Molasses thick clouds stretch the sky like pulled cords of salt water taffy.
I stop.
Is the sky expanding before me?
My chest sinks into the gooey love place, embracing its smallness.
Everything I need, I already have.
Category: creative exercises
The Shortest Short Stories: Tiny Stories
Whilst traveling, my wife and I ran into a friend who had this book:
It’s a fascinating (tiny) book of idea generators, saucy illustrations and super teeny-tiny stories. Coupled with this post of writing prompts I read yesterday, I thought I’d try my hand at a few tiny stories as well.
Please leave your own tiny story in the comments so we can all enjoy your creativity.
Tiny Story #1
She didn’t like it when Janice talked that way.
But then again, Janice didn’t like the way she listened either.
Tiny Story #2
When in doubt, stop doubting.
Tiny Story #3
He liked watching people draw, but his favorite was brush on canvas. That sent him reeling.
What’s on Your Milestone
How do we know we’re moving if we don’t have milestones?
Every now and then, it’s fun (or challenging) to see where our creative life is going.
Ten minutes of reflection, strolling through some photos or just a ‘year in review’ with my wife will often reveal where we’re at and where we want to be.
Here’s a few recent milestones in pictures…
The Good: our ‘made out of a tomato tree stand’ Christmas Tree. Creative. Saved money on a real one. Looks interesting.
The Secret to Connecting with Your Creative Community
[box options]Side note… Today I’m guest posting on Michael Perkins’ amazingly creative blog The Handwritten. You’ll want to check out Michael’s take on simple, honest blogging. It’s like eating decadent desert without the calories. [/box]
There’s a secret to joining a creative community.
“I don’t like the word ‘community.’ Sounds needy and I’ve had enough of co-dependency,” you may say.
“I’m an artist, Andrew. I lock myself away in a room and think about my feelings for hours on end. I’m just fine without a creative community.”
“I’m not comfortable calling myself ‘creative,’ so how would I fit in with people who really are creative?”
Who is that talking?
What is keeping you from connecting?
Why do you feel the opposition to connecting with other creatives?
Continue reading “The Secret to Connecting with Your Creative Community”
Finding Your ‘Special Purpose’
What’s your ‘special purpose?’
Purpose for … your job, your family, your creative projects, your blog, your entrepreneurial endeavors.
Why do you do what you do?
A 19 second scene from The Jerk with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters:
The 10 Minute Secret to Creative Achievement (Hint: Scrivener)
It’s so simple.
Some of us don’t admit we need it.
We’ve got it under control right?
Nope.
I’m taking my own advice. Instead of talking about this ten minute secret, I’ll just do it.
Here goes…
Continue reading “The 10 Minute Secret to Creative Achievement (Hint: Scrivener)”
Waiting to be Creative: Get a New Mantra
“I just don’t feel inspired right now.”
“Not really feeling creative.”
“I can’t work under a deadline. My creativity doesn’t happen like that.”
Bull@#$*. For real. I don’t like to use strong language, yet sometimes you gotta call it what it is.
Especially if it’s ruining your artist and your life.
Comfort Zone Creativity: Possible or Impossible?
Comfort zone. Creative zone. Are there magic recipes to create masterpieces?
I saw this simple drawing here and was given permission to repost it. [Update: the original post is here along with a ton of other gems! Check it out!]
Man I love this concept… and hate it.
Can we create in a comfort zone? Aren’t there ways we MUST be comfortable to create?
What’s been your experience you writers, actors, teachers, moms, pastors, trainers, and other miracle makers?
Speaking Fake English and Other Fake Languages
Have you ever tried to mimic a foreign language? As in: you don’t speak French, Chinese, or German but you attempt to sound like you’re speaking the language?
I’m guilty. I’ve done this on several occasions. This past weekend I made a baby giggle by performing my faux Chinese for him. He loved it. Best thing he’d ever heard in his less-than-one-year-old life. Giggles galore.
