“How to tap into creativity” is an important skill/Google search term for any thirty-something. I’m wrestling with the concept because I’m currently in the process of writing my first short story in 25 years. The last attempt involved a lost toaster that made friends with a dog and was met with rave reviews by my 3rd grade teacher. She gently corrected my spelling of “taostar” throughout the narrative and said it was “very creative”. At the time, I figured she told all the students their stories were very creative. Looking back, I realize: 1) She definitely did do that2) It was probably true A story about a lost toaster…
Sources of Creativity
I look for sources of creativity everywhere I go. That’s because my creative life is important to me. Every day I try to find time to write or draw or walk or learn something new. It helps break up the time between episodes of Top Chef Junior and bottles of Ribera del Duero. With writing, my best words come early in the morning. But I have fallen into a writing trap. I affectionately call it the “I-like-to-write-about-my-morning-anxiety” trap. When I review my sunrise thoughts, they seem to circle around themes like “drowning” and “burning”. Rather decidedly un-fabulous. So in the interest of changing my mental bandwidths (and my newfound thoughts…
Inspiration
Inspiration: the lifeblood of creativity. Newsflash–creativity is hard work! Original thoughts isn’t just laying around out there with the empty 16 Handles containers on the sticky summer sidewalks of Manhattan. I’ve spent a lot of time this summer considering where my inspiration comes from and I’ve had some surprising results. Though I love my forever home of New York City and most people consider it to be a hotbed of creative thought, I realized this summer that I feel most inspired in nature. I find fire to be a tremendous source of inspiration. Just to be contradictory and confusing, I also find a wellspring of creativity (especially for writing) during…