Unleash Your Creativity

How's Your Creativity Flowing?

Thought you might be interested in this article from 'O, The Oprah Magazine'.

These are 6 ideas and practices I wholeheartedly support from Ideo's general manager, Tom Kelley.

They are...

1. Mindmap

2. Hire a coach

3. Keep a journal

4. Tap into your curiosity

5. Capture all your ideas

6. Find a reverse mentor

Read the whole article at:

The Mind Map: Six Steps to Get Your Creativity Flowing

Enjoy!

One of the Best from TED - Elizabeth Gilbert

This has to be one of the best from this year's TED conference. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, talks about success and creativity. It's well worth watching.

One of the things I found most interesting was that this best selling book was written after she took a year off. Hummmm...do you think there might be a connection? I think so. I am a firm believer in the power of down time. Taking time to rest and regroup allows our creative ideas to perk. I know for me it all comes out better when I have plenty of fritter and float time...in fact it is one of my '10 Ways to Increase Your Creativity"

Enjoy!

Creativity and Play at TED

My apologies. I've been negligent about posting here. I can't promise that I'll do much better. I have a very full plate and I'm restructuring my entire business to better reflect the diverse issues I address with clients while still having it all hang together. Since I am at best eclectic in my approach and at worst just plain ADDish, it's a challenge. There'll be more about all of that soon, but in the meantime, I want to make sure you got these links.

Last week was the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design). There are some amazing videos from some of the most interesting and challenging thinkers of our time.

So I invite you to check TED out.

I also want to let you know about a video from last year on Creativity and Play.

Enjoy!

What is Art?

In a recent meeting of the 'Creatives Café Coaching Group',
I asked the question, 'What is art?' The answers were varied
and inconclusive so I'd like to invite you into the conversation.
How would you answer the question 'What is art?'

Another question came up in today's group when someone
rather apologetically referred to a crafts project as 'not really
art'. Hum...are all the beautiful crafts created in the world art
or not?

Back in the fall, I heard an interview on NPR entitled 'When
Lust Meets Caution, Is It Still Art?'  Novelist Laila Lalami is
quoted as saying,

    "If artists want their work disseminated around the world,
    the author says, they'll have to contend with the demands
     of the marketplace, the sensitivities     of other cultures or a
    combination of the two.

    The danger, Lalami says, arises when artists allow such
    considerations to creep into their process — when they
    censor their work while it's still being created."

Listen to the entire piece or read the transcript by going to:
http://www.npr.org

These are important questions for anyone involved in creative
endeavors. Answering it has everything to do with why we create
and how we value it. Lack of clarity about the meaning and value
of our creative work is what underlies many creative blocks.

So what do you think? What is art? How do you feel about the
need to change the way you express something to satisfy the
censors or the marketplace?

Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

If this conversation interests you, consider joining the
'Creatives Café Coaching Group'. You can try it out for a full
month for only $1:
http://www.creativescafe.com

On Writing and Writing Software

I don't want to start the Mac/PC argument up again, but
personally, I find Microsoft software to be a great inhibitor of
creativity. It can be useful if you're looking for an excuse not
to write, but other than that...

I was glad to see I'm not alone when I read Virginia
Heffernan's article in The New York Times yesterday, ' An
Interface of One's Own'.

It begins:
"Microsoft Word. Light of my mind, fire of my frustration. My
sin, my soul. Mi-cro-soft-word. The mouth contorts with
anti-poetry. My. Crow. Soft. Word.' 

To read the entire article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com

She's not only complaining, she appears to be on a quest
for research and writing software that allows her to write
without tripping over the technology.

Though she talks about several for both PC's and Mac's she
is touting writing software for Mac's called Scrivener.

For more info, go to:
http://literatureandlatte.com/

Have you tried it? I'm planning to. Though I wrote my book
in TextEdit on my Mac, I have been known to experiment. 
Unfortunately, I have found most lacking, and all more work
than they were worth.

In 'Write a Book in 60 Days', we will talk about all the tools
and tips, that make writing your book a joyful and genuinely
productive experience.

We will also be talking about where writers get tripped up
(otherwise known as blocked) in the process and how to
find your way out when it happens to you...as it invariably
will.

We begin next week, next Tuesday to be exact. I have
enough people to go forward, but it's shaping up to be a
smallish group which means more benefit to you...lots of
individual attention which often doesn't happen in a group
setting. So here's your chance.
http://www.60DayBook.com 

I've also added a 3 month payment option for those who
are holding back because of the money...a valid concern
so I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for you to sign
up and get your book written by March.
http://www.60DayBook.com

Here's wishing all of you, whether you're writing a book or not,
a wonderfully creative year.

Amazing Things about Music and the Brain

Check this out...an interview with Oliver Sacks about his new book "Musicophilia" in which he explores the relationship between the brain and music.

Give it a listen and find out...

• How we hear music in our heads

• The differences in the brains of musicians that are unique to musicians

• How music helps people with certain illnesses.

I know this last one is true from my days leading music therapy groups in nursing homes. I've seen music stimulate the memories of Alzheimer's patients.

Listen to this interview that aired on 'All Things Considered' in October.
http://www.npr.org

Creativity as Conversation

The Charlie Rose interviews seem to hit the mark, so here's another great one with Erica Wagner, literary editor of the London Times and first time novelist.

