Advice for Writers
By Deborah Herman
If you have decided to pursue writing as a career instead of as a longing or a dream, you might find yourself focusing on the goal instead of the process. When you have a great book idea, you may envision yourself on a book-signing tour or as a guest on a talk show before you've written a single word. It's human nature to look into your own future, but too much projection can get in the way of what the writing experience is all about. The process of writing is like a wondrous journey that can help you cross a bridge to the treasures hidden within your own soul. It is a way for you to link with God and the collective storehouse of all wisdom and truth, as it has existed since the beginning of time.
Author Interviews
By New World Library
For more than 25 years I've been looking at the realities of the creative life and the make-up of the creative person in books like Fearless Creating, Creativity for Life, Coaching the Artist Within, and lots of others. A certain theme or idea began to emerge: that creative people are people who stand in relation to life in a certain way — they see themselves as active meaning-makers rather than as passive folks with no stake in the world and no inner potential to realize. This orientation makes meaning a certain kind of problem for them — if, in their own estimation, they aren't making sufficient meaning, they get down. I began to see that this "simple" dynamic helped explain why so many creative people — I would say all of us at one time or another time — get the blues.
Writing Spotlight
Cheryl Pallant is the author of Writing and the Body in Motion: Awakening Voice through Somatic Practice and other books in nonfiction, memoir, and poetry. An award-winning writer who focuses on writing, embodiment, consciousness, and dance, she is also a somatic and writing coach, energy healer, dancer, and teacher. She inspires writers and creatives through her popular Writing From the Body workshops and offers insights through a Q&A and wisdom in this engaging series based on Writing and the Body in Motion: Moving Into Writing and Sensate Awareness, Resonant Writing as Somatic Path, and Synergetic Awareness in Somatic Writing.
Advice for Writers
By Jeff Herman
Established literary agencies are inundated with unsolicited query letters (both hardcopy and digital), proposals, pieces of manuscripts, and entire manuscripts. This stream of relentless intake easily runs from 50 to 150 uninvited submissions per week, depending on how visible the agency in question is to the world of writers at large. These numbers do not account for the many works that the agency has requested or was expecting from existing clients. Frankly, many successful agents are simply not hungry for more than what they already have and make efforts to be as invisible and unavailable as possible.
DaVinci's Genius Habits
By Linda Dessau
A couple of days before I began writing this, I was rushing around like a mad woman trying to get things prepared for a chain of events scheduled the next day. I spent more time worrying about it and measuring out the exact timing of things, than I did actually carrying out my planned actions. I also sacrificed my self-care. For what? Nothing turned out the way it was supposed to. A meeting I had planned was cancelled, a friend I was making dinner for got stuck in snowy weather and couldn't make it, and on it went.
By Molly Childers & Chris Dunmire
Guided Imagery intertwines words and imagery in a contemplative container to evoke positive scenarios and possibilities to stimulate your imagination and inspire your creativity.
Try one of these guided meditations to open the portal to possibilities. Themes include: Discovery, Expansion, Surrender, Nurture, Trust, Courage, Play, Freedom, and Comfort.
Habits to Spark Creative Genius
By Jeannine McGlade
Within our daily lives we are constantly (and usually unconsciously) provided with opportunities to play and amuse ourselves with possibilities. No matter whether you are in your car driving to work or you are attending a mundane social event, an invitation to play and be creative awaits you. Every day is a reminder to awaken our creative genius. Every day offers a gift of play.
Inspirational Muses
Mermaids symbolize abundance, creativity, wisdom, and renewal. Who are these strange creatures? What messages from the deep blue sea do they carry ashore? Originally, mermaids symbolized the divine aspect of human nature. Fish are an ancient symbol of abundance, creativity, wisdom, and renewal. The combination of a fish tail and a female torso and head could be interpreted as a goddess symbol, or a powerful rendering of female sexuality. It may also symbolize the astrological sign of Pisces. (I'm a mermaid myself, born on the cusp of Aquarius and Pisces. I've always been secretly fascinated by mermaids — no wonder!)
Creativity & Inspiration
By Tom Evans
Many people ask me how they can be more inspirational or can experience more inspirations. The answer is perhaps surprising as it doesn't lie being more intelligent or studying. It involves doing something we all do every day, without thinking about it, and that's to breathe. Of course, this is quite handy as we all breathe anyway to stay alive. What brought me to this realisation was some research I did around the actual word, inspiration. Our words and our sayings give away much about their true semantics.
