Archive for March, 2007
Stephen King ‘On Writing’ quotes from 37 Signals
Posted on March 26, 2007, by dazzer67, under links, perspiration, writing.
Those nice peeps over at Signal vs. Noise, the blog from 37signals who brought us some wonderful Web 2.0 tools, have posted a nice list of quotes by Stephen King. All the quotes are nice and helpful for writers of all sorts of material.
What is even better is that the comments list below contains even more gems for writers, this is blogging and community led synergy at its best. So if you want some writing tips from one of the most successful writers of modern times follow the link below.
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Winnie the Pooh philosophises on user response to creativity
Posted on March 23, 2007, by dazzer67, under quotes.
“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside of you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”
Winnie the Pooh
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Realising creativity by leaving your bed unmade
Posted on March 19, 2007, by dazzer67, under creativity basics, perspiration.
I am often drawn into discussion when a new piece of ‘modern’ art is thrust into the limelight, or should I say ‘post-modern’ art, or perhaps we have even moved beyond this, I am no art historian. I am refering to pieces of art such as Emin’s bed , but it also goes back further. The ‘print splatters’ of Jackson Pollack or the blocks of colour by Mark Rothke . The discussion is something like this, in fact it is exactly like this…
‘I could have done that, left my bed unmade, spilt some paint on a canvas or painted large squares of colour’
My response is always the same, ‘perhaps, but you didn’t.’
Without wanting to go into any deep discussion about what is and isn’t art, I want to focus on the one fact that is true here, the process, the actual expression. These pieces would never have been done unless the artist, and I do use that word, hadn’t decided to express their creativity.
The same is true for us. We can have lots of ideas, many thoughts and countless dreams, but unless we actually sit down and express them they will remain unrealised. Currently you and I may not receive many thousands in commission to create an installation in a famous gallery, but there is nothing stopping us from being creative except ourselves.
Go on, you may not want to spill some paint, colour some squares or leave your bed unmade, but do something to realise your creative potential.
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Perfect creative equation revealed by Jessica Hagy at Indexed
Posted on March 15, 2007, by dazzer67, under inspiration, links.
If you haven’t seen Jessica Hagy’s wonderful Indexed site yet, then you really are missing out, diagrams have never been so meaningful.
However, if you follow the link below you’ll see that she has a great post about getting the right balance in life for the imagination to run free.
A great post, and a great site… true imaginality.
Yes, there is always another option
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How to improve your vocabulary
Posted on March 11, 2007, by dazzer67, under preparation, writing.
I went to school with a very clever chap. He was always revising, and always getting good grades. When it came to his English exam he did all the usual study or grammar and reading of the set texts. He also spent several minutes each day reading the dictionary. At the time I thought this extreme, but he got a much better grade at English than I did.
Creative writing involves words. The more words we know, the more creative we can be. I am not advocating using words that no one knows, or are so obscure the reader hasn’t any idea what you are saying. Having a large vocabulary and one that is also growing is an essential tool for a writer.
One way of improving your vocabulary is to sign up for the wonderful Dictionary.com’s ‘word of the day’. You can subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll get a new word each day. I have been using this for a while now. Each day I get a word and if I don’t know it, or I am unsure of its meaning, I take a moment or two to learn it. It may be too late to improve my English grade but I live in hope that my writing will become more colourful.
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Writing tips over at Copyblogger
Posted on March 8, 2007, by dazzer67, under links, perspiration, writing.
There is a great post at Copyblogger that will come in useful for writers everywhere, 5 tips for writing well as proposed by Ernest Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway’s top 5 tips for writing well.
The positive point stands out for me. Often as I write I find myself camparing things in this manner.
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How to avoid procrastination
Posted on March 5, 2007, by dazzer67, under preparation, quick tips.
The demon for many creative people is procrastination. Many ideas lay dormant and unrealized as other ‘things’ take our energy and effort. There are many reasons as to why we procrastinate and some are deep rooted in our psychological make up. However, there are a few quick and easy tips to help you overcome ‘creative’ procrastination.
- Liver and Ice Cream - Sometimes we simply don’t feel like doing that creative work, but if it is our livelihood then it is a matter of importance. Give yourself a ‘gift’ if you spend some time doing what needs to be done. Rewards can be a very good incentive; have a little ice cream after you’ve eaten the liver.
- Allow yourself to make a s**t first draft - I know many creative people, including myself, who seek perfection in everything they do, and if they feel perfection is out of reach will not even make the effort. This is impossible! Therefore, don’t worry if your first creative attempt doesn’t work. Creativity is as much a journey as a final destination.
- Allow yourself to fail - closely linked to the point above, sometimes what we create, or make, doesn’t work. This is allowed. Don’t worry, we only truly grow by failing. This is a universal truth, trust me.
- Make sure you know what you want - we can put off attempting our creative project because we are not sure what we really want to do. Knowing the goal of our project keeps us focussed. If we are focussed it becomes difficult to procrastinate.
- Remove those distractions - obvious, but those of us who procrastinate will keep the TV remote or the google search box within reach when we should know better. You may find it useful to take yourself away from your comfort zone to do that creative masterpiece, or even unplug the modem.
These ideas only touch the surface but for serial procrastinators like myself, they are well worth spelling out time and time again.
If you want to to do some deeper digging into how and why we procrastinate, and therefore how to overcome it, take a look at The Now Habit by Dr Neil Fiore in our book store.
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