Say Cheese! (9/28/15)

 I wouldn't say I'm an amazing photographer, but I sure do love trying and taking fun pictures. These are only a few of the pictures that I took on my Study Abroad trip to Britain through MCC (If you haven't considered Study Abroad I really suggest you do it was so worth it and a great experience).

I don't think I could do photography professionally, I don't think I have a good enough camera for it. But its a fun little creative hobby of mine. For photography you have to know all about good lighting, shutter and flash etc. I'm too lazy to learn all that stuff. Its more fun to just take pictures however I want. But then I see photos by professionals and I can't help wanting to do things like that.

Besides, Photography is a lot easier than painting or drawing.  

Ambitiously Creative 2.0 (9/22/15)

Up above you will see a small screen shot of my Pinterest account (aka craft hoarders.com) and only about half of my boards. This ones have been shown because they are strictly crafts in some way or fashion. There is:

• Writing
• Crafts I would LOVE to do: (this blog is full of miscellaneous crafts like crochet etc)
•  YUM!: (baking dessert ideas)
• Enjoy Christmas: (Christmas crafts and decorating ideas)
• Fall and Halloween: (fall edition of Christmas)
• Steampunk
• Jewelry ideas: (i make a lot of my own jewelry, expensive hobby don't get into it)
• one day I'll learn to cook: (regular recipes that are not desserts that I would like to try.

I just thought I would take a moment to show briefly, what other kinds of things I am into besides writing which is what a large portion of this blog has been about so far. But this blog isn't only about writing. It's also about all my creative ambitions not just writing, so here is a brief show of what some of that entails.

Probably later on in this blog I might go into further detail about some of my projects. Right now I don't have the time though... I know, sad face. 

Right now I'm playing catch up after playing loose with my homework schedule. Whoops.

Frankie Says "Relax" (9-14-15)

Ignoring the fact that the original context of the song was about 'shagging' I'm going to use it in the context that the band "Frankie goes to Hollywood" said it was when the song first came out. They said it was about motivation to avoid censorship. 

I just think it was a funny title for this weeks entry as my subject is about stepping back, and taking a breather. Or simply...

Let yourself relax every once in a while. 

I call it letting myself detox or distress. This semester is full of homework to the point where it feels like I am constantly doing nothing but homework. This last week especially has left me frazzled and irritable. I was so brain fried that even the things that I normally do on my time off held no real appeal. It wasn't pleasant.

My advice this week, is when things get like that, to step back and give yourself a breather. Go to lunch or a movie with friends, read a book, watch Netflix, socialize. This action will allow your brain to clear and will lower levels of stress. I've found that when I'm stressed out, my creative drive drops, ideas stop flowing, and when I go back and read anything I've written while stressed, I usually find that it needs some serious revision. 

Taking a break will also help for when hitting a dead end or writers block. Setting aside a project and coming back to it later will allow you to come back to it and see it with fresh eyes. 

The Crazy Wall (9/9/15)

How many of us are familiar with this image from  movies?

This image is from "Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows" and it is the spider web, mind map or crazy wall that Sherlock was using to track Moriarty. Each string is tied to a point, that connects to another point and so on and so on. As you can see from the image above it's quite chaotic and messy. That's what being inside my creative mind is like.

A.K.A. very crazy and chaotic and it's a surprise I ever know here I am going or how one thing really leads to the others. Most of the time, an idea will pop into my head before I can finish another.

As you can guess, this is not very helpful when I am trying to come up with a story. Like the last this ties a bit into scheduling. But this post, is more about organization.

I would be all over the place if my idea and planning for a story looked like the picture above. So for one of my current projects, a novel I have been working. I have been trying a slightly different tactic. Instead of trying to figure out to much all at once and separately, leaving me to figure out how they are all connected, I have been implementing a story board system instead. Something like this:

This is clearly from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and is the scene were Alice comes across the Hookah smoking Caterpillar. Moving from top to bottom, left to right, we see step by step how the scene is going to progress.

My story board is somewhat similar. Only instead of pictures, I have words on note cards, tact to a bulletin board. Each note card has a key point in the story that needs to happen. And I can move them around and connect them in different patterns to see how they work.

This has been a great help in helping me organize my thoughts and try different combinations. And it saves me a bit of wall space and I don't have to by red string.

Keeping a Smooth Course - (9/1/15)

Do you remember last week when I wrote about how creativity is something I believe to be spontaneous? Well, I need to take a step backward and add one small caveat. That is scheduling.

As much as I believe that creativity with anything you are doing whether it be writing, painting, etc, should be fun and unexpected. I also realize that I live in a real world where such things cannot always be left to whims of fancy. That means things have to be put on hold, and things must be arranged into an easy to follow schedule.

In my personal case, this semester I have a full life with four classes at MCC, three of them being creative writing courses, the last being math. Then I want to still enjoy time with family, friends, and have time to be creative. This means every week I sit down to make a schedule. I look at everything that I have to do that week as far as course work, the homework that is required and when it is due. Then I look at other social events that I want to do and I plan everything out accordingly. My solution, is that I attempt to have homework done every night by eight or nine o'clock, earlier if I have previous engagements in the evening. This gives me time in the evenings to have some free time.

This is good because a lot of the reading for all my creative writing classes have had a similar chapter on finding a time to sit down and write. All of them say, find a time that works best for you. An hour a day or so where you sit down and write, whether it is to free flow, brainstorm, etc. This helps get you in the habit of writing daily until its not scheduled and just habit.

Right now for me scheduling is a necessity and even if you don't need to work out a full schedule for your class work. I recommend figuring out that hour a day time to sit down and write, or paint or what ever it is that you do creatively.