Creativity isn’t just about creating masterpieces or making heaps of money. It’s enriching, it helps you to process the world around you, seeing the things you’ve experienced from a new point of view or imagining somewhere you’ve never been.
Sometimes we’re all intimidated by the blank page, blank canvas, or unshaped piece of play dough. At times like this you might need a bit of inspiration, or some tips on how to get started.
Inspirational trips
It may be that you need the right surroundings to get yourself inspired. Of course this can mean a hundred to different things to a hundred different people. For you the right surroundings might be a field in the Lake District, or a bench on a busy high street where you can go to people watch. It could even be visiting the set of the Harry Potter films, which can feel like taking a walk inside somebody else’s imagination.
Writing prompts
We’re talking about writing prompts here but this could apply equally well to songs or drawings. It’s a common misconception that the hard part of art is the “coming up with the ideas” part.
The truth is the ideas are the easy part, the hard part is turning that idea into something. However, it can be handy to have something to get you started. Sites like the Writing Prompts subreddit or the SF Swap project have loads of ideas that you can take and runaway with at any time! If you can, get together a small writing circle and swap your own ideas to get you started.
Keep track of what inspires you
Whether you want to keep a scrap book of magazine and catalogue clippings, photos, scraps of paper or simply a Pinterest page. The fact is every day you’re going to see hundreds of tiny things that could potentially spark an idea, and it’s a good idea to keep track of them.
Take your pen for a walk
Sometimes the best way to get some work done is just to sit down and do it. Even if you don’t know what you’re about to do. If you like to draw, just take the pen for a walk along the page, you might end up with nothing but swirls, or you might end up with a picture that you never would’ve thought of if you’d waited until you “had an idea”. Likewise, just writing down your stream of consciousness can trigger ideas that never would’ve had a chance before you switched off your internal editor.
Bore yourself creative
But sometimes all the inspiration you need is nothing at all. If you start doing that massive pile of dishes you’ve been putting off for ages, or painting that beige wall you’ve been meaning to decorate, you’ll soon find your imagination going walkabout, and that’s often when the best ideas strike.
Collaborative Post