Thanksgiving Writing Prompts
By Chris Dunmire
The Thanksgiving season naturally opens the space for reflection and appreciation for the abundance in our lives. Holidays gift us with the opportunity to consciously "check in" with what we are grateful and thankful for — not just in the material sense, but also in intangible assets. To put a fun, contemplative twist on this opportunity for reflection during the Thankgiving season, I've designed an enticing prompt in the form of the "Thankful Four" handwriting turkey — a printable PDF packet to download and use as a tool for inner exploration and outer creativity.
Writing Stories
By Matthew Dicks
There are many secrets to storytelling. Many ways of crafting a moment from your life into a compelling, connective, memorable story. One secret is more important than all others: Every great story is about a five second moment of our life. That's it. The purpose of every great story is to being a singular moment of transformation and realization to the greatest clarity possible. This is not how most people think when it comes to telling a story.
Premiums and Printables
By Chris Dunmire
Did you know memory-boosting exercises help improve brain function and positively impact your creative ability as you age? That's why so many sage people are addicted to puzzles like word searches and Sudoku! Here's a playful way to exercise your memory and boost your brainpower: Play my Tree-mendous Memory! game. It comes in two editions: Fall and Spring and can be downloaded in four different styles.
Art Perspectives
By Whitney Freya
The principles of design are not the result of a panel of art academics who felt the need to create more rules. The principles of design are the language of our mind's eye, how we visually analyze everything we see. They have been used by artists for centuries to create paintings that successfully communicate their heart's desire, the natural beauty of a landscape, the spirit of a portrait, or the innate element of objects in a still life. Now you are going to learn how to use them. The principles of design are interwoven throughout our lives because we process so much of our world and our life visually.
Inner Voices of Creativity
By Anne Marie Bennett
Spend some time this week listening for your own inner voice of impatience. Remember that it is only a small part of you. Notice how it makes itself known to you in your body. Make a SoulCollage® card for your deck to honor this part of you. Give him or her a name and actually talk to it the next time you hear it trying to rush you along on your own creative path. You might be surprised what it has to say to you.
Fostering Creativity
By Abby Connors
I presented a workshop at a unique international conference, "Educating the Creative Mind," held at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The conference was tremendously stimulating, with educators and researchers from all over the world sharing ideas. I met dancers, educational psychologists, actors, musicians, and arts educators from a variety of backgrounds, with a wide range of perspectives on arts-based education. There's so much more to "educating the creative mind" than arts education. First of all, as Dr. Howard Gardner pointed out in his keynote address at the conference, all art is not creative. In fact, much "art" in our popular culture is distressingly trite and derivative.
Creative Journaling
By Molly J. Anderson-Childers
In this engaging series, we'll create journals of every stripe, size, shape and color. I have some exquisite projects in store for you — a dream journal, a writer's notebook, tiny travel-sized journals that fit in your pocket, journals to give away and journals just for you. I have so many ideas, and I'm so excited to share these projects and inspirations with you.
Rock Painting Tutorial
By Ernestina Gallina
Could anyone resist to these funny lovebugs? They make a beautiful gift and are a statement of love. Choose the model and color combination you wish from the photos to guide you through each step. Choose smooth rocks that through the years have been gently smoothed and molded into the shape of a small ball.
Creativity & Spirituality
By Jan Phillips
Once, in India, I was on a train riding in a Ladies Compartment with three women and two children. We had plenty of extra room. When an elderly woman and her daughter appeared in the doorway, I motioned for them to come in. The other women in the compartment seemed perturbed, pursing their lips and shaking their heads with tight little movements. No one moved over to make room. Instead, they cast their eyes down and pretended not to notice the two women looking for seats.
Creative Writing Prompts
By Bonnie Neubauer
The touches of slang or lingo added to your dialogue and narrative to make your writing sound more realistic. Here’s a chance to try your hand at some Lingo-istics. Write a thirty-second radio commercial to sell a remedy for writer’s block. Make sure you use lots of writer’s lingo to show that you understand the craft and can relate to the challenges your audience is facing. Write a commercial that would make you want to buy the remedy, too. If you ever find yourself faced with a bit of a block, pull out this commercial and "sell" yourself the remedy.