!maginality

Achieving Creative Flow from Zen Habits

darren — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:25:17 +0000

There is a great post about getting into the creative flow over at Zen habits (link below). Having recently been in and out of the creative flow with a writing project I was doing it was good to see the three things that often block the creative flow listed:

you aren’t allowing yourself to be challenged
you’re completely overwhelmed
someone else is holding you back

So if you want some tips to overcome the above take a look at the post.

The Hidden Art of Achieving Creative Flow | Zen Habits

Achieving Creative Flow from Zen Habits is a post from: !maginality

How to battle through writer’s block

darren — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:53:16 +0000

Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you’re stalling. You don’t wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.

Those words from Seth Godin were quite apt for me this past month or so. I am writing a book. Not just any book, a commissioned 40,000 word novel, with a deadline, the real deal.

The problem was I had come to a full stop. The words weren’t coming and the prose that had seemed so easy for the first 10,000 words had dried up. I was at an impasse and the deadline was fast approaching.

The first hurdle was to renegotiate the deadline. I thought, that if I could reduce the pressure on myself, then the words would return. They didn’t.

I found myself continually staring at the word processor day after day and not getting anywhere. This was not going well, I really had a case of writer’s block. I was becoming overwhelmed and sinking fast.

When things get on top of me, I normally sit down with pen and paper and plan my way out. I list what needs to be done, and that process often shows me the way to go. So I did the same with the writing. I already had the outline of the novel and also the chapter and scene breakdown. But could I break things down even further?

I began to write a sentence or phrase for each paragraph. Slowly the scenes and chapters began to fill up. As they did I found it easier to return to these sentences and elaborate on them, the block had been broken and the flood of words began to flow.

It worked for me and perhaps it will work for you. Keep reducing the task until you have the final version filling the space. As Seth says, you command inspiration to appear!

How to battle through writer’s block is a post from: !maginality

Recharge your creative energy with a micro-sabbatical

darren — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:31:17 +0000

Feeling totally (or maybe just a bit) drained and out of creative ideas? Perhaps you need to take a break, or make time for some creative input. Why not take a micro-sabbatical? You’ll find the reasoning behind it and some practical ways to have one by reading a great post by Bradley J Moore called Six Ways to Take a Micro-Sabbatical.

I’m off for a micro… care to join me?

Recharge your creative energy with a micro-sabbatical is a post from: !maginality

How to deal with feeling like a creative failure

darren — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:42:48 +0000

There are times when we feel like a total and utter creative failure. Okay, confession time, I do. I don’t know about you but I am confident that some of you feel the same.

We may spend hours, day or even weeks being creative only to give up near the end, with feelings of inadequacy. The work that we have produced, despite the praise of our peers and friends, is deemed by us alone as complete rubbish. Our creative efforts are consigned at best to a hidden folder on Flickr and at worst to the delete button or the bin.

We are our own worst enemies. We go further than simply being critical of our work, we metaphorically and sometimes literally, tear it apart… and ourselves along the way too. But, and here it the big but, there is no reason to be doing this.

There is a great article at the Harvard Business Review that looks at managing your inner critic. While the article is aimed to help those in a business environment, the practicalities for dealing with this inner critic are transferable.

So, instead of ripping your work and yourself to shreds, have a read of the article below.

How to Manage Your Inner Critic – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review

And, over at Leo’s Zen Habits there is another post offering some similar advice, so I thought I’d add that here too.

How to Conquer Self-doubt

How to deal with feeling like a creative failure is a post from: !maginality

Making a soundtrack for your creativity

darren — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:36:06 +0000

Remember mix tapes? Of course you do. A mix tape was a tape of songs that meant something to you and, hopefully, for the person you were making the mix tape for. If the mix tape was for a girl or boyfriend then odds were the tape would contain love songs. If it was for one of your friends it might contain an introduction to a genre of music you thought worthy of sharing. The point is, the music on the tape often had a purpose.

One purpose of music is to create atmosphere. And atmosphere is very important to the creative process. Music can lead us into the right frame of mind to get that creative task done. And it isn’t simply about music that you like.

I don’t know all the scientific explanations about right and left brain process and how certain types of music can get them working at their peak. What I do know is that different styles of music help me for different creative activities.

A lot of our creative time is now spent in front of a computer. This is good news for creating an atmosphere. Whether you have access to music stored on your computer or streamed via the net, you can create playlists depending on what you are creating.

