blogging I started the year with the aim of posting to a schedule, different topics on different days. A couple of days ago, I decided to scrap the idea. Why? Because I get inspired for all sorts of things at all sorts of times. I don't necessarily get inspired to write about writing on Wednesdays or about my cat on Saturdays. Yes, I could write the blogs at anytime and schedule them; that's what I've been doing, but then my blogs lose their relevance to what's happening in my life. One of the things I like about blogging is that it's immediate. Write it, publish it and talk about it. If I publish it five days after it was written, I'm not necessarily interested in it anymore. Also, I tend to write about related topics in bunches. That's the way of inspiration. You get an idea, you write about it, and it stimulates another related idea, so I might have masses of material on my cat in one week and nothing on writing or the other way around. Also, I'll probably be writing some … [Read more...]
How to develop your creativity.
Creativity is an important, yet often overlooked, factor in many jobs, and in our personal lives. We think it is only important for artists and musicians, but consider how creativity can improve: The way you deal with people - perhaps that difficult person needs a new approach. Creativity allows you to step outside your usual way of doing things and try something fresh, and it could be the very thing that allows the relationship to re-set so to speak. The way you do your job - whatever your work, there are different ways to approach things, different solutions to various problems and different ways to deal with issues, deadlines and stress. Mostly we follow the same pattern, even when it isn't working very well for us, but consider the possible affect of greater contact with the space from which creativity springs. That alone will allow other possibilities to arise; you could come up with a better way, and even if not, simply trying different things can shift something so that things … [Read more...]
Words and visual images, a creative cauldron: Blog Tour Guest Post
If you're interested in the creative process, in particular how my past as a visual and performing artist stimulate my creativity as a writer, pop over to My Guilty Obsession today and read my article. You'll have to scroll down past the book blurb to find the article. It's illustrated. You can't miss the images. http://myguiltyobsession.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/blog-tour-guest-post-stalking-shadows.html I hope you enjoy it. … [Read more...]
How to get and keep your creativity flowing.
Real creativity (as we saw in the first post in this three part series on creativity) comes from the essence of mind not from our thoughts and emotions. If we can open our self to the natural creativity of the essence of mind, then we’ll get creativity of the greatest possible depth and find ideas that truly surprise us. In my last post I gave you a way to find the space from where creativity comes. Let’s assume that you can get into that space, now the question is, how do we get our creativity flowing? Intention is the key to set your creativity flowing. If once in the creative space your creativity doesn’t start flowing by itself, to set it flowing you need to hold in the back of your mind the intention to find something. This is not a thought, just a subtle awareness that you’re looking for ideas. It’s a very open, non demanding thing. You can’t care whether anything comes up or not, and you have to trust that there is a wealth of possibilities there and that they will reveal … [Read more...]
How to find the state where your creativity flows.
In my last post, I gave some simple ways to enter the open state beyond thoughts and emotions where the deepest form of creativity can emerge, but sometimes (often, if you’re not used to meditation of some form) our minds are too wild for those to work straight away. If your thoughts are speeding along, you won’t notice the gap between them and if you can’t find that gap, you can’t enter there, but that’s where we’ll find the creative space. So first, we have to slow down those thoughts. There are various ways to do this, generally they’re called meditation, but that’s a word often loaded with erroneous concepts, so I try to avoid it. Here are some key points as taught by Tibetan Meditation masters. If you’re a Christian, please don’t freak out; the mental space you’re going to is where you experience God or become one with God, however you want to look at it. It is also the space from which prayer is most powerful. Where else are you going to get the best creativity from? · … [Read more...]
Real creativity and how to get it.
I can safely say that I know how to be creative, because I spent twenty years employed as a performance artist. During that time, I created posters, publicity blurbs, props, masks and costumes as well as creating and performing in Visual Theatre performances. Our shows were known for being unique, and now, my writing isn’t like anything else out there either. That’s my qualification for this post and the next two on the same subject. If you want to be creative or more creative, I think you need to 1. Know what real creativity is – then you know what you’re aiming for. 2. Know where real creativity comes from 3. Learn how to go to that place 4. Learn how to set the creativity flowing 5. Learn how to express what you find there I’m going to write this as it applies to writing, but the principles apply to any creative field. 1. What is real creativity? Real creativity is hard to define, so I’m being lazy and telling you what it’s not. It’s … [Read more...]
