Today's Creativity Wisdom:
Writing Coach David Duggins
Interview with David Duggins
Dave's Top 10 Writing Books
Find the Wisdom Within
Dealing with Critical Blockheads
Gaming: Daniel Dociu of ArenaNet
Fear: Greatest Power in Your Life
How to Find Work as a Ghostwriter
"I give up writing. I quit."
Why Learn "the Rules" of Writing?
Methods, Medium, Mindset
Looking at Your Preferences & Passions
Publishers Who Will Republish Books
Revealing Intimate Details About Your Life
Selling Short Fiction — Is it Easy?
On Starting...Shall We Begin?
Start Write Now!
Starting in the first stages of writing
You and the Page
Wire Artist Angela Hook
Angela Hook: Artist Interview
Wire Art: A Whole New Language
Become a Storyteller through Photography
Inspiring Conversations
Pat Conway: Poet & Bird Watcher
Cathy Yardley: Chick-Lit Author
Joan Lefkowitz: 'Mother of Invention'
Jill Badonsky: Kaizen-Muse Founder
Quinn McDonald: Paper Artist & Coach
Sonia Wijts, Center for Adaptive Learning
Lilly Fluger, Artist & Cartoonist
Creative Careers Interviews Introduction
Writing Coach Jurgen Wolff
Four Brainstorming Guidelines
Power of Off-the-Wall Combinations
Be a Successful Part-Time Writer
Interview with Author Jurgen Wolff
Steve O'Keefe
Set the Page on Fire: Thinking, Talking, Writing, Reading
Artistic Perspectives with Judy Wood
Riding Lessons for Artists
Forging a New Path in Art and Life
It's (Almost) Never Too Late
The Basics are Basic
How Do We Learn and From Whom?
Community
Where am I, and where am I going?
Mirror, mirror
Marianne St. Claire
The Top 10 Benefits of Play
The Pendulum Swings Right to the Conceptual Age
Artistic Perspectives with Lynda Lehmann
Artist Lynda Lehmann Interview
Why Artists Create Art
Creating Art is an Affirmation of Life
What is Art? Traditional vs Abstract
What Good Art Does to Us
In Praise of Creative Process
Think Small (No, I'm not Joking...)
The Artist: 'Tortured Soul' or Joyous Participant?
Therapist Susan Anderson
Outer Child and Your Future
You, Two Years from Now Exercise
Dream House Guided Visualization
Healing Abandonment, a Creative Process
Writing Hal Zina Bennett, PhD
Get Unreal: A Writing Exercise
Solitude and Creativity
Lisa Collazo, LSCW
The Power of Words
The Writer's Ailment: "Stuckitis"
Writing Out the Gremlin
The Emotional Writer
Author Peter Clothier
The Art of Looking At Art
'Slow Looking' Meditation
'Slow Looking' Silence
Peter Clothier 'Persist' Interview
Making Space
Heeding the Call
Nurturing the Artist Within
PERSIST: The Big Lie
Peter Clothier MIND WORK Interview
Today Is Thine: Tempus Fugit
Not Just a Number
Author Kimberly Wilson
Enlightened Work & Mindful PlayYour Life Is Art
6 Ways to Evoke Creativity
Modes of Creativity
Improviser Stephen Nachmanovitch
The Art of IsImprovisation: Rubbing
Improv: Mushrooms & Tide Pools
Improvisation: Twists and Turns
Journalist Nancy Mills Interviews
Wine Maker Lane TannerActress Sybil Temtchine
Mediabistro's Laurel Touby
'Girl Blue Project' Marlow Wyatt
Artist and Activist Ellen Spencer
,Spoken Word Artist Sally Shore
Cathy Salser: Window Between Worlds
Astrology Zone's Susan Miller
Swirly Girl Christine Mason Miller
Mystery Writer Rochelle Krich
Jewelry Designer Katy Leakey
Jet Set Modeling Cindy Kauanui
Mystery Writer Rochelle Krich
World Traveler Marie Javins
Radio Host Frances Halpern
Creative Sage's Cathryn Hrudicka
Author & Actress Fannie Flagg
Writer Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
Entrepreneur Crystal Allene Cook
Frou Frou Flip Flops Alice
Lotus Blossom Style Tabby Biddle
Comedienne & Storyteller Roz Browne
Spiritual Perspectives with Shakti Gawain
Shakti Gawain InterviewBecoming a Creative Channel
Trusting Intuition
Transforming Our World
Love of the Craft Series
with Writing Coach David Duggins
Dave Duggins is an experienced, professionally published short story author. He's a writer, like you — in the trenches, bashing out pages, living and working as you do. He's the editor behind the colorful and melodramatic covers of Spacesuits and Sixguns, a contemporary pulp fiction magazine. And he's rounded out a 20-year career in the US Air Force, where he's spent the past 15 years learning effective mentoring and leadership techniques as only the military can teach them. In this engaging question and answer series, Dave responds to queries related to the technical, emotional, and business facets of being a writer as well as common scenarios like facing the blank page, processing criticism, finding work as a writer in various forms, fear, creativity, and the best source of writing wisdom.
Love of the Craft
How to Find Work as a Ghostwriter
By David Duggins
Q. I've heard that ghostwriting is a good way for writers to make a living, but I've also heard that writers who "ghost" books don't get recognition for their work.
