Here it comes again, that old same feeling

The BBC have been showing a series of programs on Punk, and more generally the punk attitude. I am a product of that era. I emerged a teenager, inspired by the I can do anything and I don’t respect authority attitude. Or, in marketing parlance a typical Gen X.

With this in mind I am now writing this post. As has been said by many, including Chris Brogan (and do take a read through his stuff, it’s great and inspiring) you shouldn’t write an apology for not posting post. Well it is time to break a few rules once more, something CEB encourages anyway.

It has been a while since this beloved site saw some love from me. It isn’t due to a lack of inspiration, or even motivation. or even applying a bit of perspiration and hard work. Ideas have been flowing freely and they still are. Perhaps that is, or rather was, the problem.

Planning

What I have lacked is the motivation to organise those ideas into anything substantial. I had google docs all over the place, I had lists littered on a plethora of productivity sites. In fact, I was being overwhelmed. I needed a plan, as Hannibal would say.

List paper and pen

Let’s make a list

And so last weekend I cleared the decks. I pulled all the missed deadlines off of to do lists. I pooled together all the documents I had. I created a spread sheet and added all the ideas. The spread sheet was based on the blog editorial calendar developed by Stephanie Schwab, again certainly worth looking at.

After all this, and through a lot of gritted teeth and determination. I ended up with a plan. And what a plan it is. I have content planned for a considerable time ahead.

The take away?

I learnt that even though I have missed self-imposed deadlines, even though I have been sitting on ideas for an eternity, even though I doubted I could ever sort all this stuff out. I can sort things out and organise the seemingly impossible. And if I can do it, you can too!

Pull everything together and either dump it, chuck it away and never think about it again, or go through it all and decide what you will do. It’s hard work, but it is worth it. I look forward to seeing what you create.

coming soon

…write, draw, sing, stick,
colour in, compose, rethink,
anything to do with creativity…

2011 time to realise your creative potential

The hiatus is about to end. I’m sure you thought I’d forgotten all about you, but no! I am so excited about what is about to happen here at !maginality.

We’ll once again be exploring how each of us can realise our creative potential. Whatever media we choose work in, there will be something for you here. Either general principles, or specific examples, sites or tips.

And all the above will be wrapped-up in the belief that each of us need to find our own balance in three areas; preparation, inspiration and perspiration. We’re all different, but we can all benefit from making sure we get the balance right for ourselves.

So take a seat and prepare, set out your pens, pianos or software, and seek inspiration, do a little hard work and perspire, as together we realise our creative potential.

Short hiatus

!maginality is currently undergoing a revamp. It’ll be back in October with a brand new look and all new content, all crafted with the aim of enabling you to live a wonderful creative life.

In the meantime have a browse of the archive and see the best posts over the past few years. I’ve hand-picked some of the best posts below to get you going.

Enjoy, be creative and I’ll see you soon…

The Top 5 Ingredients of Compelling Writing

5 More Ingredients of Compelling Writing

Coping When it all Gets Too Much

Darren

Interim design

No I haven’t fallen off the planet. I have been on holiday and taking a step back from !maginality to rethink a few things. !maginality is coming up to its third anniversary and with that in mind we’re going to spruce things up and ramp things up too.

We’ve got a custom theme on its way, in the meantime a little simple thing to tide us over.

We’ve also got more focussed posts for different times of the week etc.

All in all, I am quite excited about things, but first I have to get back to finishing the design and catching up with the post holiday inbox.

My WordPress installation has been unwell

Well I’m not exactly sure how or why it happend, I am doing my best to get to the bottom it, but my installation of WordPress sort of broke. It seems to be up and running now but it does feel like it is convalescing. So for the last few days the site may have been quite invisible.

The reason for it being a little unwell has been solved by playing with the permissions on the files. This is fine, as it is now working, but I am also finidng bits of the site which are still a little creaky, so please bear with me.

While I’m here I’d best point out that I have been a little unorganised with a hefty writing commission. This has taken far too much time and eaten into my other writing time. There should be a couple of posts to explain what I have learnt in the process but it has meant posts here have been infrequent.

The creative returns from the wilderness

It would be of interest if I was able to say that the reason for intermittent posts was due to a wayward muse or some life debilitating issue. But the truth will be told, I have been building, decorating and sorting out some deeper life issues, for the past few weeks and months. That isn’t to say they are all acceptable excuses for neglecting you all, but they are all reasonable.

Having said that, most of the building and decorating has been done to enable me to be in a more creative environment. I’ve been decluttering in as many areas as possible and the poor dustmen have been inundated with black sack after black sack. I’ve also recycled so much that I think the UK goverments target for paper recycling has been met twice over.

So the upshot is, I am back and !maginality will be cruising to its creative best over the next few days. And for all you writers out there, don’t forget that NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow. I’ll once again be attempting to complete, but this time I have done the preparation, to allow the inspiration to flow with a little less perspiration. May your creativity shine forth.

Site updating

Just a brief message about the site. I just upgraded to WP2.5.1 and I had a few issues with the upgrade. They are sorted but, due to my inefficient backing up of the theme, things may look a little weird for a few days. I am sorry about this, but it may be the push I need to get things a little closer to how I really want them.

In the meantime, may your creativity blossom.

Hello world… we’re back!

Well I have managed step one, upgrading to WP 2.5, although there was a slight detour via a server migration. I have to say WordPress handled it beautifully. I exported the posts and then imported them into this version. We should be working fine now.

I am using the fantastic sandbox theme, although I will be skinning it for !maginality. I have made the decision to make the skinning a viewable process. The reason being that if I leave it hidden, it will be out of sight and possibly out of mind. This way, if it looks bad, I should do something about it.

All the plugins aren’t fully loaded yet either, I’ll be choosing what ones to use and where soon, so hopefully not too much discomfort for those viewing.

Now let’s get back to being creative.

Please fasten your safety belts

The road ahead may be a little bumpy and there may be a little disruption to !maginality in the next few days. I’ll be upgrading to WordPress 2.5 and I’ll also be taking that time to change the design of the site. A new logo and, therefore, favicon will be available and this will herald in a new era for !maginality.

Sit tight and enjoy :-)