Exercise: Sight

So far we’ve been through four senses.  Today we look at sight.  (Pun intended.)

I saved it for last because it’s the one we take most for granted unless we have problems with our eyes.

Today, look around your home, your town, your workplace as if you were describing it to someone who has never seen it.  Or to someone who is blind.

What would you describe first?  Why?

What stands out most to you?

Quote: Observe

Observe Everything.
Communicate Well.
Draw, Draw, Draw.

Frank Thomas, Disney Animator, When asked to give advice to young animators

My Thoughts

Sorry I missed yesterday’s installment of My Thoughts.  I hurt my elbow and had to let it rest.  MT will return next week.

Tip: What Do You Know?

A common piece of advice writers hear, especially when they’re just beginning, is “Write what you know.”

That’s all well and good, but sometimes what we know is…well…boring.  What do you do then?

Take what you know and add to it.  Suppose you know how to knit a basic blanket with no fancy stitches and nothing extra added to it.  You’ve used plain yarn, nothing varigated.

It’s a nice enough blanket, but it’s a bit blah.  Plain.  Boring.

Using varigated yarn would add some interest to it.  But…what if you were to learn a new stitch?  Couldn’t you include that to make the blanket more interesting?

What else could you do with it instead of making blankets?  Did the stitch open up new possibilities for you?

You can take the same principle and apply it to whatever your creative discipline happens to be.

Exercise: Taste

Taste and smell are usually pretty closely connected as far as our senses go.  If your nose is stopped up, you generally don’t taste flavors like you usually do.

How can you use taste to influence your creativity?

Taste an apple, for example, and tell me what images or descriptions you would use to describe it without using the word “apple” itself.

Source: Prompts

Creative Writing Prompts is a good source to go to if you’re having trouble getting started.  Hover your mouse over a number and read the prompt.

The instructions — and the website itself — say to write, but it seems like many of the prompts would lead themselves to other creative forms as well.

Quote: Humanity

Humanity can be quite cold to those whose eyes see the world differently.

-Eric A. Burns, Gossamer Commons

My Thoughts: Comfort

Yesterday I mentioned that we need to stretch our creativity and get out of our comfort zones.  I didn’t get into this part of it then because the Tuesday Tip isn’t the place for it, but I’m as guilty as anyone for not stretching.

I get comfortable in what I’m doing.  I want to improve.  I want to be a better writer, beader, and creative in general.  Am I willing to do what it takes to get there?

Sometimes.

When I started writing, I wrote poems and only poems.  Some were good.  Some were horrible.  I was proud of them all.  Eventually, I moved on to short stories, then novels, especially fantasy.  Even that has evolved as now I’m working on romance.  But it’s evolved even more since I’m working on nonfiction articles and a book.

The book is where I am stretching the most.  It’s the most uncomfortable because while it uses familiar techniques and things I know how to do, it presents them in a different way than I’m accustomed to doing.  I have to figure out how to present the information so it’s both palatable and useful.  I don’t know if I’m succeeding in that or not.  Only time will tell.

When I start whining about how I don’t want to do this-and-such, somebody needs to tell me to shut up and stretch whether it’s comfortable or not.

Tuesday Tip: Stretch

We are creatures of habit.  We don’t really like to do things that are outside of our comfort zone, physically or mentally.

Physical stretching isn’t necessarily comfortable.  Neither is mental stretching.

Creative stretching is even less comfortable, but just as necessary, if not more so.

Get out of your comfort zone and try something new.  It could be the spark you need to re-start your creativity.

Monday Exercise: Smell

This morning, I had a Monday Exercise in mind and sat down to work on it. Then I smelled it.

Hot syrup. French toast.

Even now, the smell lingers. I had already had breakfast, but my mouth watered and my stomach rumbled a little bit anyway.

By contrast, my dog just came in from being out in the rain. She smells like wet dog, no surprise there but quite a difference between the two smells this morning.

Does smell influence your creative endeavors? If no, how can you use it to add something more to your creativity?