If you share my fascination with creativity and writing, I invite you to join me the evening of April 11th for a get-off-of-your-feet workshop experience titled Telling Your Story Creatively: Principles and Whole-Brain Practices for Writing Compelling Blog Posts. I’m honored to be the April workshop leader in Michelle James’ unparalleled Capitol Creativity Network series, which meets monthly in the charming Cleveland Park Club House in Northwest Washington, D.C. It will be a night of improv and interaction, so I fear it’s only an in-person event; but is there a better reason to take a trip to Washington? (Don’t answer that question.)

Now on to some of the links on creativity and writing I tweeted this week:

CREATIVITY

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  “The Neuroscience of Creativity: Why Daydreaming Matters,” Matthew E. May, OpenForum: You may recall my post from last week on lessons I drew from the new book Imagine by Jonah Lehrer, namely the concept of shifting your focus. Matthew focuses on Lehrer’s related discussion of daydreaming.

• “5 Exercises to Get Your Creativity Unstuck,” Sarah Whitman, HOW: I often practice the first lesson, writing a haiku in thirty seconds. I write them for fun; the habit annoys my kids; my wife ignores them.
• “The War of Art: The Reason You’re Avoiding Your Most Important Work,” Susan Biali, Psychology Today: You’re here at The Artist’s Road instead of doing that work, aren’t you? Susan shares lessons from Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art on possible resistance.
• “The Collective and the Future of Creativity,” Mark Changizi, The Creativity Post: Mark writes about one of my favorite thinkers, Jaron Lanier, and Lanier’s thesis, that “the Web is a creative bust.”
• “You Must Engage Your Creative Side,” James Prescott, guest on Jeff Goins, Writer: If you don’t, James will come after you armed with a sharp pencil.

WRITING

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  “25 Lies Writers Tell (And Start to Believe),” Chuck Wendig, terrible minds: Number 5: “I can only write when the muse allows!” How fortunate for us that most people don’t also apply this rule to bathing.

• “10+ Sure-Fire Ways to Find Blog Post Ideas,” Cheryl Reif Writes: You could actually end this list with #1: Read.
• “The Difference Between Style and Voice,” Mayra Calvani, Writers on the Move: My voice on this blog is that of an irreverent cheerleader. My blog style–when not assembling Creativity Tweets of the Week–is to formulate a personal-essay reflection on a topic of broad interest, while avoiding (as much as possible) blogging tropes such as “4 Steps To…” and “5 Reasons Why…” No offense to the many authors I cite here on Fridays who do practice that SEO-friendly style: I’m just lousy at counting.

If you found one of these links of value–either having followed it via my Twitter feed or here–let me know. If you thought one of them was a dud, then definitely let me know. That will make for a far more interesting conversation.