Time to Write

Helping yourself into a writing frame of mind

One more observation from the interview with Anita of Miscelena Handmade Productions (from the Baltimore Street Team blog) about creativity:

“I carry my point-and-shoot camera *everywhere*. I'm not a 'serious' photographer, and my shots are as often more simple documentation than thoughtful compositions... but whenever I see a palette of colors or textures(sky/trees/roadway or brick/concrete/railing or skirt/sign/building) I try to 'catch' it. Even if I never directly reference the images I capture, I think it keeps my brain 'tuned' to looking for patterns and contrasts.”

 I think the same thing works for writers in terms of jotting down things in a notebook—even if you never use the overheard scraps of dialogue or the location description, it helps keep you mind tuned in to the kinds of observation that supports your writing. 

(If you'd like monthly selection of tips and techniques on how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request to [email protected])

Are creating something money can't buy?

On the Baltimore Street Team blog, here is an interview with Anita of Miscelena Handmade Papercrafts about her approach to creativity. Here is one of her observations:

“Much like cooks who find it difficult to simply follow a recipe, I learned early that it's better to 'make it your own', by altering a design or pattern and following inspiration. These days, I'm also constantly encouraged and inspired by my friends in the design-industry who each seem to have their own 'homemade' interests as well: some paint, some are photographers, some sew - there's always something new and exciting!”

I think this is a great reminder to those of us who mostly create things for others, or things to sell, that it’s also a good idea to create some things just for ourselves or as presents—no monetary value required!

(If you'd like monthly selection of tips and techniques on how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request to [email protected])

What can a graphic designer teach you about writing?

I believe it’s useful to be aware of what creative people in disciplines other than writing is always useful. To that end, you might enjoy this video interview with maverick graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, from Zoom-in.com. A few points he mentions:

being contrarian

how to get a job when you don’t want one

the value of surprise, humor, shock, and interaction in story (visual but it applies to writing as well)

You can watch the video by clicking here.

(If you'd like monthly selection of tips and techniques on how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request to [email protected])

Complex Characters (and a movie recommendation)

We're in the season of the blockbuster films--mostly long on action, short on character. There are exceptions, of course, including one I saw recently and recommend: "Gone, Baby, Gone." Yes, the structure is a bit clunky in the middle, but it's a fascinating look at a difficult situation and leaves you wondering and discussing how you would have handled the dilemma faced at the end by the protagonist.

It reminded me how much I like films with complex characters. Novelist and playwright Michael Frayn made this observation in an article in The Guardian recently:

"People's personal relationships are not just falling in love with each other, or falling out of love with each other. They're also about ambition, and agreement and disagreement and making common cause; and thinking differently from people about important things. What seems to me to characterise people in everyday life is, overwhelmingly, that they're trying to do something. Everyone's got a project, either a public project or a private project. They're trying to improve the world, or make money, or they're trying to persuade somebody to go out with them, or they're trying to humiliate - but they're all trying to do something all the time.

"And I think it's a good thing if drama reflects that, if you actually see people struggling to deal with the world and each other. If you look back over drama historically, there's a much wider range of subjects. If you look at Shakespeare, for instance, or Greek drama - it's about people with big plans for world conquest, or conspiracies, or defiance of the gods, or vengeance or whatever - there's quite a wide range of undertakings and emotions that get represented."

So THAT'S where creatives come from (great little film)

Here's a great little film, beautifully shot, about the real source of creatives (I don't know who is the creative mind behind it, but they did a super job): 

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One writer's advice after he went through the flames

Jonathan Santofler is a very successful artist whose old life went up in flames when a gallery fire consumed five years' worth of his work. He left New York for time in Rome and began to write fiction as a creative outlet. His first crime novel, "The Death Artist," came out in 2002, and he has since written four more.

Reuters asked him whether he had any advice for new writers and I think his response is succinct and useful:

"To the people who say they are going to write a book then never write it, stop saying it. It is very hard to write a book but if you make that commitment don't tell anyone. Write it for yourself and rewrite and rework it. Then use your six degrees of separation and go to every writing conference you can and meet people. You only need one person who will believe in your book."

You can read the full interview here, and for a free dose of inspiration every month, you can sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm ebulletin just by sending an email request to [email protected].

