Ideas are the starting point for all creative projects. No ideas means no creativity! So here’s a very effective way of using your senses to give you a plentiful flow of new creative ideas:

It’s all too easy to forget we have five senses (at least!) through which we experience the world.

Our senses are not only the channel through which we receive all of our experiences, but also the channel through which we broadcast them back out as our art. Let me explain this more clearly. Say you’re out walking and see a beautiful weeping willow tree. You experience it through your eyes, maybe you hear the wind rushing through the branches too, and maybe you get up close and touch it. The main sense is your vision and this is then captured in your mind as a memory.

So, then when you come to create new art inspired by the willow, the only way you can do this is by recalling this memory and using your senses to create it. This could be a poem, a painting, a sculpture or something else. You’re bringing it physically into the world so that others can then experience your work through their senses. Your senses were both the input channel and the output channel.

Can you imagine how any of this could possibly be done without using your senses? The answer is simple – it COULDN’T be done.

So how does this relate to helping you have more creative ideas?

A great way of giving yourself more inspiration for ideas is to focus on your senses more. And the best way to start is to use one at a time, and give it your full attention. Try this simple exercise:

Take yourself somewhere where there’s likely to be plenty of stimulation. Maybe a busy town, if you prefer the stimulation of bustling people and buildings, or it could be somewhere more rural if you prefer nature to be your main source of ideas. Find a comfortable place to sit. You’ll need a notebook and pencil for this by the way.

Now, choose one of your senses to begin.

Let’s say your sense of sight. Begin looking around you, forgetting all your other senses for now, and giving your eyes full attention. Look in a way that you don’t normally look, see every detail, every colour, shape, texture and movement. Then begin writing about what you see, as vividly as you can.

Once you’ve written as much as possible, give yourself a short rest. Then, begin with another of your senses, for example your hearing. Again, use this sense with far more attentiveness than you usually would. Listen carefully to the many layers of sound that are occurring around you, you’ll realise wherever you are there’s a virtual symphony of sound effects surrounding you. And, as before, write down what you experience as fully as you can.

Repeat this process for each of your five senses.

Obviously, depending on where you are, you’re likely to feel more through some than others. Just write as much as you can for each. You will amaze yourself with how much detail you notice and record. Just doing this once is a great exercise and will show you how much more stimulation and material for new ideas there is around you at any one time. Make this exercise a habit though and soon you’ll realise that you are doing it automatically.

Wherever you go you will instinctively absorb more of your surroundings, and creative ideas will literally be forming before your eyes. And ears. And nose. Oh you get the idea! Start today, pick somewhere to visit, take a notebook and pencil, let your surroundings fill your senses, and ideas fill your mind!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Goodwin

If you think about it water boils at 212 degrees.  At 211 degrees it is still not at the boiling point.  The little bit of extra effort it takes to go the distance is something every writer or prospective writer needs to consider.  Am I willing to do what it takes?

On the other side of the coin, there are a lot of times when you might want to blame someone or something else and it is not hard to find excuses for not writing or for that matter doing any kind of project: cleaning the house, doing yard work etc.  You get the point.  Writers blocks come cleverly disguised as excuses and sometimes we just do not recognize what is happening.

If you think you are a victim, you will always be a victim. If you search for reasons to be depressed or to quit trying, you will find them. If can not is a part of your vocabulary RECONSIDER the results you might be getting and switch to I Can.

Do not justify your failure by belittling or blaming your failure on successful people. You will always find plenty of people willing to exploit you by confirming your victimhood,  justifying your depression, commending you for your failure to give it your all  and by helping you blame others for your failure.

Again, on the other side of the coin, if you think you have something of value to share that readers would like to read and come back for more of your content that is what you will be looking for and what will happen for you.  Readers will appear and come back for more of your content. That is such a cool result and one to savor.

Which way will you turn when you get to the fork in the road? Victim or Success.  I am encouraging you to go for the Success.

Be Happy With Your Writing-Just do it-You Can

Everyone has a way of approaching knowledge and if you have wanted to share but were concerned that the topic you want to write about already has everything about it covered you need to reconsider. 

Because there are different learning styles the topic needs to be presented in different ways to have the information available to those different learning styles.  Understand  and learn more about learning styles.

Write about it in the way that you learn best and the readers that learn in the same way you do will find your information, be grateful you took time to share and will want to return for more of your future work.

