Unlock Your Creativity:Try Something New

Unlock Your Creativity: Change Up Your Routine

 Is your life in a rut? Are you feeling stuck on a problem? Working on a project that’s going nowhere? In writing we call this “being blocked” and it is definitely a problem that most everyone has to deal with at some point. Here are some ideas that might help you get through it:

•  Set your project aside for a couple of weeks and work on something else. Sometimes, like a watched pot that never boils, ideas don’t come when we are fretting over a problem. In my experience, the best ideas for my stories often arrive when I am thinking about something else — walking my dog, cooking dinner, browsing a farmer’s market.
•  Sometimes I get blocked when I am at a “fork in the road” in my life: there are multiple routes I could take, and I’m not sure which one is the “right” one. If you suspect this is the case for your subconscious, I would try just picking one route – one small thing you could do today to make a positive change – and do that. Small positive changes can add up to amazing results.
•  Change up your routine. Walk or bicycle rather than drive to work or school. Take a different route home. Wake up early and watch the sunrise. Eat dinner outside to take advantage of the last remnants of warmth before winter. Instead of watching TV in the evenings, go dancing. Listen to music. Read a good book. When you slow down your daily trip or switch up your routine, things like hummingbirds, squirrels, and the unique hue of the sky on a particular day stand out with beautiful acuity. Take a notebook with you to jot down notes when you feel inspired. 

Here’s a creativity prompt to try: 

Go outside and spend ten minutes jotting down descriptions of your surroundings. Don’t censor yourself. Pay attention to details. What do you see? Smell? Hear? Touch? Nothing is too small to write down. Then, sift through your list of descriptions and circle your favorite words and phrases. Weave them together into a poem. 

About the Author:
Dallas Woodburn is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. She has written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine. Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated nearly 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is coordinator of the Young Writers Program at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Dallas graduated this past May from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. Contact her at her website www.writeonbooks.org or blog http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com. 

© 2009. This article was excerpted with permission from Dallas Woodburn. All reprints must state, “Reprinted with permission by Dallas Woodburn from www.writeonbooks.org. Originally published in www.WomensOnlineMagazineLosAngeles.com, October, 2009″. 

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions reflected in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect on the publisher, editor, or editorial staff of Women’s Online Magazine Los Angeles. This article has been written and reviewed by the author. Any errors should be brought to the attention of the author.

Solve a Problem by “Interviewing” a Character

When I begin to write a story, one of the most important aspects is developing a cast of characters. Creating characters can be more difficult than it first seems. It often takes effort to come up with interesting people who you are willing to spend an entire story (much less an entire book!) with.

What do I do when I’m feeling character-blocked?  Something counterintuitive.  I step away from my computer screen.  Good characters aren’t often discovered by staring at a flashing cursor on your blank computer screen. Characters from my favorite books seem so real that I sometimes forget they’re just fictional. So to make my characters real, I often base them on real people – even if they are people I’ve never met, only glimpsed for a moment as they walk by at the grocery store or the park.

Have you ever struggled for days with a problem, worrying and fretting and turning the same circles over and over in your mind, but no solution comes? Do what I do when I am feeling blocked creatively. Go to the park, or the mall, or the supermarket, and spend half an hour watching the people around you. Study their clothes, their manner of speech, their expressions. How old do you think they are? What do you think they are feeling right now – happy, sad, angry, bored? What do you think they are doing here? Who are they close to? Who are they fighting with? What are their dreams and fears?

This is helpful in multiple ways. First, trying to imagine someone else’s life helps you get out of your own life for a little bit – and, in turn, step away from your own problems and worries. When you return to them, you hopefully will find they have shrunk. Edward W. Smith, the creator of The Bright Moment Seminars and the e-zine One Minute Motivator, agrees. Here is his advice: “We tend to take ourselves, very, very seriously and work ourselves into a frenzy about things which if looked at from a larger perspective, do not matter at all. If you are having a problem, imagine that the problem has shrunk to the size of a pea, and you are holding it in the palm of your hand, then see how you feel about the problem. Chances are you will be able to look at the troubling issue without a lot of the stress associated with it and be able to solve it faster and with less stress.”

Another possibility is to use your imagination to “interview” one of the people you see – one of your “characters” – about your problem. Grab a sheet of paper and write your problem at the top. Then, pretend you are the character you have created, giving advice. You can write out the answer like a “Dear Abby” advice column. You might even find yourself writing an imagined dialogue or conversation between yourself and your character. What would they do in your situation? By unlocking your creative subconscious, you will open yourself up to new solutions you had previously been blind to.

About the Author:

Dallas Woodburn is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. She has written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine.  Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated nearly 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is coordinator of the Young Writers Program at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Dallas graduated this past May from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. Contact her at her website www.WriteOnBooks.org or blog  http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com.

© 2009. This article was excerpted with permission from Dallas Woodburn. All reprints must state, “Reprinted with permission by Dallas Woodburn from www.WriteOnBooks.org. Originally published in www.WomensOnlineMagazineLosAngeles.com, September, 2009”.

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions reflected in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect on the publisher, editor, or editorial staff of Women’s Online Magazine Los Angeles. This article has been written and reviewed by the author. Any errors should be brought to the attention of the author.

Unlock Your Creativity: Don’t Wait for Inspiration to Strike

When I first started writing, I did a lot of waiting. I stared at my blank computer screen, fingers poised above the keys, waiting and waiting – hoping and hoping – for a lightning bolt of inspiration to strike. I thought I needed a Great Idea. None of the fleeting ideas that came to me seemed good enough.

