Perhaps you’re on Facebook or Twitter or Google+ or LinkedIn or all of them and more. Perhaps you’re not on any social network at all and can’t see the point. Perhaps you don’t know what the hell a social network is (click here!). Are you visual? If you’re overcommitted and feel like you’re going under…
Category Archives: Creativity
What I learned from writing 30,267 words
Last month, I wrote 30,267 words of a novel. Those of you who are even marginally observant will notice that 30,267 words is not 50,000 words. I failed to complete the National Novel Writing Month challenge, in which thousands of crazy persons attempt to complete a 50,000 word novel in one month. I first wrote…
Are you a poet?
It’s National Poetry Day here in the United Kingdom this Thursday, 6 October. Who are our poets? Despite our rich heritage, we’ve not really trusted poetry in Britain. (Leave all that emotional stuff to those bloody foreigners!) We’ve tended to dismiss poets as flamboyant young men who frequent opium dens, or perhaps as questionable American women living…
The perfection of tiny things
I’ve recently had the honour of facilitating discussions at Christine Valters Painter’s online community for a few weeks. I thought I’d share with you here my latest reflection: Auntie Nan was my Mum’s best friend all their lives. She wasn’t really our auntie, but it felt like it. She was tall, slim and elegant, warm,…
Is art “girly”?
One of the comments on my recent post about violence has been sticking in my mind. It was about the role of art in society and how it fits with warfare and conflict. Here it is, slightly abridged: There are some very important exceptions, Picasso’s Guernica, for example, but historically artists generally have gently healed…
Of moonlight and madness
Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. Allen Ginsberg On Wednesday I asked whether creativity was inborn. (There are some heartfelt comments, check them out if you haven’t already.) Since then, I’ve been wondering what we have to let go of to make space for our creative lives. Because I believe it is a…
Creativity: nature or nurture
I’ve been wondering about the basis of human creativity, and I’d love to know what you think. It seems to me that some individuals, from a very early age, display exceptional gifts in the visual arts, in music, writing, movement etc. And they continue to express these throughout their lives. And there are some whose…
Awakening to our creative, sacred hearts
GUEST POST. I’m absolutely delighted today to publish a guest post by Christine Valters Paintner of Abbey of the Arts. Read to the end for news of a free gift for one lucky reader. Over to Christine: I teach a five-day workshop called Awakening the Creative Spirit, designed for soul care practitioners to kindle their…
It’s (not) just your imagination
You wonderful readers! I asked for a tenth suggestion in my post Nine ways to prime your imagination and I got enough ideas for a second post. You left comments on this site and by email, on Facebook and via Twitter. There were some common themes so I’ve pulled them together here: Take up some…
Nine ways to prime your imagination
Here are nine ways to release the genie of imagination from your grubby lamp. Sleep. First because it’s difficult to be live creatively when you’re exhausted. Second because even if you don’t remember your dreams, you’re having them anyway, and your subconscious is making all kinds of gigantic leaps and connections that your conscious mind…
