advice for writers / thinkit creative

Classic Keys by Jim Denham on 500px

Who cares that you don’t have the right credentials?

Or that you break rules. Or that you break them because you didn’t know they were rules in the first place.

Or that you’re afraid.

Who cares that you stay up late, or get up early because you’re not happy with something you wrote and you need to fix it?

Who cares that it’s the wrong word and the right one won’t come?

Or that you hate semicolons as much as I do?

You’re the one behind the curtain.

You are in the magic business, friend. And only you knows how to push that idea along.

There is no license for writers. You chose this.

No one is ever going to give you permission to do this.

And you’re often going to find more reasons to stop than to go on.

No one cares if it’s luck or talent that saves you.

No one ever says “I used to be a writer” and means it. You’re in this for life.

The readers and the money are rewards. And good ones at that.

But there is only one thing keeping score in this business of stringing together letters and words.

There’s just the work itself.

I’ve long been fond of George Harrison’s “While my Guitar Gently Weeps,” and not just because it’s one of the best Beatle songs on an incredible album loaded with creative dichotomies.

It also has a great story about how it came to be.

Fresh from a trip to India, Harrison was keen to incorporate Eastern philosophy into his work. This included committing to the idea that things can happen for a reason” if you let them. Harrison decided to test this by promising himself that he’d write a song based on the first words he read when opening a book chosen at random.

From a book in his mother’s library he read “gently weeps” and interesting things happened. The outcome was a timeless song. This example teaches that inspiration can be anywhere…and that it’s often found when and where you’d least expect it.

But you need to open yourself up to new experiences to make this happen.

Here are 21 things you can do—and think of each one as a place you can go—to add fuel to your own creative fire and find new inspiration, no matter what kind of work you do”

Read about something you don’t know much (or anything) about. There’s no fiercer potential to untap than that of a beginner’s mind.

Listen more. Talk less.

Do something other than sit at your desk.

Spend time with people outside of your usual social circle.

Read Metafilter and its companion AskMetafilter. Don’t skip the comments.

Do something that scares you.

Play guitar. Or the kazoo. Or the bongos. Anything musical.

Exercise.

Learn how to bake bread.

Visit an art gallery.

Teach what you know: it will teach you what you *don’t* know.

Look for examples rather than explanations to illustrate an idea.

Listen to your music in random shuffle mode.

Read more poetry. Write some, too.

Strike up a conversation with a stranger.

Meet more people more often.

Have a nap.

Draw. Even if you don’t think you’re much of an artist.

Turn off the radio, close your book, switch your phone to vibrate, shut off your computer, and spend a little time in the company of your own thoughts. It doesn’t have to be meditation, it just has to be quiet time for your mind.

Take a position on an issue that is entirely opposite to your personal beliefs and defend it.

Stop relying obsessively on to-do lists and just do something impulsive.

(Photo: Rebelbutterfly)

There is just the work. Advice from a writer.

21 places you can go to find creative inspiration