Lynda Barry is a genius and I love her. There’s so much to learn from her artistic practice and we could spend a lot of time discussing her methods and process. Maybe we will (later), as for today we’re going to look at one of Barry’s favorite creative warm ups: drawing spirals.
Barry often starts her creative writing workshops with some spiral time, which was described in the article Lynda Barry Will Make You Believe in Yourself in The New York Times Magazine:
In Barry’s class, every writing exercise is a repeated ritual. At the beginning of each one, for example, students slowly draw a spiral on a sheet of paper. While everyone did that, Barry recited a poem. It’s the same poem every time, by Rumi, and Barry recited it quickly, her head down, her fingers tented before her. “You’re in your body like a plant is solid in the ground,” she intoned, “yet you’re wind.”
The Spiral Warm Up: A Simple Recipe
You can do this warm up by yourself or with a group you’re leading in a creative practice. It’s not overly complicated- let’s break it down and give it a try!
- Take out a piece of paper or find an unused corner in your notebook.
- With your preferred drawing utensil, place a dot on the page.
- Spiral a line around the dot: without lifting your writing utensil off the dot, draw a tight circle around the dot. When you’ve worked around the dot and reach the place you started, don’t close close circle by connecting the lines. Continue dragging the line around and around the dot, keeping the lines of the spiral as close together as possible without touching.
- As you draw your spiral, “put all of your attention on the tip-top of your head…” and guide your attention slowly across your body, until it has touched every part.
- Don’t rush yourself but also don’t drag out the process. Keep a steady pace as you go.
- If you need strict parameters, set a timer for a minute and see what happens.
- Decide when the spiral is finished. It’s up to you! Either work for a certain amount of time or attempt to make your spiral a specific size.
- When you start another spiral, draw it in the opposite direction. So, if your first spiral went in a clockwise direction (to the right) draw the next spiral in a counter-clockwise direction (to the left).
- If you want to make this process more meditative, try reading the same Rumi poem out loud. If you’re warming up on your own, you’ll probably have to record yourself reading the poem and listen to your own voice, which could be really lovely way to be introspective!
Benefits of the Spiral Warm Up
There are many reasons why warming up with spirals is valuable.
1 | Develop the body-mind connection. The movement of drawing a spiral develops the connection between your eyes, hands, paper, and brain. If you work on a computer a lot, you can become disconnected with your body and forget how it feels to draw or write with your physical body.
2 | Simplify the process. Spirals aren’t complicated- you could draw them with your eyes closed. Spirals don’t require advanced artistic skill or an inspired vision; if you can hold a pencil, you can draw a spiral. Whatever work you do after drawing spirals, you can always come back to the simplicity of this warm up and slow down again.
3 | Set yourself up for a win. Starting with spirals means you will always succeed in one aspect of your creative work! Spirals are a low-risk way to build confidence, fill a piece of paper, and prove to yourself that you can accomplish something!
4 | Start somewhere. This warm up removes the effort and anxiety of getting started. Think of it like breaking the ice: Starting is often the most challenging part of the creative process, but once you get going, you can often continue and thrive!
5 | Ease fears. An empty piece of paper can be intimidating! It isn’t always easy to make the first mark and start working. If you consistently start your creative work sessions with drawing spirals, you can eliminate (or reduce) the fear of “messing up” or doing the “wrong thing”.
6 | Reduce choice fatigue. Regularly drawing spirals will limit an indecisive or overstimulated brain. The biggest choice you have to make with this warm up is what direction to draw and when to stop (and even those decisions can be simplified with a coin toss or timer).
7 | Relax the creative mind. The ritual of spiral making can be meditative and calming. You might not feel relaxed every time you do this warm up, but you probably won’t feel more anxious, so that’s a win!
Post-Warm Up Questions
Debriefing questions aren’t always helpful or necessary, but can provide insight and solidify the importance of the warm up. If you’re looking to reflect on this exercise or have a conversation with others, here are some questions to consider:
- Where did your mind go during the warm up?
- What did you notice?
- What was challenging about this warm up?
- What was easy about this warm up?
- What parts of your body did you use to draw the spirals? How do those body parts feel now?
- Were you able to focus on your body? What was it like to limit your attention?
- Was your pace consistent or did you find yourself going fast or slow at certain times?
- What happened when you kept your writing utensil moving?
- What areas of your life do you experience spirals?
- When did you want to stop? Did you want to stop sooner than the timer/facilitator? Or did you want to keep going?
- What direction did you start working? What was it like to switch directions?
- How did you know you were done? How long could you have worked?