mere rocks with birds roosting. Some had black beaches and a couple had red beaches. The beaches! Rio’s famous beach, bursting with bronzed bodies. A beautiful Hawaiian beach, palm trees fluttering. South Beach in Miami, perfectly still and empty as it awaited a hurricane. A beach in Thailand where they brought you whole pineapples as you reclined.
Then, in a magazine, she encountered the wildest thing. You could buy islands! There were even island brokers, real estate agents who specialized in basalt baubles and sea-wrapped dreams. This news made her head spin. That could be part of the plot!—not that she knew how it might fit. Her mind raced, creating different plots, some which no longer included her all-girl band at all. Her novel was vanishing in favor of new novels careening into existence simply because she had learned a fact. How upsetting! It was really incredible, when you thought about it, that your plot could be completely overthrown by one random bit of news.
“Get a grip!” she heard herself cry. The librarian flung her a dirty look.
Fighting off a torrent of exciting new possibilities, she returned with a vengeance to her current plot. She had been stuck for some time with a problem in logic. The girls see a light in the distance and believe it to be a ship. Only days later do they discover that the light came from a beachside campfire and signaled the presence of other island dwellers. But how could they have confused a shore fire with a ship light? This plot problem had stumped Phoebe for two whole weeks.
Then it struck her: the shape of her island! It could be L-shaped! Then, naturally, the girls might think that the light was out at sea, if a fire had been built at the tip of the L. It would be an optical illusion based on the false assumption that their island was round, which nicely dovetailed with other false assumptions Phoebe wanted to introduce, like Mercedes supposing that Flo wasn’t brave simply because she couldn’t swim (Phoebe didn’t swim) and Jacqueline supposing that Lily didn’t matter simply because she was short (Phoebe being not that tall).
This was SO pleasing. It was perfect. She had a very grownup theme—false assumptions—and a nice plot twist to drive her theme home. What more could a girl want! “This is the life!” Phoebe exclaimed out loud. “Summer vacation I’ll be here eight hours a day!”
“Quiet!” the librarian scolded.
“Or in a café!” Phoebe whispered. “Where you can cry out occasionally!”
Several muses had arrived. Harold Spider strolled across her pile of island magazines. The frog and the bee broke out a deck of cards and a cribbage board. Phoebe smiled. Maybe this wasn’t real life. Or maybe it was a life you could have if you believed you could have it. You would need Veronica Blake’s list of qualities, not as a list on paper but as the metal of your life. You might need to learn how to cook your meals in a toaster oven, because you might be very poor. You might need to learn how to barter for movie tickets, sing for your supper, live on air. Still, what life was better?
You could spend time in libraries. You could travel the whole world just by dreaming. You could create fine scrapes and get your characters out of them. You could say deep things about the human condition. Then, after a few hours of that, you could go for a walk and get an ice cream. Which was exactly what was now called for: a nice pralines-and-cream on a sugar cone. Phoebe gathered up her novel-in-progress, scattering several muses and flipping the frog completely upside down.
“Don’t touch my cards!” the frog cried at the bee.
“I wouldn’t DREAM of touching your cards!” the bee screamed back. “Like a bee can’t beat a frog fairly!”
“What IS that horrible racket!” the librarian exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
Phoebe rushed out of the library. Outside, the air smelled sweet. The sun shone. Best of all, it was still the weekend! It was, all things considered, heavenly.
LESSON 36
Creating is Heaven. Or close enough.
Other Works by the Author
Many of the ideas I discussed in A Writer’s Space are elaborated in my other books, among them:
Ten Zen Seconds Toxic Criticism
Creativity for Life Affirmations for Artists
The Van Gogh Blues A Writer’s Paris
Fearless Creating A Writer’s San Francisco
Coaching the Artist Within Creative Recovery
The Creativity Book
About the Author
Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is the author of more than thirty books. He holds bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and psychology, master’s degrees in creative writing and counseling, and a doctorate in counseling psychology. He is a California licensed marriage and family therapist, a creativity coach and trainer of creativity coaches, a columnist for Art Calendar Magazine, provides regular segments for Art of the Song Creativity Radio, and hosts two shows on the Personal Life Media Network, The Joy of Living Creatively and Your Purpose-Centered Life. He lives in San Francisco.
Dr. Maisel is widely regarded as America’s foremost creativity coach and has taught thousands of creative and performing artists how to meet the challenges of the creative life.
Dr. Maisel has presented the keynote address at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, the Jack London Writers Conference, the William Saroyan Writers Conference, the Oklahoma Federation of Writers Conference, and scores of other venues, including repeat appearances at the Romance Writers of America annual conference and the Paris Writers Workshop. Dr. Maisel also produces e-books available at his Web site, including the e-book Becoming a Creativity Coach, which details the art and practice of creativity coaching. You can visit Dr. Maisel at www.ericmaisel.com or contact him at [email protected].