Hit the target or miss the target, the arrow's gone from the bow. What we dream of doing with our precious dart only has limited time to get done. Tomorrow always comes with The Sun and night will follow after the day is done. The eternal question for someone whose creative engines automatically churn are whether that day will be spent just marking time’s passage, or if there will be some intention during the day that sends the arrow home.
Read MoreTHE MYTH OF WRITERS BLOCK
Without a doubt writers have good days and bad days, too. Some days the words tumble out like gravel from a dump truck. Some days they’re stuck deep in the muck. But when the right words don’t just come out, as inevitably will happen from time to time, the pro knows that there’s no excuse to calling it quits.
Read MoreDESPAIR (2nd in a two part series)
In despair we often find our most honest voices and our wellsprings of motivation. In despair we can neither hide nor deceive ourselves about what makes us feel things deeply. In despair we are forced to try and change what we must change, because to live but a single additional day similarly burdened would be untenable, unthinkable. Despair propels our creative engines to make our own pain more bearable.
Read MoreELATION (1st of a two part series)
Filled with lightness your heart is so full: it's not crazy at all to think the novel that you've been longing to write could just come out, right now— I'll just drop into my seat for a moment or two, sketch it out—easy!—and fill in the blanks this afternoon! Anything is possible. Songs come into being unbidden. Hunger makes you feel good, as if those cranky pangs were just life's way of helping you savor your own wonderful, scintillating senses. You must have been doing something substantial to grow so hungry, right? Right on!
Read MoreRULES DEFINE FREEDOM
Rules give creative people the license to operate from a stable position. By imposing structure and rules to which a disparate crowd must conform, standardization of formats facilitates wider distribution of information.
Read MoreMOVE YOUR FEET
You have to get comfortable with the idea that you just might be in the center of the action. While often true, don’t worry about everyone watching you. The fact is, they’re generally not. You’re not the subject; the thing you’re photographing is likely the thing that’s holding everyone’s attention. When you’re learning, just move in and try to have a sense of humor about it. Once you get it, it will become second nature and you’ll move because you’re motivated to capture something.
Read MoreIN THE BEGINNING
Even the largest, most influential creations begin with the intangibility of an idea. Just because some ideas are easy to generate does not indicate whether they will grow and thrive.
Read MoreRELENTLESS
Everyone has stuff to do, but if you’re the kind of person who regards his or her daily efforts as creative expressions rather than simply lists of tasks, there’s something different about the endless punch list you need to complete. Those tasks aren’t just annoying or distracting. They’re relentless.
Read MoreTHE PROBLEM WITH POLITICS
The creative process is one of figuring something out that has little to do with gaining popularity. Politics, conversely, is all about popularity. Politics is about getting enough people to like you so that you can do things to perpetuate the trend of people liking you. Creativity is about solving problems.
Read MoreVISITING PLACES YOU WOULDN’T CHOOSE TO VISIT
You wouldn’t have signed up for the experience if you had a choice. Choice is the great luxury, the downy pillow beneath a tired head in a private sleeping car on a long journey. Reality is a seat in steerage on a wooden bench, with inadequate ventilation and a colicky baby in the row behind you.
Read More