Congratulations to Karen Pitcock at Team Teen for winning your free signed copy of Hugh MacLeod’s “Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity!” Thank you to all who commented…and keep listening to your wee voice!
Rally your creative comments people! The Schipul Book Club has a new favorite author and a chance for you to add another piece of fine literature to your collection. Let the curiosity ensue…
A guy sits down at a bar, starts drawing cartoons on the back of business cards and now has a bestselling book. Sounds like a simple plan. True. But it wasn’t your plan, nor your passion…it was Hugh MacLeod’s. His book, ‘Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity,†stems from his own personal life experiences and his ability to ‘nurture and develop his own creative sovereignty.â€Brimming with quick-witted brilliance and intellect, his stories are raw, ingenious, and to be quite honest, compel numerous snorts of laughter.
While I can’t sit here and write out my thoughts on MacLeod’s entire book, (well actually I could, but I would be banned from the Schipul Blog entirely…with God only knows how many legal issues from Ol’ Hugh), I can highlight one of my favorite ‘keys to creativity.†And it is not because Hugh mentions crayons…or that my 23nd birthday party was Crayola themed with a life size Crayola box…but I digress…
Key to Creativity #7: Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
‘Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away…Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug†is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.â€
Everyone was also given nap-time as a small fledgling, and to your dismay, is no longer included in your job description. Naps are something you should do when you can truly enjoy them…where you wake up with a mutated mug due to bed sheet indentions. In other words…a successful slumber. A creative endeavor is parallel in this thought. You need to create something that you love and can give to wholeheartedly. ‘If you make something special and powerful and honest and true, you will succeed.â€
MacLeod does not mention naps in this chapter, not even once (I’m just strange and my thoughts tend to wander). But here unto you my little pandas the interest lies…your body will never be satisfied with a mediocre nap just like your soul will never be satisfied with an empty crayon box.
MacLeod puts it quite simply…
‘They’re only crayons. You didn’t fear them in kindergarten, why fear them now?â€
Write that down.
So now I can only assume that you are planning to conquer the world with your creativity all the while changing people’s lives and going on leisurely runs with your new buddy Matt Lauer. But before you do:
- You must leave a comment explaining how you let the creative juices flow by listening to your ‘wee†voice You will be entered in our drawing to receive your very own SIGNED copy of Hugh MacLeod’s, “Ignore Everybody and 39 other Keys to Creativity.”
- Read the book. This is imperative to your survival.
- Make something. Why? Because Hugh said so.
- An anonymous comment will not enter you in the drawing. Let us know who you are!
- Contest will end Friday, August 14th at noon. Your new book awaits…
When I'm in a rut, I get someone to play a few rounds of word disassociation with me. You go around the group and say the first word that comes to mind, but it can't be associated with the last word another player said. It forces you to relax your mind and stop thinking or in the very least think outside the box others are creating for you.
I like to put my headphones on and walk around in public listening to Rob Zombie when I'm in a creative rut. I eventually get paranoid that everyone knows what I'm listening to and is terrified. It definitely gets me out of my comfort zone and gets the creativity rolling.
Since my job isn't very creative in nature, I tend to hear a little voice every hour or so tell me to stop what I'm doing and just be creative for a few minutes. I usually end up using a graphic design program to create something. It's like using crayons on the computer – super relaxing.
Morning pages help me stay creative. Also meditation.
Vonnegut says that all humans have the need to create. And that art is worth doing even if it is bad. I think the fear of doing bad is what stops a lot of creativity. I try to find art in just about everything, whether it is legal work, writing, playing with kids, whatever.
For me, to make my creative juices flow for whatever I'm doing, my wee voice has to give myself permission to do it poorly. Works really well for blog posts because if I didn't post something if it had a typo in it, I wouldn't post anything. 🙂
The voice isn't nearly as wee as it used to be- more of a low rumble, increasing to a roar by the end of each workday.
It's become much more demanding over the past few years, since I have to keep it in a cage for the better part of the week. The bars of the cage aren't holding up so well anymore…
My voice likes sensory input; the smell and texture of Play-Doh when you squish it between your fingers, the faint sound of a pencil scratching across a rough-toothed paper, the smell of tempura paint. It all goes back to before they took the crayons away, when your mind could spark off in any direction.
My creative juices start to flow when I run. I don't mean a jog around the park either. I mean a push your body to the limit, sweat pouring out of every pore, kind of run. I have come up with some great ideas during these times. It is truly amazing how the mind can go from a state of confusion to clarity so quickly.
I dance….and not graceful and too the music, but like little kids dance with lots of dizzy spins and arm waving. I give myself two songs randomly chosen by my iPod. After that the block is gone.