Autumn Writing Prompts
By Chris Dunmire
Going back to school. Harvest time. Colorful falling leaves. Corn mazes, acorns, pumpkins, scarecrows, Halloween and Thanksgiving. In the Midwest, Autumn is the time of the year when cooler temperatures sweep in over summer's waning heat and the growing season comes to full fruition before winding down to dormancy. Fall officially begins in September and runs through October, November, and into December, when the seasonal change next morphs into winter. Inject some seasonal inspiration into your creative writing with these fall-themed writing prompts, photos, and printable projects and reflect on the meaning of the season to capture the transforming magic in the air for this colorful, transitioning space in the year.
Printable Templates: 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 Spotlight
Writing coach Naomi Rose has successfully used her "Writing from the Deeper Self" approach to help people with an inner-directed focus write the books of their hearts. This organic approach to writing provides a gentle, listening way to bring forth what's within onto the page, without pushing or forcing anything. Drawing from transpersonal studies and over 30 years in the publications field as a writer, editor, consultant, and book developer, she takes writers on a journey into the spiritual aspects of artistic expression, listening deeply, and blessings of engaging deeply in personal creative process.
Freeing the Writer Within
By Natalie Goldberg
I When I teach a beginning class, it is good. I have to come back to beginner's mind, the first way I thought and felt about writing. In a sense, that beginner's mind is what we must come back to every time we sit down and write. There is no security, no assurance that because we wrote something good two months ago, we will do it again. Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we ever did it before. Each time is a new journey with no maps.
Inspiring Creativity
By Rick Benzel
Cocreating with your Higher Power. More artists are turning themselves over to a higher power to direct their work. For some people, the higher power is embedded in a religious tradition, while for others, their spiritual approach is rooted in a profound respect and appreciation for human creativity within a mystical cosmos. Whichever the case, a spiritual approach to overcoming stuckness suggests that you stop thinking about your creative problem and simply give yourself over to whatever higher power you believe in to provide you with the answer.
Inner Voices of Creativity
By Anne Marie Bennett
What song have you been singing lately? If it had words, what would the title of your song be? Is this the song that you really want to be singing? Take some time this week to get back in touch with the part of you who longs to sing his/her own song. What is your song all about? If you gave it a title, what would it be? How do you feel when you're singing it, full voice? Take one step this week to incorporate your own "song" into your life more fully.
Author Interviews
By New World Library
Q: How can we be glad when so many bad things are happening? A: How can we not? "Bad" things always have, and will always continue to happen. It is how we choose to respond that makes the difference. We all have an opportunity to respond to whatever is happening with as much gladness as possible, which will shift the very things that are happening. If you look at every bad or difficult situation, you will ALWAYS find the goodness and gladness. Focusing on that is what creates the real movement and solutions that we are all wanting.
Autumn Writing Prompts
By Chris Dunmire
It is easy to pluck a greeting card off the rack and post a meme graphic on social media, but personalized hand-written messages remain highly prized treasures! Let me open the space for you to engage your writing and creativity. While greeting cards celebrating birthdays, weddings, baby showers, and Christmas are Hallmarks of traditional celebratory giving, here's a unique opportunity for you to break the mold and dig into the reason for the season. Celebrate the beauty of autumn and the gifts it ushers in, including special holidays for family fun and togetherness — Halloween and Thanksgiving — with some creative writing, right here, right now.
Fostering Creativity
By Abby Connors
I've been teaching young children for over twenty years, and every day I'm amazed at my students' creativity. In fact, almost every day I teach, at least one student shares an idea I've never seen or heard before! When I tell this to teachers at my workshops, I see a few indulgent smiles ("Yes, you love kids, we get it") and a few frankly skeptical raised eyebrows. But it's true — almost every day I see something completely new. Because I'm looking for it. I'm listening for it. I'm prepared to be amazed.
Juicy Journal & Wild Words
By Molly J. Anderson-Childers
If you are longing to get outside, or at least get your hands dirty, why not explore painting, the messiest art form of them all? Paint gets everywhere, so wear old clothes, or cover up with old paint shirts and a sarong, coveralls, or old jeans. The best place to paint is outside, on a sunny day. If the weather isn't cooperating, or it isn't quite spring yet in your neck of the woods, use a tarp or an old sheet to protect your floor and designate a room in your house for a studio. If you have the means, buy an easel. If you don't, an old table will do, or even a lap-desk or a large clipboard. You can still have fun. Paint pictures full of light to cheer up a cloudy day. Stuck in a blizzard? Paint a beach scene, and escape to paradise with your Muses!
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.
Dreaming the Soul Back Home
By Robert Moss
Of all the guides and mentors that may become available to us in a lifetime, the most important may well be one that we often fail to recognize, either because we lose connection and forget that it exists, or because we mistake it for something else. This is a friend of the soul that will never lie to us and will never judge us. It is no stranger. It is not a deity or spirit outside our own being. It is the Self on a higher level than the ordinary self. It is the face the Greater Self shows us when we are willing to look at it.
Learning from Great Masters
Leonardo da Vinci was not only a great artist, but a scientist and inventor as well. His creative genius is chronicled through his art and journals and research reveals him to be a true Renaissance man and far ahead of his time, inspiring generations of creative thinkers, artists, inventors, and innovators. This engaging series is based on the seven timeless principles explored in Michael Gelb's How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day, and explores DaVinci's methods and habits related to his creative explorations and inventive accomplishments.
Using Both Sides of Your Brain | Being Open to Experience | Leaping into Your Experiences | Taking Care of Your Body | Awakening Your Senses | Seeing the Connection in Everything | Being Curious About Everything
Guided Imagery
By Molly Childers & Chris Dunmire
Your work, your every idea, is significant, for only you can bring your unique perspective to life. This guided meditation will free your inner muse through a Milkyway Marbles Meditation and sowing seeds in the Garden of your heart.
Inspirational Muses
Darkness can make a fascinating subject for an artist to explore. Leanan Sidhe calls to me. I enter the forest, and she takes my hand to lead me through the mossy darkness. We come to the edge of a lake, with an oddly-shaped island in the center, shrouded in mist and mystery. My heart longs for those cliffs, those green hills! She whistles a strange, haunting tune and watches the dark waters with her hands clasped upon her chest. When the song is done, she holds her hands out to me, cupped around something.
Creativity & Inspiration
By Tom Evans
The Earth travels a distance of well over half a billion miles every year around the Sun. For many of us though, we may as well be standing still. At the start of each orbit, we often diligently and religiously set some goals and make new resolutions. There is nothing wrong with setting goals and having ambitions. What then often happens though is, when we hit adversity, our goals get thrown out of the window while we deal with the latest crisis or drama. We run a script in our heads that life is hard and 'it's not meant to be.'
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.
Premiums for Pass Holders
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.
Creative Writing Prompts
By Bonnie Neubauer
A walk in nature (in the woods, on a beach, up a mountain, by a creek) can offer multiple benefits to your writing. First and foremost, physical exercise is a good balance for hours spent indoors hunched over a computer or notebook. Second, it helps clear your mind so it can wander and come up with new ideas and solutions to challenges. Third, what you see in nature (watching a bird feed its young, listening to a river flow, smelling freshly sprouted mushrooms) is great writing fodder. Pencil in an hour within the next week when you can be alone in nature. It's your choice whether you bring pen and paper with you or leave them at home to use later. Either way, you will still be writing, just in different stages of the process.