In Your Own Bloom
Composing a Creative Life
- 3 Quick Ways to Jump-Start Your Creativity NOW
- Writers and artists don’t wait for inspiration: they call it in. Here are some things you can do to get (or keep) those creative juices flowing! Ready? Set? Go!
- 1. 10-Minute Sprints.
- Anyone can find 10 minutes in the day. Set a timer and let go: freewrite, draw, move your body, write out ideas for a project. The only requirement is that it’s productive work on your creative project (this doesn't mean that it has to be work you end up including or are happy about - just produce). Research, reading, or viewing materials, while helpful, don’t count. Set a goal for one 10-minute sprint a day.
- 2. Go Random.
- Open a book or magazine and without looking, randomly put your finger down on a picture or text. Now, without thinking too much about it, use this as a jumping off point for a creative work or think of some way to add it to an existing work; perhaps in dialogue or having your character look at it.
- 3. Turn It Upside-Down
- Choose a project that feels stale or old. Find a new way in. This might mean changing the genre or medium (make a story into a play; make a painting into a sculpture). Shut up any voices that are telling you to “stay in your zone.” Or, it might mean rewriting the opening of your story from a different character’s perspective. When all else fails, go opposite.
- Another version of this exercise is to take a piece of work you admire and flip it around. Tell the story from a minor character’s point of view. Paint the garden from the viewpoint of a bug. See what happens when you set Shakespeare in the future on Mars.
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