In this 23 minute interview she talks about creativity as a conversation saying:

"There is a sort of...almost this dangerous myth that creativity now exists in isolation, but the wonderful thing about creativity is that it's a conversation. And everything talks to each other. Works talk to each other."

And on books and digitalization...she says her test for a new form is that she has to be able to drop it in the bath. With that as a criteria, books as we know them should be around for a long time.

You can find the interview here:
http://www.charlierose.com

The Power of Daily Action

Recently I've been reflecting on the power of daily action.

It comes up all the time with my clients who now define their
success by whether they are working every day. The gallery
shows, the novels published, the work sold are all built on
that daily act of working.

Today it popped up in a blog I was reading:
'I began writing seriously in about 1990. I got up an hour early
every morning and squeezed in an hour of writing before
going to work. It may not seem like much time, but an hour a
day--more on weekends--adds up.'
From Cynthia Leitich Smith's interview with author Dia Calhoun.
Cynsations

It comes up in every conversation with successful artists,
artisans and writers in answer to...how do you do it?...where
do you find the inspiration?...where do all your ideas come
from?

The consistent answer is...they don't wait for inspiration, they
work daily creating a space for inspiration to emerge.

This is how I wrote my book in 60 days, a book I'd been
thinking about writing for 4 years. I wrote first thing every
morning. I didn't answer e-mail, return phone calls, or anything
else until I had written for at least 2 hours.

Some days were tortuous when I couldn't find the words to
communicate what I wanted while other days it simply flowed
out of me. The act of writing was deeply satisfying no matter the
quality and that sense of satisfaction stayed with me as I went
through the rest of my day.

In 'The War of Art', Steven Pressfield quotes Somerset Maugham
as saying:
'I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every
morning at nine o'clock sharp'

Pressfield goes on to say, '...by performing the mundane physical
act of sitting down and starting to work , he set in motion a
mysterious but infallible sequence of events that would produce
inspiration.'
'The War of Art'

What could you create if you consistently gave it an hour or two
a day?

Best,

Susan

P.S. The Creatives Café Coaching Group is available weekly for
your support. Check it out for a month for only $1 by going to:
Creatives Cafe Coaching Group

P.P.S. Anyone interested in writing a book over the summer?
I'm thinking about running an 8 week coaching group to support
you...'How to Write a Book in 60 Days'. If I could do it, so can you.
Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in by sending
me an email at:
susan@susanfuller.com

Share the Joy of Completion

Sorry to have been so out of touch recently, but I was
busy writing a book.

Well, the book is finished, and I'm finally coming up for
air. When there's silence on the forums, I always hope
it's because everyone's creating...and sometimes that's
exactly right.

Now the topic, grief, doesn't sound terribly creative,
does it? But I have to say that in the course of writing it,
I experienced it all. Everything we talk about when we
talk about the creative process came up in the writing of
this book.

Let's see if this sounds familiar...

• First there was the initial energetic flow. I wrote the
first draft in under a week.

• Then came slogging through the rewrite. Did it really
need to take this long? Probably not, but this part wasn't
nearly as much fun.

• Then came the feeling of just wanting the damn thing
over with. Not ever having been pregnant, I can't say for
sure, but I would guess this is akin to going into the
ninth month.

• There was the last minute procrastination. It was almost
done, but I was bored, and I just didn't wanna anymore.
It would have been so easy to toss the whole project at
this point. Scary how we do that when we're on the verge
of completion.

• Then there was the final energizing push to get it
finished. I always love that frenzy of activity at the very
end. Having already sold copies with a promised due date,
helped a lot here. I have met the deadline.

• And the satisfaction of having finished writing it. Yeah!

• Now with it off for final editing and formatting, I'm
making notes for the next edition LOL. This last reminds
me of Chuck Close talking about going into a gallery with
a paint brush to put finishing touches on paintings already
on exhibit.

These are exactly the kinds of things we talk about weekly
in the 'Creatives Café Coaching Group.' Did you know you
can try it out for $1? That's right...four calls, access to all
of the recordings and the dedicated forum for a month for
a buck.

To find out more, go to:
http://www.susanfuller.com/creativity/creativescafecob.html

Oh yes, if you want to check out the book, go to:
http://www.surviveyourgrief.com

It's Just Colored Dirt

You have to see this interview with Chuck Close. This is what he had to say about painting...'It's just colored dirt on some cloth wrapped around wooden strips.'

That's not all he said to Charlie Rose on Tuesday night. Here are some of the highlights:

• 'Inspiration is for amateurs...the rest of us get down to work.' (16:20)

• He talks about constructing limitations in his work---places he can't go---which furthers the work. (20:30)

• He talks about painting as a performing art and that his job as an artist is to 'orchestrate the experience of the viewer'. (27:00)

• The impact of photography on painting. (41:56)

• Artistic success...the worst thing you can do is chase it. (44:10)

• 'Photography is the hardest medium in which to have personal vision.' (47:56)

The times are included for your ease, but I really encourage you to listen to the entire hour...it will be an hour well spent.

To listen:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8127091529031459011&hl=en

Feel free to add your comments below.

Better yet, join the Creatives Café Online Membership for a more in depth discussion about the ideas in this interview:
http://www.susanfuller.com/creativity/creativescafeonl.html