I’m shaking things up this week with The Artist’s Road’s collection of the best links on creativity and writing I sent on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve come to realize I tweet the same topics I write about. Shocking, I know. So this week I’m including after each link a separate link to a blog post I have written that is similar. Now I’ve cursed you with twice the links with which to waste away a day, or a long weekend at the beach.
CREATIVITY
- “Can Creativity be Taught?” August Turak, Forbes: I think I know how the many creativity coaches who read this blog would respond. I like this passage: “[W]e don’t learn to be creative. We must become creative people.” (Related: The Zen of Teaching Creativity)
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Are my U.S. readers headed to the beach this Memorial Day weekend? It will probably be a wee bit more crowded than this. “How to Manage for Creativity,” Steve Minter, Industry Week: I want to show this post to my teenage children — he destroys the myth surrounding the power of multitasking. (Related: Allowing Time for Creativity)
- “State of Flow,” Melissa Crytzer-Fry, What I Saw: For writers and all creatives, Melissa provides 9 steps for harnessing your creative flow, and frames the post around pictures of the striking place I grew up, the Sonoran Desert. (Related: 5 Steps to Subconscious-Driven Creativity)
- “55 Insights into Creativity, Beliefs and Leadership,” compiled by Deborah Connolly, Creative Leadership Coaching: A collection of inspiring quotes, from an eclectic mix of sources. Imagine hitting a hooka bar and finding reclined on the pillows Muhammad Ali, Pablo Picasso, Sigmund Freud, and Buddha. (Related: Um, none, I’ve never compiled a quote list.)
WRITING
- “Are You a Confident Writer?” Robert Lee Brewer, My Name is Not Bob: Market yourself as a writer with a combination of confidence and humility. Heck, I think that’s how one should approach life. (Related: 7 Steps to Writing Success)
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Trust me -- if you're at a tourist beach and find yourself under attack from a giant purple octopus, the best defense is a putt-putt club. “Kathryn Stockett’s ‘The Help’ Turned Down 60 Times Before Becoming a Best Seller,” Kathryn Stockett, MORE: These inspiring posts seem as common online as do those Facebook ads promoting someone who lost 60 pounds, but we know these stories are true. (Related post updated 5/25 with very good news: Celebrating Rejection)
- “A Closer Look: Studying Books You Love,” Ann Meier, guest post on The Other Side of the Story: Ann walks us through her dissection of her prose when she compares it to a favorite novel. (Related: Three Authors Every Writer Should Read)
- “Are MFA Programs Ruining American fiction?” Laura Miller, Salon: The latest look at an ongoing debate in which subjective opinions on each side are presented as objective. Sorry, my own analysis slipped in there. (Related: The Short-Order Writer)
This is the last Tweets of the Week before Memorial Day here in the U.S., but looking at the color scheme I’ve got going above, I feel like the next holiday should be the 4th of July.
I think it’s brilliant that you’ve included links to your related articles. This is already a dyn-o-mite collection of creativity links, but I saw several titles in red I also want to visit.
Alas, the Friday To-Do list calls so I’ll return over the weekend to follow the links. That will give me time to find my hookah pipe and some Turkish-design pillows. 😀
~ Milli
P.S. I agree with “[W]e don’t learn to be creative. We must become creative people.” We need to reverse the UNlearning we did after being born creative and practicing our creativity unselfconsciously as children.
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Enjoy the links, and the weekend!
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Great list; so glad to see my friend Melissa’s post on it! I will definitely check all these out!
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Thanks, Julia! I love Melissa’s blog.
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Thanks for the links. All very interesting. I’m still going back and forth on whether want to pursue mfa. It would be for my own benefit more than anything else. I keep seeing more negatives than positives lately. Maybe I’ll just go the less inexpensive route and take some online writing course.
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It seems wise to start with a class or two. I’ve taken a couple at a local writer’s center, and someone in my writing group is doing an online class through an MFA program that’s out west (she’s not in the program, just taking a class).
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