Tips for creative people

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Karen Peterson in her book Write. 10 Days to Overcome Writer's Block. Period" writes the following:

“Imagine this: you have a lot of time; aesthetically pleasing room with free daily massage, swimming pool and delicious coffee; breakfast in bed with a generous selection of bacon and espresso. Pencils, markers, paper and an absolutely perfect laptop.”

It's hard to say if this scenario is the right one for productive creativity (Peterson says it is), but here are 7 tips to spark creativity, not only to get creative work done, but to see it through to the end.

 

1. Stop looking for excuses

Isabelle Allende is one of the most famous writers in the world. She wrote over a dozen books, starting with the famous novel The House of the Spirits. Several of her books, filled with magical realism, where the mystical merges with the life of Kvitianism, have been turned into moving paintings. Here is what she has to say about the process of writing Spirit House:

“I only wrote at night because I had a day job. I worked at the school. And I had two shifts, from seven in the morning until one in the morning. And then from one o'clock until seven o'clock in the evening. No lunch break. And I could write a book at night. So when my students sometimes say, "Oh, I don't have time to write," I advise them to wake up earlier. There is always a way to do what you really want. It's like when you fall in love, you always find a way to be around that person."

Stop telling yourself that you don't have time to write, draw, make music, and so on. Like Allende, take the time to work on your art whenever you can.

 

2. Create or die

Follow the advice of famous cartoonist and copywriter Hugh McLeod: put up a poster in a conspicuous place that says "Create or Die!".

 

3. Creativity needs a home

Karen Peterson suggests that you do good creative work by giving creativity a home. Go to the stationery store and buy everything you might need.

 

4. Creativity is linked to physical movement

In The Writer's Book of Wisdom, Stephen Taylor Goldsberry explains that creativity has to do with physical movement. He says the following:

“If you are waiting for inspiration before you start writing, if you are waiting for great thoughts to appear out of the blue, then you are a fool and have no right to be a writer. Write. The physical act itself releases the imagination. In this sense, writing is reminiscent of dancing or sports, where self-expression comes only through movement.”

 

5. Schemes, sketches and drafts – that's your goal

A perfectionist will make one job, while a reasonable creator will make ten sketches, diagrams and drafts in the same time. He will improve later. For him, the main thing is to get the result as quickly as possible.

Instead of coming up with one perfect idea, come up with a hundred simple ideas that you can then work with.

 

6. Write down ideas

Creativity expert Michael Michalko gave an interview in which he shares various creative technologies. One of them is note-taking. Michalko explains that Walt Whitman collected ideas to stimulate creativity. Every time he had an idea, he wrote it down on a piece of paper. Then he placed these sheets of paper in different envelopes, giving each one a name depending on the subject.

Whenever he felt the need to spark a new idea, he looked through the appropriate envelopes. Whitman would then extract some of those ideas and start looking for ways to weave them together like a tapestry. These "tapestry ideas" were often the basis for a new poem or essay.

 

7. Use hints

If your muse has gone AWOL, it's time to use the tips. In The Writer's Book of Matches, the staff at Fresh Boiled Peanuts literary magazine offers thousands of creative tips to spark your creative fires. Here are three tips they offer:

  • "After reading the contents of his stepdaughter's diary, a man begins to fear for his life."
  • "In the early hours of every morning, the night watchman spends his time composing the symphony he has always dreamed of."
  • "During the third night in town, a salesman discovers a voodoo doll in his hotel room."

 

We wish you good luck!

Source: 4brain.ru