People who live without asking this question fulfill other people’s dreams.
Their own dreams die, never realized.
Companies who exist without asking this question function solely as money-making machines, destined to crumble after 10-15 years of success.
They never aspired to a greater focus and purpose.
What did you love to do as a child?
Who did you play with?
How did you play?
Where did you play best?
As I recall my own childhood playtime: Continue reading “Childhood Playtime for Creativity”
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way
Slow down. Try something new. Revisit something old.
Bryan Allain, author of 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo
Don’t edit the video. Just be you. Toss it out to your readers.
The result of taking Cameron and Allain’s suggestions are the videos below.
+My first take is usually better than the next few.
+I apparently have a cold with all the snot-snorting I do.
+Going on an artist date while vlogging is a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning.
+Downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a cool place.
This morning, I started two blog posts.
And didn’t finish them.
It feels a bit like my work today is a failure.
A flop.
I even considered not posting at all today…
But it’s time to make some lemonade.
Ladies and Gentlemen: the weirdest blog post ever…
Continue reading “Work in Progress: Weirdest Blog Post Ever”
15 minutes on the timer. Write down as many ideas as possible.
Rules: no rules. Even the ‘dumbest’ idea can eventually become amazing art or science.
With the new iPad coming out in a few days I’ve heard a voice creeping up from inside me.
It says things like:
From: You
Subject: Your Creative Life
Date: Today
To: You
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear You:
Remember me? I'm you, but it's 20 years down the road.
I know this is kinda weird because you don't remember
writing this e-mail, but I'm sending it anyway.
I wanted to remind you that you're amazing, you have
what it takes, and your creative life is astounding. It's
imperative that you keep creating. What I've realized
(now that it's 20 years later) is that many people depend
on your work. You may not feel like your work matters, but
it does. So keep creating. Keep living a creative life.
Don't stop.
Don't worry if it's bad.
Just keep working.
A few years ago Joshua Bell, a Grammy award-winning world class violinist, played a brief concert in a Washington DC subway for 43 minutes and made $32.17 in donations.
He usually makes around $1,000 per minute.
The Washington Post conducted the experiment. A short excerpt from the full article:
“His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities — as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?”
The 43 minute concert, played on Bell’s $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius, was captured on video…
The best way to keep readers from enjoying your awesome posts is to write a poor title.
Your title should engage the reader, build value and provide them with a possible answer to a question they’ve always wanted to know. For instance, you’re reading this post (most likely) simply because of the title “How to (not) Write a Blog: Biggest Blogging Mistakes.”
For some great tips on writing engaging headlines, check this out.
If you wint your credibulit to be shot to the wall, make stupid errors just the ones’ in this sentence
Distracting aren’t they?
Tip: if you’re not great at catching grammatical errors, have someone who is gifted in that arena proofread your posts before hitting that publish button.
Continue reading “How to (not) Write a Blog: Biggest Blogging Mistakes”
Today’s post can be found at The Wood Stove House along with a podcast interview I did with producer, musical and all around cool guy Jason Mundok.
Head on over there to see The Ultimate Mistake Many Artists Make and let me know what you think of the podcast.