Tag Archives: create

Creativity Sundays: Expand your vocabulary!!!

Posted in Creativity 101 by

No matter what you method of being creative, it is always very important to expand your vocabulary. You can never know too many words.

Granted, as a writer, it is possible to use too many complicated words when simple ones will do. However, you still should know the complicated ones and what they mean.

Wordplay is fun. Creating art based on a new word is fun.

Here are some words you may or may not know. Attempt to use a few of the ones you aren’t familiar with in your next creative project or add them in to a current project.

officious
impassive
monstrosity
sanguine
conspicuous
toothsome
fervent
fruition
nuance
segue
treacherous
rampage
sumptuous
seamy
neurosis
leaven
culpable
zany
coddle
lacerate
goblet
brusque
menagerie
fractious
eccentric
braggadocio
heresy
glean
uncivilized
sensationalism
placate
recompense
hazy
insinuate

Want to find new words on your own?

  • Get a dictionary app or follow one on social media. Most post words of the day.
  • Open a dictionary to a random page and pick out a word you don’t know.
  • Take words you do know and look them up in the thesaurus for alternatives you may not have thought of.
  • Learn a new language.
  • Keep your eyes and your ears open.

Creativity Sundays – Unload Your Brain

Posted in Creativity 101 by

This week try to unload the creativity from your brain.

Before you go to bed write for fifteen minutes. Unload all the your thoughts onto the page. Write. Sketch. Plan. Nothing needs to make sense. You could map out ideas for a project or you can write a few pages of a project.

Once you wake up you should do the same thing. Unload the first things on your mind. Throw them on the page. Write about a dream. Sketch an image that came to your mind. Write all of the things that come to your mind. Take fifteen minutes and get it all down.

At the end of the week, go over what you have. Try not to do it until a full week has gone by. Give the thoughts and ideas some space to breathe. There may be some jewels hiding there.

Creativity Sundays – What is Creativity?

Posted in Creativity 101 by

What is creativity?

What does it mean to you?

When I think of creativity I think of:

  • it is characterized by originality
  • innovation
  • setting prototypes
  • it is primal
  • imaginative
  • unique
  • inventive
  • authentic
  • revolutionary
  • instinctive

I don’t think there is one definition that works for everyone.

Begin your process by exploring your creativity.

What does creativity mean to you? How do you express it?

Highlight all the ways you exercise your creativity.

30 in 30: Day 29 – Embrace change

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Change something about your project today. Change your character in some way. Alter their perception or change their mind about something important. Change your direction. Turn left when you were clearly supposed to go right. Change the way you write a poem. Pick today to rhyme. Change the way you approach an essay. If you typically do a lot of research, go off the top of your head today.

 

Embrace change today and have some fun with it!

30 in 30: Day 28 – What is your background?

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Write out the background for either yourself or one of your characters. It could be about you or the character personally, as in their history. Or it could be about genealogy and ancestry. Be sure to relate this to who you or your character is currently (present moment in the story). Make connections. See how it ties together. Insert the sense of discovery with it.

Have fun!

30 in 30: Day 27 – Insert your favorite dish

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Give something edible a staring role. Take the focus off of conflict, drama, or whatever else is going on in your writing and focus on the food.

Make sure to use all five senses.

Most of all, make sure to have fun writing!

30 in 30: Day 26 – Give Thanks

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Really simple… the topic is being thankful and grateful.

Work it in.

Work it out.

Have some fun!

30 in 30: Day 24 – Channel your energy

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Have you ever had someone tell you to write it out?

Even if you are feeling something that doesn’t seem to fit with what you are working, you should always try to find a way to channel that energy and throw it into your project.

This doesn’t always mean that your characters or your piece has to match the emotions you are feeling. Sometimes you  need to turn those emotions into motivation and write them out. Turn that stress and frustration into a beautifully creative piece. Use boredom as a time to throw your imagination into emergency boot camp.

 

So take whatever you are feeling and channel it. If you need to, time yourself to up the challenge factor.

 

Try to have some fun with this.

30 in 30: Day 23 – Anticipation

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Add some anticipation to your writing. Let your story, poem, or piece begin to build up to something that the reader may or may not see coming. Make sure not to give too much away. Leave bread crumbs. Let the clues add up. Let the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together.

Have fun!

30 in 30: Day 22 – Expansion

Posted in 30 in 30 by

Take a short poem, like a haiku or even a six word story/poem, and expand on it. Fit it into what you have been writing. Use one you haven’t written. Why? Because you need to imagine what the story is behind the piece. Imagine what was going on in the writer’s mind and run with it. How does that fit with what you are thinking with your writing.

Stretch the piece. Stretch your creativity.

Happy writing!