Happy Memorial Day

I hope you have had a very good weekend with your friends and family and took time to thank or otherwise honor those who have served our country.

I’ll get back on track with this blog later in the week with “Tuesday Tip” tomorrow.

Tip: Observe

Yesterday’s exercise for “take it in” is only a small part of observation.  Depending on your medium, being observant may be part of your job description.

Observing doesn’t mean only looking around.  It means listening, smelling, tasting, feeling, whether physically or emotionally.

I know writers and artists have to do it.  I would guess musicians and actors do as well.  Dancers do, perhaps to a lesser extent, though I can’t honestly speak to that since I am not now a dancer nor have I ever been.

Exercise: Take It In

No matter where you are, no matter what you do, stop for a minute and look around you.

Take it in.

What stands out to you? What can you use in your current creative project?

Take it in. Let it simmer. Use it.

Saturday Source: Music

I’m not going to make any specific recommendation for a type or music or for any particular musician.  This source is music in general.

Music, if done well, makes us want to do.  Sing, dance, write, whatever.

Last night, the radio station I had on played a lot of songs from the late 1980s/early 1990s.  A current novel-in-progress has a lot of those mentioned or implied.  I worked on that a lot last night while listening to the radio.

Don’t underestimate music as a creativity source.

Quotable Friday

“Creative cooks are seldom neat cooks.” 

-Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa (Food Network)

My Thoughts: Life in General

Despite our best plans, despite what we want to do with all our heart, life interferes more often than we would prefer.

We know when we work best, or at least we have an idea of when that time is.  Yet, things interfere.  Life in general rears its head.

I will not say “its ugly head,” because many of the best life has to offer comes to us in interruptions.

The questions are how do we use and view those interruptions?

If we are wise, we will take the experience and use it later in our work.  If not, we see it as just another interruption and allow it to frustrate us.

If we become too frustrated, we think we are blocked and allow our creative well to dry up.

I’ve had many life-in-general moments lately.  That’s why I let my blogs, this one included, fall behind.  I am getting back on schedule and have decided to use this as a reminder that life does get in the way sometimes, but we have to work with what we are given and make the best of it.

(And if that isn’t a cliche [see "Reaction to Judge's Comments" on Creatif from Monday], I don’t know what is, but it’s appropriate.)

Associated Sites

I meant to announce this last week.  Time got away from me and it didn’t get posted before I had to go to a writers’ conference in Oklahoma City.

There is a website that is an outgrowth of The Idea Pocket.  It’s Creative TIPs.  There is also a social network/forum if you would like to join us there.

Tip: Trust Yourself

As creatives, we are often plagued with self-doubt and thoughts that our work isn’t good enough, we don’t know enough to do this, we aren’t good enough.

Let me tell you, they’re all wrong.  While our beginning work might not have been good enough, it improves as we work at our craft, regardless of what it is.  In order to continue working on it, in order to believe your work is good enough, there’s something key that you need to do.

Trust yourself.

It’s true we are our own worst critics, but we’re also our own best advocates.

Exercise: Clichés

Whether you are a writer or not, there are clichés in any artform.

Take out an early piece of your own work and look for the clichés in it.  Then take the exercise to someone else’s work and do the same.

How could the piece be redone without the cliché?