How Do You Become More Creative? 23 Tips To Help You.

#13 Could Be the Most Important

You want to be more creative, but where do you start? Creativity is not something that can just happen on its own — it needs a bit of effort from us in order for it to flourish.

So how do you go about becoming more creative?

There are many different approaches out there, but the most important thing is to find what works best for you as an individual writer and creator. That might mean collaborating with others who share your interests or fostering an environment where the sparks can really fly. The key is to have discipline and consistency until you get somewhere!

Continue reading “How Do You Become More Creative? 23 Tips To Help You.”

Don’t Have Time to Write Articles Every Day? (Try This)

How to write smarter, not more.

It’s faster than “writing every day.” And arguably even more productive.

And even though I’m a big believer in writing sprints, this isn’t it either.

What am I talking about?

I first heard about this idea from James Altucher and was unconvinced that it would work…

But it focused my output without even having to write every day.

You may know where I’m going with this…

The tactic to save you time, but also help your writing:

Write down 10 ideas for articles per day.

Simple right, but this is the rub…

It’s harder than it looks.

It’s harder than it looks because you must come up with the ideas. You’ll keep flying until five or 6. Especially if you do it each day, or at least 5x per week.

And perhaps you only need to do it for a few days in a row to have a full bank of ideas, however…

The hard truth is that each idea will not be a good idea.

Some of them will be terrible. Downright awful. And you use this to your advantage. Because you won’t spend as much time writing about the bad ideas.

Just because you have an idea for a Medium article, that doesn’t…

Mean you should write about it. This process helps you decide faster.

So instead of…

  • Coming up with an idea
  • Doing research on it
  • And then being frustrated with how little you care about the idea…

You’ll make a faster decision about whether the idea is good or not.

You write down the idea, then move on to the next idea. You can then choose from many ideas about what to pursue and what to write about.

This saves you time and lessens your frustration. This automatically makes you a better, faster, and more efficient writer because you’re not wasting time on bad ideas.

If you come up with enough *good* ideas, you will probably be more motivated to write.

The more ideas you generate, the better you’ll be at choosing, the better you will be at writing points and thoughts about that idea.

10 Idea Writing Process

  • Write down 10 potential ideas for a Medium article
  • Don’t stop until you hit 10, even if #1 or #2 is a good one. You can come back to them
  • Once you hit 10, start ranking your ideas for what excites you most that day
  • Take notes, make an outline, and begin fleshing out your next Medium article
  • Finish this article (even if it takes you more than a day or 2)
  • Once you’re ready to begin your next article, revisit the Idea List
  • Keep those ideas, but write down 10 more article ideas. Pick one from the list (you now have more than 20!)
  • Repeat the writing process

Your time is now focused on finding the right idea, not just any idea — this will speed up your writing process and you’ll be more excited about the content you’re creating.

It’s faster than “writing every day.” And arguably even more productive.

And even though I’m a big believer in writing sprints, this isn’t it either.

What am I talking about?

I first heard about this idea from James Altucher and was unconvinced that it would work…

But it focused my output without even having to write every day.

You may know where I’m going with this…

The tactic to save you time, but also help your writing:

Write down 10 ideas for Medium articles per day.

Simple right, but this is the rub…

It’s harder than it looks.

It’s harder than it looks because you must come up with the ideas. You’ll keep flying until five or 6. Especially if you do it each day, or at least 5x per week.

And perhaps you only need to do it for a few days in a row to have a full bank of ideas, however…

The hard truth is that each idea will not be a good idea.

Some of them will be terrible. Downright awful. And you use this to your advantage. Because you won’t spend as much time writing about the bad ideas.

Just because you have an idea for a Medium article, that doesn’t…

Mean you should write about it. This process helps you decide faster.

So instead of…

  • Coming up with an idea
  • Doing research on it
  • And then being frustrated with how little you care about the idea…

You’ll make a faster decision about whether the idea is good or not.

You write down the idea, then move on to the next idea. You can then choose from many ideas about what to pursue and what to write about.

This saves you time and lessens your frustration. This automatically makes you a better, faster, and more efficient writer because you’re not wasting time on bad ideas.

If you come up with enough *good* ideas, you will probably be more motivated to write.

The more ideas you generate, the better you’ll be at choosing, the better you will be at writing points and thoughts about that idea.

10 Idea Writing Process

  • Write down 10 potential ideas for an article
  • Don’t stop until you hit 10, even if #1 or #2 is a good one. You can come back to them
  • Once you hit 10, start ranking your ideas for what excites you most that day
  • Take notes, make an outline, and begin fleshing out your next Medium article
  • Finish this article (even if it takes you more than a day or 2)
  • Once you’re ready to begin your next article, revisit the Idea List
  • Keep those ideas, but write down 10 more article ideas. Pick one from the list (you now have more than 20!)
  • Repeat the writing process

Your time is now focused on finding the right idea, not just any idea — this will speed up your writing process and you’ll be more excited about the content you’re creating.

Measure Your Art By This.

Not Minutes or Moments

I’ll admit it: likes and shares are a lot of fun. And it’s cool to see your writing and your voice grow even a little bit.

But…are those small writing wins creating something interesting?

Are you building your content city, filled with interesting places and sights to see?

Sometimes, yes. A lot of times, no.

Some things are intentionally meant to be a flash-in-the-pan; others are a slow simmer that takes a long while to create and marinate.

But the body of work? It’s more than a moment. It’s more than a few months.

I like what the designer Paul Jarvis said many years ago (I can’t find it now!)

“Art is measured in lifetimes, not months” — Paul Jarvis

Art is a lifetime.

It’s a fact I often forget.

Most of the artists we admire didn’t write just one book or paint one awesome picture or record one sweet song or have just one incredible meme.