PS: For my loyal core of readers, I just wanted to let you know that I'm cutting back to five posts a week, on weekdays only. This gives me more time to work on some longer reports that I'll be offering you from time to time.

The power of patience

You’re probably familiar with Julia Cameron’s excellent book, The Artist’s Way. In an interview in Scientific American, she reveals:

“When I first gave the manuscript for The Artist’s Way to my literary agent at William Morris, she said, ‘Oh, Julia, no one is going to be interested in this.’ So Mark Bryan and I self-published the book by photocopying it at a little communist bookstore and selling a few copies at a time.”

It has become one of the all-time best-seller in its category.

She adds: “Emma Lively and I have been working for eight years on a musical that is only now getting its lucky break. You have to put up with dry spells and keep creating in the face of them.”

Robert Epstein, visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, said, “You have to learn not to fear failure and even to rejoice in it. When I’m failing, I say to myself, “I’m in good company. I’m in the company of some of the most creative and productive people in the world.” (You can read more on how to unleash your creativit here --and for monthly tips on how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free Brainstorm e-bulletin.Just send an email request to [email protected] now.)

Buckminster Fuller's Greatest Invention (You'll be surprised)

Inventor and visionary Buckminster Fuller used to tell how his life changed in one instant. He was in despair and considering suicide at the age of 32, when suddenly he heard an inner voice telling him that he should dedicate the rest of his life to making a difference to the world. From that day on, he was driven as he created innovations like the geodesic dome and new approaches to transportation and city planning.

Now a New York Times article reveals: "...it now appears that the suicide story may have been yet another invention, an elaborate myth that served to cover up a formative period that was far more tumultuous and unstable, for far longer, than Fuller ever revealed."

Stanford historian Barry Katz: “If you really look for the details of his life at the time, it’s easy to see that the suicide story was a creation...That’s why I now call it a myth, but it was an effective myth. It gave a trajectory to his career. The story was constructed after the fact to show how he suddenly developed these new ideas. I think he came to believe the story himself.”

His conclusion:“Fuller’s greatest invention was not a house or a car or a dome. It was himself.”

I think many successful people create stories about their success after the fact, to make it more dramatic, neater, more inspirational. There's probably no harm in it, but if you're ever discouraged because you haven't had overnight success or dramatic revelations from above, remember--probably neither did they!

 

Could You Write One of These?

Recently I gave a workshop for the Brentwood Writers Group--see the picture below of me with my harem :-)

One of the kinds of publications with which several members have had success is city or regional guides. These are booklets or short books featuring maps, photos and drawings, that cover the history and worthwhile features of a particular location. Often you can get sponsorship for this kind of publication from one or more local companies, and you can sell them at lots of locations, not just bookshops.

You won't get rich from this kind of publication--in fact, sometimes writers donate their services and the booklets are published to benefit a charity--but it will give you great experience, a bit of local fame, and good contacts for other projects. 

If you live in a larger city, one good strategy is to pick out some subset of attractions, such as "Museums of..." or "The Parks of..." or "Victorian..." You can find great resources online, at local newspapers, and in the archives of schools, museums, and libraries.

Good luck--and if you decide to do one of these, let me know how you get on ([email protected]). 

(PS: if you want monthly tips on being more creative and productive, subscribe to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to [email protected] now.)

Is There a Wal-Mart in Your Writing Future?

According to an article in the New York Times, Wal-Mart is getting directly into the music business: “…the retailer is using its leverage to aggressively pursue new deals. On Tuesday Wal-Mart started selling on an exclusive basis a three-disc collection by the popular 1980s band Journey called “Revelation.” The difference, however, is that there is no middleman: the album was bought directly from the band without the help of a record label. Journey went right to Wal-Mart and kept most of the money a record company would normally take as profit for the group. Last year Wal-Mart made a similar deal with the Eagles, who like Journey are represented by Front Line Management, the nation’s largest music management company.”

And the article reveals Wal-Mart is using its marketing muscles: “…most of the marketing was done at Wal-Mart itself. The chain ran print, radio and television advertisements that promoted the exclusive availability of the Eagles album. Stores display the Eagles and Journey albums in several locations, not just the music department, and this week some stores had the Journey DVD playing on their big-screen televisions.”