People are continually searching for authors that are able to write in such a way that they GET the information.  It is such a satisfying experience when you can connect with a topic, understand where the author is coming from and can apply the information to better your life.

The best writing advice ever told is writing about what you know. Yes, the best advice is writing what you are passionate about, you know, what really excites you.

I hate to write when I am bored. I know or suspect the reader would feel the same. That is why the reader will never see such writing, at least from me. It is best to write when you are excited as the article below describes so beautifully.
Johnny Ray

Writing When You Are Excited
Author: Designer Marjorie J McDonald

I am over the top excited about some things that are going on in my life and remembered the feeling and how easy it was in the past to write when I was experiencing this feeling. I felt like I just had to share what was happening with the people in my life who could get excited with me.

Try thinking back and see if you can tap into a time when you were experiencing this same type of excitement energy and use it to write a story about an event or happening. It can add so much to the story and help your reader experience the same thing as if they were with you at the same time it was happening to you. The connection to the reader gets better as well as stronger when you can help them experience this same kind of energy. It is fun to be excited and it is fun to be around excited people or attending exciting events.
See what part of the event stands out, what part of the events are more of a blur and those parts of the event that happened but you do not remember them at all. Capture the same feeling for a character you are writing about in a fiction story.
Put in the same things you remember that your character can experience. It adds so much to your story line when that excitement can be shared through writing about it and then, as an extra bonus, including how you felt about it from an observer point of view.
By engaging your reader at this level it also increases your satisfaction when you get the feedback that the reader was able to connect and feel the same way you did when you were writing the story. An amazing feeling of how words can be powerful in the connection and sharing process.

About the Author:I learned to write from my mother who was an extraordinary teacher. She made it so much fun to communicate with words that I grew up enjoying every area that had to do with writing especially if there was a creative twist to it. I feel fortunate to have that kind of relationship with language. I appreciate stories, good articles and books. Along the way, I have been able to share with others my joy of writing and creativity.

And now I invite you to join me for a series of writing exercises to help you discover your areas of interest in writing as well as increasing your creativity. You may access these exercises by visiting http://www.freecreativewritingstrategies.com
You also may enjoy visiting my blog at http://www.creativewritingmadeeasy.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Writing When You Are Excited

Tags: writing advice, writing tips

As we grow up we are programmed not to talk about our problems and hence the same situations/challenges (that all human beings face) become personal.

Remember I keep telling you to write out what you did to solve the problem you faced and be willing to share the steps and results with others so they could get to the solution more quickly.

It’s just that you think you are the only one going through problem xyz, that no one else would want to know what you did and you might be embarrassed if they found out you had that problem. 

Even through we all feel that our problems are unique to us, they are in fact a problem that everyone faces at some time in their life. If you can solve your problem and move yourself closer to your goal, then you have created a solution to a problem that millions of others also have and will gladly pay money to read, learn about  or give their attention to.

Ex: Have you ever had the experience of telling someone something and when they explained your problem back to you, you were excited because this person truly understood what you were experiencing and feeling?

They are really willing to listen to you then when they feel like you understand them.  They will become one of your readers because you are helping them with an answer.

News Flash:  Stop thinking you are the only one going through situations in your life and focus on looking for and sharing with others your steps on solving those issues we all face.

Write and share and enjoy the profits you will make by being willing to do that.

Then you can give your story collection to the different members of your family as gifts.  Each person has a different opinion about the events that happened so be sure to add each perspective. That will give your stories depth and add to the story line.  Have fun, enjoy your events and make lots of memories. It is easy to do when you are recording what is happening as it happens.

If you are finding that you are getting stopped, you might be experiencing writers block.  You can get help so you can break through and find the confidence to move forward.

Change a story you have already written and see if you can add drama to the story you have or perhaps you can turn it into a comedy or a play that a local theater group might consider adding to their offerings.

It’s all about the combination of the events that happened and how you as the writer put them together in your story line and time line of events.  For example: If you have ever gone to an airport for a flight and found you took longer to go through the security than you expected and then had to run to get to the gate so you did not miss the boarding for the flight.  You have two choices immediately: do you want to go the drama version or the comedy version.  You could try both and see which one you have the most fun with and use that to help you continue to develop that type of writing.

It’s all in the approach you take with the topic.  This type of writing stretches you to think about how to put the information and events into your story in such a way as to get the two different results.  You can always use the twists to develop your writing resources so you can see things from several perspectives.