Creativity Tweets of the Week — 01/13/12

On By Patrick RossIn Blogging, Creativity, Inspiration, Journalism, MFA, Monkeys, Self-employment, Twitter, Writing

Your patience has been rewarded. After a four-week hiatus, the Creativity Tweets of the Week makes its triumphant return. Once again I provide some of the best links on creativity and writing I sent via Twitter this week. Note I still provide a focus on creativity despite changing my Twitter handle yesterday from @on_creativity to @PatrickRwrites. Was the change a sign of vanity, or just a wise move away from too many brands? Can’t it be both?

CREATIVITY

  • “Finding Purpose, Embracing Creativity,” Patricia Crisafulli, Huffington Post: Having your creative output showcased is a worthy goal, but celebrate the process and the result regardless.
  • I intended to include pictures here taken at my recent MFA in Writing residency at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, but in transferring them to my computer I accidentally deleted them. So here's a picture of a neighbor's dog, Bella, taken by my daughter. Why? Because she's cute. The dog, that is, although I think my daughter is as well.

    “Are You Suffering from Information Overload Syndrome?” Debra Kristi, Debra Kristi’s Blog: I fear my Tweets of the Week contribute to IOS. So be it. (FYI, my contest-winning personal essay “Forest Foursome” is a reflection on this syndrome.)

  • “The Counter-Intuitive Benefits of Small Time Blocks,” Elizabeth Grace Saunders, 99%: Consider this an anecdote to IOS (see above).
  • “More Ideas for Generating Creativity,” Carrie Brummer, ArtistThink: My friend Carrie blogs more suggestions, including the unorthodox “Trade unfinished creative projects with someone and finish them.” Anyone interested in finishing my next MFA packet?
  • “Take a Chance on Your Creative Dream,” Sue Mitchell, Your Muse is Calling: You’ll have to change your behavior “in a pretty significant way” with no guarantee of success, my friend Sue says. She’s right. But isn’t anything worth having worth a little risk?

WRITING

  • “10 Terrific Creative Writing Blogs,” Sonia Simone, Copyblogger: I’m not including this just because I’m listed as one of the ten. Okay, that’s part of it. But Sonia takes the Top 10 Blogs for Writing winners awarded by Write to Done and provides helpful summaries of each. Of mine, she quotes my description of it as “an ongoing conversation among the blog’s author and its readers regarding the challenges and rewards of pursuing an art-committed life.” Yup. (Question to grammarians: Did I use “among” correctly in that sentence?)
  • Here's a picture of some of my monkeys. Why? Geez, you ask a lot of questions.

    “Writing Prompts for Revelation and Transformation,” Christy Bailey, Hunger Mountain: Christy offers ways to “[un]block the creative right brain” on the site hosted by the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ literary magazine.

  • “Podcasts about Writing,” Peggy Lane, Hey Biscuit: The print journalist in me resists podcasts for the same reason I resist TV news; I can’t skip around the story. But if you’re stuck in traffic they are lifesavers. Mix them in with moments of silent reflection to allow your subconscious to speak to your work-in-progress.
  • “Writing Memoir? Be Counterphobic,” Marion Roach Smith: In other words, let go of the fear. The post reminded me of a favorite craft book of mine, Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir by the incomparable Sue William Silverman.
  • “Five Writing Prompts to Overcome Writer’s Block,” Joe Bunting, The Write Practice: I avoid writer’s block as a freelance journalist by reminding myself that if I don’t file, I don’t get paid. I’ll keep these in mind for my creative writing.
  • “On Becoming a Writer,” Jessica McCann, guest post on creative non-fiction writer: My friend Jessica shares her story to both non-fiction and fiction success. Spoiler alert: Her teenage daughter can’t believe she’d write an essay willingly.
  • “Why Authors Tweet,” Anne Trubek, The New York Times: I’ll take a guess. To avoid their works-in-progress?

I’d like to welcome all of the new subscribers I’ve gained since winning the Top-10 Blog for Writers award. As we move forward together, let me know what’s working and what’s not. I’ll keep doing the former and apologize for the latter.

24 thoughts on “Creativity Tweets of the Week — 01/13/12”

  1. Oh, Patrick.
    Thank you.
    I am honored to be mentioned here on your fine blog in such remarkable company. How kind.
    And many thanks for the fine podcast listing. I’ve been waiting for just such a source. How did you know?
    Creativity — finding it, nurturing it, respecting it — is a topic on which we all need guidance. This is the place to find it.

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    1. Hi Marion! Happy to include you. And I love this: “Creativity — finding it, nurturing it, respecting it — is a topic on which we all need guidance. This is the place to find it.”

      And how did I know you needed a podcast list? Perhaps I can read minds. My family is pretty good at reading my mind; when they say I’m thinking about bacon, they’re usually right.

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    1. Oh, Jessica, you have to raise your standards of what makes a week! 🙂 I must say, it’s days later and I’m still smiling at your daughter’s reaction to your “book report.” Yup, great stuff from Sue this week, I’m glad she’s doing posts regularly now.

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  4. I love all your monkeys Patrick! I won’t ask. 😉 I have a monkey. She bites.

    Thank you for including me! It is such an honor! I threw that together on a whim, in a rush. 😀 …Or did I?

    I need to check out the other links now. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

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  7. I thank you for including my post as well!

    LOVE the idea of exchanging half-done projects with someone else. It’s a variation on something I do with my elementary school students where one person writes the beginning, another the middle, and someone else the end of a story, but adults don’t often get to do fun stuff like that.

    Thanks also for the memoir resources.

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    1. Hi Charlotte, glad to be of service. I’ve worked some on one of the two creative writing samples, and am now reading (well, taking a break from) one of my assigned books. Like last semester, the first packet period is shorter than the others, but I’m not as stressed this time around. Perhaps I should be!

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  9. Happy 2012, Patrick and belated congratulations on your blog award, which is very well deserved! Have enjoyed your posts from Vermont–and am always glad to see the creativity tweets summary. Thanks for setting a great example of both creative growth and consistency–and for inspiring writers everywhere.

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  10. I bought Fearless Confessions after reading this, as I have been toying with the idea of writing more memoir.So far, I am not letting myself read ahead of the exercises I have completed, but I want to. I love the way she writes. It would be so easy to just read the book and feel inspired without putting in the work.

    Thanks for passing along so many fabulous resources!

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    1. I’m so glad you find it of value! I expect to have Sue as my MFA advisor in either my third or fourth semester; I’ll welcome her assistance on the travel memoir I’m writing.

      You’ve mentioned before this idea of memoir. It is of course more difficult to tell your stories in this form than to fictionalize them, but I’m reminded of something Connie May Fowler said in our workshop. She’s a best-selling novelist but also wrote a well-received memoir. When reading her fiction knowing her back story, I see a lot of her and others in her past in her fiction. But she told us readers connect with the author so much more when they know the story is real.

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