The outcome: “Journey sold 45,000 albums in its first three days on sale, and Irving Azoff, founder and chief executive of Front Line Management and a music industry veteran who ran MCA Records in the ’80s, predicted that it would sell more than 80,000 copies in its first week. That is probably enough to debut in the top five, and significantly more than its last album sold in total.”

How long before Wal-Mart does the same with books? The first beneficiaries would be ‘name’ authors, of course, but wouldn’t it be interesting if, for example, Wal-Mart sponsored a book about do-it-yourself and stocked it in all their hardware departments, or a book about medicines and sold it in their pharmacies? I bet it’s only a matter of time.

Mistakes creatives make

Below is a link to an eight-minute Advertising Age interview with DDB Chairman Emeritus Keith Reinhard about common mistakes of marketing creatives and CEOs—but I think you’ll see that much of what he says applies to creative people of all kinds. I believe especially his emphasis on being relevance, originality, and impact fits every kind of creative product. (Reinhart is a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame and came up with the McDonald’s line, “You deserve a break today.”)

To watch the video, click here.

(And for tips and techniques on how to be more creative and productive, subscribe to my free monthly e-bulletin. Just send a email request to [email protected] now.)

Social Media Confusion--you're not alone! And from fiction to fact.

Below is a link to a 3-minute Advertising Age video. It’s the first two items that I found interesting. The first suggests that if you’re confused by how to use social media to your advantage you’re not alone. The second discusses how a commercial based on a fiction then became a fact—it might give you an idea for a story or marketing idea of your own.

See the video by clicking here.

And for monthly tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, subscribe to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to [email protected].

Rejection is not just for writers (and one man's philosophy)

If you are a writer or artist, you won’t be a stranger to rejection. The more different what you’re doing is from what people are used to, the more difficult you will find it to be accepted. Interestingly, this seems to be just as much a problem in the field of science. The New York Times features an article about inventor Jay Harmon and how slow companies have been to adopt his breakthrough ideas.

I won’t go into detail about his breakthroughs here, but the article says, “Mr. Harman is a practitioner of biomimicry, a growing movement of the industrial-design field. Eleven years ago, he established Pax Scientific to commercialize his ideas, thinking that it would take only a couple of years to convince companies that they could increase efficiency, lower noise or create entirely new categories of products by following his approach.”

The article says he found that “companies that had little interest in redesigning their products, even in the face of the promise of double-digit increases in efficiency… Even in fields such as the computer industry, which celebrates innovation, systemic change can be glacial.”

His response is one we can learn from: “There is a basic psychology of the human species which is resistant to change,” he said, “but it’s not in my DNA to give up."

(For tips and techniques for how to be more creative and productive--and communicate your ideas--sign up for my free Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to [email protected])

 

How John Waters Writes

Eccentric writer/director/producer John Waters (“Cry Baby,” “Hair Spray”) was profiled recently by Ariel Levy in New York magazine and it gave an insight into his working habits:

“Waters is usually regimented. He wakes up at 6:10 every morning and reads newspapers and drinks tea until 8. He start writing ‘right at 8 o’clock—not 8:01, not 7:59,’ and works until lunchtime…’I need to write five days a week…I most never miss a day.” Considering his wild man reputation, it’s pretty amazing that, ‘As far as I can remember I have done that for at least 25 years.’

He says he “thinks things up in the morning; I sell ‘em in the afternoon.”

(for tips and techniques on how to be more creative & productive, sign up for my free Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to [email protected])

A Different Approach to Procrastination

The normal pattern for procrastinating on something that is due in, say, two weeks is to put it off for maybe a week and a half or even more, feeling anxious and guilty the entire time. Then we work in a panic for the rest of the time to get it done--or we miss the deadline.

Here's an alternative:

Consciously decide to procrastinate for the first week. During that week, don't even give the project or deadline another thought. Do whatever you want or need to do, unrelated to the project. Enjoy being free of the usual anxiety or guilt.

When the procrastination period is up, get to work!

Of course in each case you will have to estimate how much time you have to enjoy procrastinating and how much time you will need to actually do the work, but in my experience we usually have a pretty good intuitive feel for how long something will take when we focus on it fully.

This tip is one part of my free 8-mini-lessons course on overcoming procrastination. To get the complete course, one mini-lesson per week, go to www.TameYourInnerCritic.com and sign up there.