Tuesday Tip: Don’t Be Afraid to Scratch
Posted by Jen on January 29, 2008
In her book, The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp defines scratching as the search for an idea to get you started.
As you look for something to strike that creative spark, look to those that have gone before. If you paint, look at paintings you admire; if you write, read the masters or read authors you admire; cook, look in old cookbooks. The list goes on.
Don’t worry that you’ll inadvertently steal someone else’s work. The spark you get from whatever you look at, from whatever you see or hear or do, will lead you in a different direction than the inspiration.
Go ahead. Scratch.
zazazu said
So… can I save this to put on my The Artist’s Way blog for sometime later…?
Loved this today… very inspiring!
Jen said
Sure, if you provide a link back to the original post, please.
butterflylion21 said
hi! great idea..can i also use this post in my future post about The Artist’s Way and creativity? i’ll definitely make the proper link to it.
i just wrote in my blog about being inspired. He led me to your blog. serendipity! =D
thanks so much in advance. =)
Jen said
So long as you link back, you can include anything you find on this blog in yours.
If there are any exceptions to that, I’ll post it at the beginning of the entry that it applies to.
Dawn said
By saying she’s not reminding us, the author is doing the exact opposite.
Don’t picture a pink elephant. Whatever you do. There are no pink elephants here.
What image came into your mind?
However, your blog post brings up a very good point–everyone, even creative people, do need to be reminded that ideas are everywhere!
Jen said
You do raise a good point there. Ordinarily, I would agree except that this was only two lines out of a 243-page book. I had to re-read the entire chapter in order to find those two sentences. *S*