The ones we truly admire are the people who did it repeatedly.

The most memorable artists made connections over and over again, and changed the game in some way while doing it. Their art is a collection of great moments over a sustained stretch.

Too many people are trying to scratch something out fast, just because. But if “success” doesn’t come fast enough, they’re done.

If you really liked it or enjoyed it and wanted to make a career out of it, it takes more than a few hours and a handy “life hack” to go with the passion.

In the race to the top, we often go for the moment rather than trying to create a legacy.

Good work takes time, possibly even a lifetime.

Not Every Book Should Be on TV

Some Thoughts on the “Wheel of Time” Amazon Adaptation

I had never heard of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series until I was teaching writing at a community college.

An ambitious long-haired high school male was taking my classes for extra credit.

“Can I do an essay on this?” and he slams down a huge copy of Wheel of Time. “It’s fantasy,” he meekly added.

I let him do the report on the book, and honestly, I haven’t thought much about Wheel of Time since. I didn’t get interested in the book, I’m not really into fantasy, and the length of it didn’t exactly invite me in.

Amazon bought Wheel of Time a few years ago to essentially be their “Game of Thrones,” another huge epic fantasy series I’ve never read.

The “Wheel of Time” news received less fanfare than Amazon’s other big purchase: a Lord of the Rings TV show.

As if a 4(?) movie series wasn’t enough for us.

What’s Missing in These Epic TV Adaptations

So we have Lord of The Rings.

Game of Thrones.

Wheel of Time.

And others like Outlander that are an equally absurdist fantasy, but not quite as long.

But I thin there’s a key part missing in a lot of these things.

Books are books for a reason.

Films and television are not the superior medium for every story. Not every story should be filmed. And these books, including Wheel of Time will push television farther than it needs to go.

This piece in GQ illustrates that really well. Zach Baron — one of the top magazine writers going right now — talks about how successs on one these hows is sliding through the mud for eight years in Western Europe. Not even in LA or the United States where most of the actors are from.

Far from families and friends, their lives are devoted to this show.

They’ve already filmed two seasons without it premiering yet. The showrunner is doing 100-hour workweeks.

He’s working more than Robert Jordan probably ever did. And that’s kind of the point.

His worlds are hard to film. Their “fantastical” and big with lots of complex ideas and plots. It’s much simpler to imagine these things and write them down instead of creating towns that you then have to burn down for only a few scenes.

Writing is easier than filming (though still hard!) and has the potential to supersede visuals and go beyond where TV can go.

Instead, the reader does the hard work — the imagination paints its own film.

Writers can take advantage of that and have taken advantage of that. Not even film can always beat it. Nor should it. Good written stories can still win a few.

The caveat to all this is that digital animation, 3D, and AI are quickly catching up. I’m okay with that. The lift will be easier and it will take storytelling to a different level.

I’m just not sure it’s worth it for traditional actors, craftspeople and the like to make this type of sacrifice.

But we’ll see.

How To Start (& Stick With) A Writing Habit

6 Tips For Starting a Writing Habit

How do you get a writing habit going?

How do you generate a writing habit from nothing?

That’s a different concept than the habit itself, and from the writing it creates. And not all writing habits are the same, or have the same value.

In a previous post, I made a few suggestions about what your writing habits could be.

But in this post, let’s talk about how to frame your writing habit and where to start, and how to stick with your writing habit.

Warning: You will need to be ruthless in your decision-making.

Step 1: Decide which writing habits are worth it.

Make time in your schedule in the morning or evening?

Writing every day?

Coming up with ideas?

We’re going to have different perspectives on these, but it’s important to share new ideas so you can try them out and decide what works for you.

For instance, I don’t write every day, but I do try to come up with ideas most days especially when I haven’t yet chosen my next idea to pursue. This is more motivating to me and helps me power through.

You will need to go through a discovery process to understand what writing habits are best for you.

Find a few foundational writing habits before adding on more.

2. Create a low bar for your new writing habit

Start with ten words.

Or one page. (You can’t write a novel until you write a page).

Or start with 10 minutes.

Or get up early for 3 days and see how it goes.

Stay up late for 3 days and see how it goes.

Set proper expectations for your writing habit before you declare yourself a failure. Give it a shot. Experiment. If it doesn’t work, go back to number one and try another option.

But create a low expectation for what you’re doing until you have done it consistently for a while. And then change it.

3. Keep Track of Your Writing Habit

At the beginning of 2021, I downloaded a habit tracker called Streaks. I have a few habits I try to keep up with, one of them is writing for at least 10 minutes per day. I accomplish this fairly easily because of my day job, but that notification is a good reminder.

4. Read part of a book each day

Another habit on Streaks? Reading a book each day. No, I do not read a full book each day, but I try to read a chapter or 2, sometimes more. This exposes me to different writers while also staying off of the immediacy of social media.

5. Keep a Notebook or a Digital App for Notes

As part of my writing workflow, I use Google Keep to take quick notes or sometimes a piece of paper. This is especially helpful if I have an idea during my focused work, and don’t want to jump on Google to explore it further. I can write it down, keep working on what I was doing and return to it later.

It also may be easier for you to take voice memos or quickly film yourself to remember ideas. This works, also.

6. Keep Going…For Awhile.

When developing your new writing habit, the most important day isn’t necessarily the first, but probably Day 5. Then Day 10. Then Day 30. But honestly, by Day 5 you should know if a particular writing habit/schedule will be beneficial to you or not.

I’m not a huge fan of continuing at all costs, and everyone should know when to pull the plug. But there’s also a matter of fighting through the resistance, too. Give yourself a fighting chance — a chance to break through that resistance to see if your habit is worth keeping.