There are numerous You Tube clips of people speaking fake English. If you have a few minutes, watch this video. It’s a short film of actors doing a scene in fairly convincing fake English. Fascinating. Here’s one viewer’s comment…
Two other times in my life, I’ve publicly spoken fake langages.
Hotel in Des Moines. I was in high school at the time and was attending a function at a convention center. I don’t remember the function. I don’t even remember why I was there. I do remember my friend Jason and I were extremely bored. In our boredom, we masqueraded as foreigners in the opulent lobby by chatting in a quasi-something language as people walked by. The passers-by either thought “wow, they’re so foreign that I don’t even know where they’re from” or “what’s wrong with them.”
Rehearsal for a Play. A director once had the idea to have the actors focus only on the intent of our lines without using the lines themselves. She told us to use gibberish instead of our actual lines; our communication limited to nonsense sounds and physicalization. It’s a decent idea… until you start cracking up while trying to communicate frustration, joy, and other emotions while looking into your fellow actor’s eyes as he says “gerdarbul ferndig blarstic. Blarstic! Narful blads tog infel daldig rerg. Gowtow.”
Langauges fascinate me. I’m always amazed how humbled and awkward I feel when I’m in a foreign country where everything, including the language, is different from my normal. It’s refreshing to learn again. To communicate in broken sentences. To push through all those mistakes and uncomfortable moments.
Isn’t that what we do each and every time we create? We find our legs again and we start from scratch. We seek to communicate using our chosen language: written words, paint, ingredients, presentations. Sometimes we feel foolish. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes our message may seem like gibberish.
But sometimes we bring a smile. Sometimes our seeming nonsese makes someone laugh. Sometimes we change something in someone. All because we spoke the language that only we can speak.
24 Hour Plays: Lessons in Fear, Control, and Joy
Why dive into a creative process involving fear, anxiety, the unknown, the uncontrollable?
The payoff is incredible.
This past weekend, my wife and I participated in an event called 24 Hour Plays. Here’s the rundown of the events that transpire in a mere day at one of these creative explosions:
It’s an exercise in organized insanity in which writers, directors, and actors put their skill sets to the test: writing a short play, casting the play, directing the play, and performing the play in the time span of a mere 24 hours.
+Perfectionism. Most creatives are prone to it. It’s rarely helpful. For some of us, it keeps us from ever producing or sharing our creation. Within the time frame of 24 hours, perfectionism cannot dominate. There’s just no time to belabour the minutiae.
Bye bye non-friend.
+ Camaraderie. My creative process at my job usually involves training people to sell remodeling products to homeowners. It is creative, but I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the process of putting up an actual show. I marveled at the fact that the pros we worked with all spoke the same language. We understood the basics of each of our job functions and treated one another with respect. There’s such pleasure in rubbing shoulders with other like-minded creatives.
+Fear. 24 Hour Plays is skydiving. My mind’s conversation with myself went something like this: “8:30 AM. Here’s your script that was just written last night. You’ll play James. We’ll rehearse it today, have it memorized tonight for the show. By the way, we’re sold out. There’s gonna be people here asking for a show. So you gotta get this right. Did I say it has to be memorized? It does. Have fun!” 
When my wife and I were deciding if we should/should not do this, we realized the only reason we wouldn’t do it was because we were terrified. Not a good enough reason. We’re so glad we pushed through that fear.
+Payoff. Rachel Stevens, a former producer of The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices summarizes it well.
You always see the most incredible personal and professional growth take place in the artists involved. There’s great confidence to be taken from realising that, if you can do this project, you can do pretty much anything.
Agreed 100%.
I’d do this whole experience all over again for that very reason. It exhilarating to do something that, initially, seems impossible and slightly terrifying.
What’s stopping us from doing that thing we’ve always said we’d do? Why not push the envelope this week and write that piece, finish that project, or call that person?
Someone needs your creativity today.