It may be April 1st, but we don’t fool around at The Artist’s Road. Instead we provide you unadulterated wisdom on creativity and writing along with a dash of inspiration in the form of links I tweeted this week. So get ready for a wild ride, or as Jimmy Fallon says in channeling Charlie Sheen, “sit back and enjoy the ride, and buckle up, ’cause it’s going to be a long one, it’s gonna be bumpy and at one point you’re going to want to put your hands up, not legal, but they’re taking a picture, digital photo, $25 dollars when you get off the ride.”
CREATIVITY:
- “15 Best Creativity Tips,” Dan Rockwell, Leadership Freak: Short and sweet, as is his style, he throws in a bonus, 3 types of creativity.
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Sure, a ride at Universal Studios features an attack by the shark from "Jaws," but that beast of the sea ain't got tiger blood. “21 Ways You’re Killing Your Creativity Without Even Realising,” Dan Goodwin, A Big Creative Yes: The post is about a year old but the advice is timeless. This week I’ve committed a lot of these flaws, but in particular #9, “You don’t ever celebrate your achievements.”
- “8 Ways to Boost Your Creativity,” Dr. Jennifer Howard: I don’t think I have tried #4 before, “Look at what you’re working on upside down,” although when I was a reporter an editor insisted I learn how to read upside down, the better to gain inside inf0rmation when interviewing someone at his or her desk.
INSPIRATION
- “3 Reasons People Are Pissing On Your Parade, And What You Can Do About It,” Linda Formichelli, The Renegade Writer: While Linda’s post focuses on writers, its message of dream-killers in your life will connect with any creative.
- “5 Helpful Tips: How to Find Joy in Your Life,” Aline Hanle, Modern Life: Simplicity and authenticity are two themes of this inspiring post.
WRITING:
- “Inspiring a Writer Manqué from Brockton,” JW Rogers, guest post on Fear of Writing: I’m grateful to my friends Milli and J at Fear of Writing for introducing me to this writer. Check out this inspiring JW Rogers memoir essay, “A search for a true Voice” at DRMSTREAM.
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Okay, I'll admit this recreation of a scene from The Fast and The Furious is, duh, winning. “Writers, Read,” by Erika Robuck, Muse: Erica is a book junkie, for which I’m sure many authors are grateful. Here she starts an interesting conversation on what genre of books are more helpful for writers, books on the craft or books in the genre they’re writing.
- “The courage to call yourself a writer,” Aisha Saeed: Aisha focuses not just on self-identifying as a writer (which is important and can be difficult) but the challenge of proclaiming that to others.
- “Traditional vs. Self-Publishing: How Much Does the Debate Matter?” Jami Gold: This is a long-debated topic, and Jami has a lot of interesting commenters offering their opinions.
It’s only been five months since I began Creativity Tweets of the Week, but the globe is now captivated, counting the days until the latest issue posts Friday morning. It has even inspired an 8th grader named Rebecca Black to create a tribute song called “Friday.” As Rebecca sings, the arrival of Creativity Tweets of the Week is “fun, fun, fun, fun.”
The Artist's Road 
Thanks for the shout out for my blog post! That one seems to have really hit a nerve among writers. I hope your readers enjoy it!
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It sure has! My bit.ly account suggests a lot of clicks to it and tweets of it, happy to keep the traffic flowing!
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Thanks for the double-link in the roundup , Patrick. I’m glad we connected. I love what you are doing, and the energy that runs through the myriad outposts you’ve established on the web.
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I too am glad we connected, and thank you for the compliment!
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Another great list, Patrick. You find all the best stuff.
Thank you for including our guest blogger, JW Rogers, with his excellent post, “Inspiring a Writer Manqué from Brockton.” JW certainly deserves the feature.
~ Milli
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I was happy to include him, Milli. If you read to the end of the post, and now have “Friday” in your head (as I do) my sincerest apologies.
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Thanks for the blog link, Patrick. I appreciate it! I’m off to check out the other links now. 🙂 (I should probably do one of these round-up posts on my blog every week because I *love* reading them, but um, yeah, not sure that’s going to happen.)
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Hi Jami! Well, it ensures I have to send good tweets all week. It also gives me a vehicle for the odd sense of humor that at times drives my wife and kids crazy. I suspect, however, that most readers skip my narrative and go straight to the links.
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I do appreciate this list too! There are so many great resources out there and keeping track of them is hard! How Do you Do it?? (and thank you for it!)
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It takes a little bit of work, but fortunately many of the people I follow on Twitter send out good links, I retweet, and then post ’em here! Glad you appreciate it.
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Thanks for these links! I’ll have to peruse through them, especially the boosting creativity ones. Could use that right about now!
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We could always use a bit of creative boost, glad this is here for you when you need it.
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I wish I had time to read all of your great creativity tweets! Well, I do, but I choose to do other things like, oh, look for that ever-elusive part-time job I need to pay my bills at the moment, or work diligently on my art biz, or write and market my blog, or help manage the bathroom remodeling project, or all the million things you have to handle to run a household when you are single, or … whew! No wonder I’m tired out!
Love the images and captions, you are clearly having a good time with that. Now, of to read at least one link AND tweet the link! 🙂 (Just a little slow this week)
Amy
P.S. I’m so glad the wisdom provided is unadulterated. I hate it when my wisdom is adulterated. 😉
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Patrick,
Thanks for the shout out. The post you mention was fun and based on my conversation with Josh Linkner. He’s a creative guy.
Best to you,
Dan
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Thanks, Dan, for stopping by. The book of his you highlight, Disciplined Dreaming, is on my to-read list thanks to your recommendation.
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