While away at my MFA residency I’m highlighting some of the  links I’ve posted in past Friday posts.

CREATIVITY

• “Top 10 Creativity Definitions,” Maria Trautmann, Creative Bliss: Not a bad idea to make a list, because I’ve never seen one definition that captures the complete essence of the concept.
• “Do We Need to Be Crazy To Be Creative?” Douglas Eby: It can help. A touch of mania encourages ideas and the pursuit of them that others would overlook or dismiss.
• “Strategic Planning Doesn’t Have to Kill Creativity,” Mike Brown, Brainzooming: Ways not to sit in a conference room all day brainstorming on what song would be your company’s theme song.
• “Why Your Creativity Feels as Barren as a Tree in Winter,” Dan Goodwin, A Big Creative Yes: First, let’s hope this finds you at a time when your creativity is abloom. If not, this post provides some wisdom. One lesson — it’s on you to get those blossoms budding again.

WRITING

• “Getting it Down,” Judy Clement Wall, Fear of Writing: Don’t let the fear that your creative output will be, well, excrement keep you from just doing it.
• “Writer, Interrupted,” Nichole Bernier, Beyond the Margins: A great post on balancing life’s many responsibilities and staying inspired for the 99.999% of writers who actually have other responsibilities as well.
• “Successful Writers Produce,” Scott Eagan, Babbles from Scott Eagan: A literary agent expresses frustration at writers who aren’t pushing themselves to create, in particular multiple projects.
• “20 Creative Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block,” Web Design Schools: The title says it all.