Then, six years ago, I underwent surgery on both my legs. Bedridden during my recovery, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I couldn’t walk, so it was hard to go out anywhere. I moped, watched TV, read magazines. I relaxed, like my doctor told me to. After a few days, however, relaxation gets pretty boring.

So, I started to write. I sat on the couch, laptop computer balanced on my thighs, trying to think. I typed a few words, and then erased them. The blank computer-screen page mocked me, laughed at me, tortured me. What could I write? I typed a few sentences, read them over to myself, and again erased them.

After a few fruitless hours, I was struck by a lightning bolt of sorts. No, it wasn’t the perfect idea I had been searching for, but rather a truth about writing: the delete key is your worst enemy and your best friend at the same time. It can erase unnecessary words that your work is much better without – but it can also kill brilliant ideas before they even get the chance to blossom.

We all have metaphorical delete keys in our lives. What are you pushing away in your life that might benefit your creative soul? What risks are you not taking because of fear or self-consciousness? How are you choosing – or not choosing – to spend your time?

It was a big step for me when I decided to give my writing a chance by not waiting for inspiration to strike. Instead, I set a deadline for myself – 500 words that very day – and just started writing. At first, the sentences were forced and filled with cliches. Then, slowly but surely, I got sucked into my story, intrigued by my characters that were starting to become vivid and human, and I forgot I was writing at all. Perhaps inspiration isn’t so much a lightning bolt as it is like surfing: it takes work to paddle out past the breakers, but once you ride a wave you forget about the work. For a few moments, you’re on top of the world. You’re free.

Finding inspiration, day in and day out, is still a challenge. But, once I stopped pushing the delete key, more lightning bolts began to strike.

Here’s a creativity prompt to try:

Write a letter to your future self, predicting where you will be in five, ten, or even twenty years. What will you be doing, thinking, dreaming?

About the Author: Dallas Woodburn is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. She has written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine. Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated nearly 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is coordinator of the Young Writers Program at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Dallas graduated this past May from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. Contact her at her website www.writeonbooks.org or blog http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com.

 © 2009. This article was excerpted with permission from Dallas Woodburn. All reprints must state, “Reprinted with permission by Dallas Woodburn from www.writeonbooks.org. Originally published in www.WomensOnlineMagazineLosAngeles.com, August, 2009”.

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions reflected in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect on the publisher, editor, or editorial staff of Women’s Online Magazine Los Angeles. This article has been written and reviewed by the author. Any errors should be brought to the attention of the author.

Unlock Your Creative Spirit: Play With Playdough

When was the last time you set aside a portion of your day to be creative? No, I don’t mean being creative to brainstorm ideas for a work meeting. Nor am I talking about using creative thinking to come up with the perfect gift for your significant other’s birthday. And no, I don’t mean being creative in thinking of new ways to motivate your kids to eat their vegetables or study for the SATs. What I mean is, when was the last time you set aside time to be creative … just for the sake of being creative? Simply for yourself and your spirit?

Remember when you were a kid and you could spend hours absorbed with a wad of brightly colored playdough? In playdough world, your imagination takes you to a place where an orange snowman is commonplace and a three-horned fire-spouting monster takes shape before your very eyes. If you feel like your life is stuck in a rut, I have a solution that won’t cost much money or take much time: go back to playodough world.

Grab a wad of playdough and roll it into a ball. Feel its texture between your fingers. Don’t think; don’t worry; don’t question yourself. Enjoy the moment. Just see what shapes and figures emerge from your imagination. This can help your creativity in multiple ways. You might find yourself making sculptures that relate to your life – maybe you’ll make figurines of your family and friends, or create a visual 3-D diagram of a problem you’re facing. Perhaps you’re feeling frustrated and rolling the clay into a ball, then pounding it flat, will feel like a release.

Visualize your negative energy trailing out of your body through your fingertips into the playdough. Then, pound it away. Do this multiple times until you feel rejuvenated. Even if you don’t sculpt objects that relate to your life, you’re still allowing your mind to roam free and explore various ideas and possibilities. Just see where your thoughts take you!

A good exercise when you are done sculpting with playdough is to spend five minutes writing stream-of-consciousness style in a journal. Don’t censor yourself; don’t edit; don’t even think too much – just write, for five minutes, without letting your pen leave the paper. You might be surprised what thoughts, emotions, and new ideas turn up!

At-home recipe for playdough:
Ingredients:
3 cups four
1/3 cup salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
7 drops food coloring.

Mix dry ingredients with oil. Add food coloring to water and mix together. Add water to flour/salt/oil mixture slowly – about 1/4 cup at a time – and mix together with a spoon. Once you’ve added all the water, knead the dough with your hands until texture is smooth. Enjoy!

About the Author: Dallas Woodburn is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. She has written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine. Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated nearly 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is coordinator of the Young Writers Program at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Dallas graduated this past May from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. Contact her at her website www.writeonbooks.org or blog http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com.

© 2009. This article was excerpted with permission from Dallas Woodburn. All reprints must state, “Reprinted with permission by Dallas Woodburn from www.writeonbooks.org. Originally published in www.WomensOnlineMagazineLosAngeles.com, August, 2009”.

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions reflected in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect on the publisher, editor, or editorial staff of Women’s Online Magazine Los Angeles. This article has been written and reviewed by the author. Any errors should be brought to the attention of the author.