Walking to Infinity

by Barbara Martin

in Try This

I’ve mentioned how I “pace” by walking in a pattern to trace out the shape of a figure 8. I do it to relax and settle my mind when puzzling through a knotty problem or when I begin to panic am scrambling for last-minute inspiration on a deadline. Turn it on its side and this […]

Get this week’s all new “free, quick and easy” creativity tip now! I just updated the tip line with this week’s creativity experiment and I hope you will listen to it. It introduces another simple yet surprisingly powerful creativity-enhancing exercise; this week’s activity is based on the age-old practice of walking the labyrinth. As always, […]

Creativity can be so Messy

by Barbara Martin

in Creativity

A behind the scenes look at a Real Artist or Real Writer or Real Creative-Person-Doing-Fill-in-the-Blank in action frequently reveals a less than neat and tidy process going on. Let’s face it, the creative product is the result of many forces at work over a period of time. Some of these forces are predictable, like learning […]

License to Write Badly

by Barbara Martin

in Writing Daily

As a writer, how often do you stop to reread your work and then agonize over what you just wrote because it’s not perfect? How much time to you spend mulling exactly where to start a scene, debating the perfect first line for the fifth chapter, toying with the perfect verb for a key sentence, […]

Family and friends must understand that your writing time is important. It’s beyond important: it’s sacrosanct. It’s not interruptible. But it’s not fair to ask family and friends to allow you the time you need to write — to take your writing seriously and to support your creative efforts — unless you yourself take it […]

Ultimately, whether creative ideas are large or small, they are firmly rooted in the details we process through our minds. Every new idea, regardless of scope, begins from a small detail, something that catches our attention and holds us rapt long enough to think outside the immediate. All it takes for this to occur is […]

In Coaching the Artist Within, creativity expert Eric Maisel discusses the mental energy required to create. Unlike physical energy which is based on food/sleep inputs, mental energy depends on your interest, passion, desire, concern – the intensity you apply to creating. Your mental energy is depleted by mental activity, including creating – and not creating! […]