When writing, I prefer something ambient and quiet, but when working on an image the sound is much louder and rhythmic. With this in mind I have created different playlists to use. I simply turn on the player (current favourite is Spotify) and click the preferred playlist.

Do you have a favourite style of music depending on your creative task? Have you got any recommended soundtracks to help creativity? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Clix

Making a soundtrack for your creativity is a post from: !maginality

17 Creative resource links

darren — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:31:54 +0000

The Abundance Blog lives up to its name with this list of 17 creative resource links. They are aimed at getting the right (creative) side of the brain going. There is pretty much something for everyone in the list, so enjoy.

17 Resources to Awaken Your Right Brain – Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online

17 Creative resource links is a post from: !maginality

Teach yourself and learn guitar chords

darren — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:24:56 +0000

Here’s a great little apllication to help with learning guitar chords. It has a nice and simple layout, and with the added sound you can even see how close you’re getting to the actual chord when you attempt it.

Guitar Chords

Teach yourself and learn guitar chords is a post from: !maginality

Five more ingredients for compelling writing

darren — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:15:03 +0000

Writing can be seen as mix between a dark art and the pursuit of the unhinged. Sitting down for ages crafting words isn’t always as enjoyable as it could be. But if you approach your writing as a chef creates his signature dish, then this just might help.

I thought it only fair to return to the creative cookbook and find a few more ingredients you could add to your literary larder. If you haven’t seen the previous post of ‘Compelling writing ingredients’ then follow the link.

Remember, a good recipe doesn’t use all the ingredients you have all of the time, and sometimes the subtle flavour is more effective than the one that hits on the first mouthful. But enough of this extended metaphor, let’s get on with the post.

Conflict – two or more characters, in disagreement, in any shape or form will draw the reader in! ‘No, it won’t.’ ‘yes, it will, your reader wants some kind of resolution… or the sequel.’
Emotion – love, hate, joy and fear, if you can get the reader to engage with these emotions you’ll have them hanging on every word you write. Why do you think love and horror stories are so well read!
Progress – a story, should move from A to B, it shouldn’t be static. Even waiting, as in for Godot, is progress; implied progress counts in writing if not in business.
Variety of language – the use of passive vocabulary, which consists of words people know the meaning of, or understand in context, but don’t use everyday, is something to keep well stocked. Try eating the dictionary.
Use your voice – all great cooks have a signature dish, or a specialty, as a writer you need to find an ingredient that is your own, unique to you. Sounds daunting but it is an ingredient you already have stocked, you simply need to use it.

So out with the utensils and start cooking. You have a story to write.

Five more ingredients for compelling writing is a post from: !maginality

The top 5 Ingredients of compelling writing

darren — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:14:28 +0000

It takes a little more than pure inspiration to write that killer content. Although the idea is the kernel to any great literary dish, you should always have on hand the following ingredients to lift your words to the writer’s equivalent of haute cuisine.

You may find that taking these ideas with more than a pinch of salt is just what you need. But you shouldn’t assume that you need all these ingredients all the time, mix and match; experiment.

There are many more ingredients you could use, but these are my top 5:

Nearness – The reader can be drawn in with any geographical or experiential situation that they can identify with, try and create the ‘I’ve been there’ factor.
Consequence – Try to make the content deal with matters that have an effect; create consequence in what you write.
Human interest – Go on you know you want to, go all out for the cute vote, the shaggy dog story at the end of the news keeps you hanging on for the weather report. Alternatively the opposite is also true, a report on the cost to life of any disaster can be a compelling read.
Drama – Action and intensity… if you’re writing a story, this can be quite a good hook.
Oddity – Pique that mind, interest that soul. Let eyes pour over your words, washing them into the bowl that awaits like open mouth – sometimes being weird works, trust me, I’m an editor.

Remember these are ingredients, it is up to you how you use and mix them, or even add a few more of your own.

And if you want more:

Five more ingredients of compelling writing

The top 5 Ingredients of compelling writing is a post from: !maginality

Productivity tips for creatives

darren — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:58:35 +0000

There is a wonderful, simple post over at White Hot Truth by Danielle LaPorte. It claims that there are 11 productivity tips that creative types already know. Whilst this may be true, I also think that it is a list of 11 tips that we could all do with being reminded of.

So go, take a look and make sure that you all 11 are inhabiting somewhere in your creative world.

11 productivity tips that creative types already know

Productivity tips for creatives is a post from: !maginality