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.
The Good: our ‘made out of a tomato tree stand’ Christmas Tree. Creative. Saved money on a real one. Looks interesting.
You’ve got to give what’s in you.
Don’t know what’s in you? Think you have 100% nothing to give?
That’s a lie from hell.
And I’m 100% serious.
You’ve got something in you. It’s something that’s begging to get out.
The words you’re reading right now might make you itch. Not the scratchable kind. An itch in your gut. In that place where it aches when something sad or beautiful happens.
1. Engage and connect.
If a storyteller is thinking about themselves, they’re most likely not connecting to their audience.
2. Show, don’t tell.
This phrase goes back a buh-gillion years. Good storytellers don’t tell us what someone did, they act it out and live it for their audience.
Storytelling? Storyshowing.
3. Know Your Audience.
When a storyteller knows the audience as if they were characters in the story (it could be argued they are), he will tell a better story.
Continue reading “The Seven Decrees to Better Storytelling: Storyshowing”
Yes to joy. No to complaints. Reap contentment.
Yes to creating. No to excuses. Reap momentum.
Yes to community. No to isolation. Reap connection.
[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”
Create or curate?
***
When I think of a ‘curator’ I think of an intelligent (but bland) guy wearing his one and only Brooks Brothers suit to a museum to look at old things and make sure those old things are in tip top shape.
Continue reading “Curate, Create, Klout and the Evils of Pinterest”
Feeling bifurcated? Jekyll and sometimes Hyde?
Creatives often live a life that mirrors our cell phone plans: we spend our ‘peak minutes’ at a day job while our ‘off peak minutes’ (nights and weekends) afford us little time to get our creativity fix.
As a creative do you ever feel like this pic to the right?
With my 9-5 as a corporate sales trainer, writing this growing blog, doing a video shoot in a few days and a play reading at the end of the month I make Sally Field’s Sybil look normal.
A few months ago I had a breakthrough.
I heard about a guy once who wrote a book about his journey and other things and a lot of his sentences started like I started this one.
***
The grammar, incomplete sentences and all the boring (but geekily important) stuff about writing correctly drove me nuts while reading Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
But I cried a bit at the end.
Yeah, I cried.
All the rambling sentences aside. It’s a good story. It’s a great story. It’s a transformative story.
Here’s a bit of a new story. Told in his style.
Sometimes I wonder if all this spectating isn’t good for me. I watch TV. Go to a show. Read a book. Laugh at a movie. I’m enjoying it all. I’m relaxing. It’s great.
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:
It’s so simple.
Some of us don’t admit we need it.
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)”