A. That depends on how you define the terms "recognition" and "work." The profession is severely misunderstood, conjuring images of minimally talented hacks slaving away under sweatshop conditions, turning out book after spiritless book to appease the bloated egos of Fortune 500 CEOs, movie stars, and other assorted eccentrics who wish they could write but can't.
Love of the Craft
"I Give Up Writing. I Quit."
By David Duggins
Q. I've been writing since I was eight years old, honing my craft, practicing, studying form, reading, making notes and dissecting and analyzing and then writing some more. I've written 117 short stories. I've submitted 117 short stories. And I've collected 117 rejections. I give up.
A. Sorry, but that's not allowed here. That's not an option. I'll give everyone and their mother permission to write, but I will not give one person anywhere permission to give up. Why? Oh, there are so many reasons!
Love of the Craft
Fear: Taking Command of the Greatest Power in Your Life
By David Duggins
Q. I remember attending young author's conferences as a child — writing and writing until my hand throbbed and there were no more words in my head. I remember these things from late elementary school — and now it's almost as if I'm scared to write. Afraid the words won't be good enough. Afraid I've got nothing really at all to say. When I do write, I don't share it w/anyone anymore. My question is — what to do with this fear?
A. Thanks so much for your question — and thanks also for sharing your vulnerability. It takes a lot of courage to admit you're in a scary place. To get back on the road to good creative health, we need to bring about a shift your mindset about writing. You say you're afraid your words won't be good enough, that you don't have anything to say. So there's a heavy-handed, judgmental voice in your head that's telling you that you're not good enough and you don't have anything to say.
Creative Careers Interviews
A Conversation with SARK: Loving Wildly, Learning Deeply, & Living Fully
By Molly Anderson-Childers
My friends are my family of choice. They are the biggest emotional and spiritual support network I have. I also wanted to write about friendship with myself. I'm learning to be my own dearest friend. Because I'm learning a lot about that and practicing that now, and I know a lot of other people are practicing that too. And I also found that so many friendship books are about either the joys of friendship, or the difficulties of friendship. I wanted to write a book that included both the joys and the difficulties, and ways to integrate the two. To practice integration.
In Praise of Creative Process: On Beingness, Becoming
By Lynda Lehmann
Back in the 60s, I read the humanist psychologists. Seems they all talked about one kind of process or another. The process of learning, the process of rebelling, the process of creating, the process of loving. I read Abraham Maslow, Karl Rogers, Alan Watts, Rollo May, to name a few. There were so many, I can't remember them all. No matter what their particular slant, the emphasis in those years seemed to be on either "being" or "becoming." At the tender age of 19 or 20, I knew I was nowhere near the mark. All the concepts made sense, but it was intellectual sense, not the kind that resonates deep inside.
Fostering Creativity
Physicist Richard P. Feynman on Children and Creativity
By Abby Connors
I’ve learned a great deal about teaching creative thinking to young children from a man who wasn’t an artist, but a scientist. Richard P. Feynman was one of the greatest physicists of our time. He was well known for his work in quantum mechanics, subatomic particles, and quantum electrodynamics, and I don’t have the slightest clue as to what these are. His research earned him a Nobel Prize, but that’s not what influenced me. More meaningful to me is his approach to learning and teaching.
Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock
Creating Time through Flow
By Marney Makridakis
The perception of time is the quintessential human paradox. We often want to escape ourselves and lose track of time, and yet when we become fully aware of the gift of time, we are more present and in touch. I see a solution in becoming less aware of time but more aware of the present moment. This leads us to a certain state of bliss that often is described as "losing track of time" or "timelessness."
Books & Printables
Origami Money Plant Project
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.
Today's Photo Prompt
Inner Voices of Creativity
Release Fear and Trust the Process Through SoulCollage
By Anne Marie Bennett
Is there a part of you who is ready to let go of something old and step out in trust on a new path? It may be something as big as seeking a new job or relationship. Or it might be something smaller, but no less significant. Give this part of your inner world some power and strength by simply recognizing it and bowing to it. You can dialogue with it, or make a SoulCollage® card of your own to honor it. Name all of the support systems that are already in place for you as you begin this new part of your journey. Visualize yourself like the little girl on my card... walking across the entire thin pole. Imagine yourself falling, too, and notice how it feels as those four strong, loving arms catch you and hold you away from harm.
Writing Inspiration & Encouragement
Traverse 10 Days of Writing Dangerously
By Barbara Abercrombie
[In writing] we all have our own road up the mountain, or down into the valley, or in a small rickety boat over deep and dark water. Pick your metaphor. There's no way to glide gracefully into writing, no way to hide who we really are. There's always that loud space of emptiness and silence when you start to write, whether you're in a cabin or your bedroom or an office. There's no way to guarantee a safe, easy journey into words on the page. It's just you and your memory and experience and imagination. Naked. Find inspiration and encouragment through 10 intriguing days of writing dangerously:
Switchbacks up the Mountain | Daring to Tell | Racing Hearts and Churning Stomachs | Life Rafts | Writers with a View | The DVD in Your Head | One of the Worst Things a Writer Can Do | A Mess of Questions and Detail | Sailing from Context | Getting Published