Tag: creativity

🎨 Ways to Unlock Your Creativity

1. Read. Read about creativity. Read about artists. Learn new things.

2. Get bored. Sit down. Do nothing. Let creativity fill the gaps.

3. Journal. Free write. Let your thoughts flow unencumbered. Try asking yourself questions. Answer them on the page.

4. Do something mindless. Go for a walk. Go for a drive. Do the dishes. Keep your body busy while your mind wanders to other places.

5. Review your notes. Look at your past thoughts. You might have a different perspective now than you did then.

6. Copy your idols. In other words, Steal Like an Artist.

7. Start with one small step. Write one sentence. Make one brushstroke. Do the minimum. Just get things started to overcome that first hurdle.

8. Make a list. Create a mind map. Spit words and ideas onto the page. Figure out what to do with them later.

9. Create more. Creativity isn’t finite. The more you create, the more ideas you get. 

10. Break routine. Do something different. Use new experiences to fuel your creativity.

11. Talk through it. Just saying your thoughts out loud can help you work through them.

12. Change your process. Use new tools. Try a new technique. Approach your work from a new angle.

13. Try collaborating. Get an outside perspective. Find help from someone with different experiences and expertise. Just talking your project over with people can bring new insights.

14. Set constraints. Endless options can lead to analysis paralysis. Set constraints to force creative solutions.

15. Remix your old work. Edit it. Tweak it. Repackage it. You are a different person now than you were in the past. You have experienced new things. You have different skills and opinions. All of that can impact your work.

✍ Ways to Improve Your Writing

1. Write daily.

2. Read On Writing Well or one of these other books on how to improve your writing.

3. Get feedback from friends and family.

4. Join a writing group, class, or workshop.

5. Participate in NaNoWriMo.

6. Listen to the Writing Excuses podcast.

7. Watch Brandon Sanderson’s creative writing lectures.

8. Keep an observation notebook.

9. Read read read.

10. Rewrite rewrite rewrite.

11. Copy great work.

12. Follow the Pixar rules of storytelling.

13. Craft a story from a writing prompt.

14. Read your writing out loud.

15. Start a blog.

16. Travel. Experience the world.

17. Keep a journal.

18. Outline your novel like Jim Butcher.

19. Re-read good books.

20. Try to get published.

✍ Books to Improve Your Writing

Included in this list are books on how to write both fiction and nonfiction.

1. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott — Advice on writing fiction, including exercises to get you started.

2. Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss — A guide to proper punctuation with hilarious examples of real-world misuses.

3. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White — A brief guide on how to properly write a sentence.

4. On Writing by Stephen King — This Stephen King classic is more memoir than how-to guide. Still, it reveals plenty of insights into King’s writing process and serves as great motivation for the wannabe novelist.

5. On Writing Well by William Zinsser — If you need to do any kind of writing to get through the day, this book will teach you how to improve.

6. The Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester — This book gives a beat-by-beat guide to writing a fantasy novel. Even if fantasy is not your genre, you can find value in this book.

7. Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer — A sharp and funny guide to clarity and style.

8. The Everyday Writer by Andrea Lunsford — An all-purpose writing guide for students.

9. The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth — Learn how to elegantly turn a phrase.

10. Stein on Writing by Sol Stein — Editing is an essential part of the writing process. This book will teach you how to fix writing when it is flawed.

11. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley — If you have any interest in creating online content, this book will show you how to attract and connect to audiences.