365 Pictures: Daily Prompt GeneratorDiscover the hidden treasure that's inspired teachers, writers, bloggers, and others for the last decade: Creativity Portal's original worldwide collaborative daily prompt generator! This inspiring feature is the result of the combined creative efforts of scores of artists, photographers, writers, and other creatives who answered the invitation to create and combine personal pictures, images, art, and illustrations with thought-provoking prompts to inspire others globally with unique perspectives and visual stimulus for writing projects. SEE TODAY'S PROMPT
Write What You See
By Hank Kellner
If "one picture is worth a thousand words," can one picture also inspire a thousand words? Of course it can. That's why educators are becoming increasingly aware of the power photographs have to unlock students' imaginations and help them express themselves through written language. Whether you want to teach specific writing skills or simply to help students overcome their reluctance to write, you'll find that photographs are powerful teaching aids that can inspire students at all levels to create both expository and creative compositions. What's more, when you use photographs in your classroom, you can be as directive — or as non-directive — as you choose to be.
Less is More | Every Photograph Tells a Story | Contrast in Writing, Subjects | Combining Photos with Poems | Photo Essays Tell Stories | Connect Seeing with Writing | Photos Trigger Words | Writing Prompts | Shifting Perspectives
Inspirational Muses
We journey through space and time to ancient Sumer to visit Ninsaba, the mysterious Goddess of Creativity, Education, Fate, and Agriculture. The original Queen of Multi-Tasking, Ninsaba is known for her talents as an oracle and interpreter of dreams; she also brought science, architecture, reading, and writing to her people. I invite you to join me in my Time Machine for a quick trip to the past. Hold on, it's a bumpy ride! Her dark hands toss out glittering jewels and keys to the old mysteries. She stands at the garden-gate, beckoning. Will you answer her challenge, traveler, and wander there awhile, along the winding paths?
Inspiring Creativity
By Dave Storer
What we must remember is that at a very basic level of the human psyche, we are all strongly encouraged by winning versus strongly discouraged by losing. For many, it takes just one loss to stop creativity cold. My own writing career is a case in point.
Author Interviews
By New World Library
Through her years teaching writing at UCLA Extension, Barbara Abercrombie has heard repeatedly that writing is painful, scary, even dangerous. In this Q&A, Barbara discusses what dangerous writing means, why it's important, and how Writing Dangerously is different from other books on creative writing. She notes, "It's important to write our stories, no matter how hard it might be. No one can tell your story the way you can. And each story is unique and precious and needs to be told."
Writing from the Deeper Self
By Naomi Rose
I'm sitting at the piano, my hands on the keys, feeling the music pour out from this relationship. No matter how disconnected or dulled I may feel before I sit down on the wooden piano bench, as soon as my hands touch the keys ~ even before I press down and hear sound coming back ~ something in me relaxes. I am home. It is not always like this with writing, for me. But with piano, the very tactility of the touch ~ the smooth white keys under the pads of my fingertips ~ releases some kind of endorphin response. My body relaxes, my heart recognizes that, "Ah, now I will be able to express in my own true mode," and I feel befriended by the piano itself, and the realization of what will take place between us, even if I have no preconceived idea of what I will play. It is the touch that brings the music forth.
Dear Muse
By Jill Badonsky, MEd
Since the advent of instant gratification related to the amount of information we now have at our fingertips, our mind has been inadvertently programmed to boing from thing to thing. You may have developed a full-blown gravitation toward bouncing to what’s easiest. As much as the creative process is a seductive temptress, once we begin to dance with her, the moves become uncertain, fears kick-up, we compare ourselves to others and it’s not as easy as we thought. So we often cope by getting sucked into the vortex behind the looking-glass computer-screen. If instant gratification isn’t enough to complicate matters, we have come to adopt unrealistic expectations, overwhelming feelings of too much and not knowing where to start, resistance born of not feeling deserving, diets that fuzz our brains, and downright rebellion to our own intentions.
Inner Voices of Creativity
By Anne Marie Bennett
Get quiet for a few moments and look (really look) inside your own heart. What is going on inside of you? If you stop and take a look, can you see? Take a walk outside and really, really look around you. The next time you're with someone you care about, look into their eyes. Notice what insights abound as you pay attention to their movements, their gestures, their posture. Is it possible to use your own inner vision to enhance your creative work this week?
Premiums and Printables
By Chris Dunmire
With fake fun printable 'Cashius monetarius' seed packet! As featured in Money: Everything You Never Knew About Your Favorite Thing to Find, Save, Spend, and Covet by Sandra and Harry Chonron, this unique origami money plant makes a delightful gift to create, but hard to give away! Learn how to make this truly memorable craft with my with easy-to-follow instructions in a fully-illustrated, step-by-step 23-page project book.
Fostering Creativity
By Abby Connors
It's wonderful to stimulate and inspire creative thinking in the classroom, but we also need to show children how much we value their creative efforts. When a child, or anyone, feels that her ideas are unappreciated, sooner or later she's going to stop sharing her ideas. And maybe even stop having as many ideas. Actually, I believe this happens with a lot of children. Somewhere along the line they learn that their ideas are silly, irrelevant or wrong, and they start leaving the creative thinking to "experts." So showing our appreciation is crucial. But how should we show this appreciation?
Creativity
By Orna Ross
Creative intelligence is not just something we bring to literature, art and music. Each and every moment of our lives can be met with a conscious creativity. The holistic nature of creative Intelligence can be best understood by comparing it to the conventional intelligence that has traditionally been prized by our culture. This conventional intelligence is mental, rational and analytical; creative intelligence is all that but also imaginative, inventive and innovative.
