How To Release Your Inner Creativity

Make This The Year You Call Yourself A Writer

At the start of every year I like to give myself a kick up the wazoo by reading an ‘inspirational book’. Something that gets my mind so motivated that it’s doing star jumps and one handed push-ups with a dinosaur on its back. Yes, there are dinosaurs living in my head (what, they’re not living in yours? Are you sure you’re a writer?), they make sure I keep to my word count. There’s nothing like the threat of a dinosaur rampage in your skull to keep you on track.

But that’s not the point; the point is this year’s book was actually a re-read of one I read last year, Seth Godin’s, The Icarus Deception. If you are a writer, no matter what stage you are at in your career, and haven’t read this book, then you have to get off this blog right now and go order it! But ah… make sure you come back ok? I promise I’ll make it worth your while.

I had forgotten just how instrumental this novel was to setting me on the path I am today. This book taught me that it was ok to be an artist (aka writer of awesome), but also that I was the one who needed to give myself permission to do that. In fact, the book affected my outlook so much I wanted to share the inspiration, like a plague. But a nice plague, one that spread ideas and passion rather than death and boils. So I went out and recorded a short presentation to try and help other writers (and creatives in general) to release their inner creative.

And the first month of a new year seemed to be the best time to then share this, rather earnest and passionate rant with you.

So this is my challenge to you in 2014 – To give your creative self a chance.

To give yourself permission to be an artist.

Life is too short to spend it doing something that isn’t rewarding. This video will show you how to get started.

And if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t like watching white women offer ‘crazy’ suggestions to bring about the life you always wished you had but never got around to because you had to watch that new Doctor Who episode (I hear you!), then you can read a summary below the video.

Do you consider yourself a writer? What’s stopping you? Drop a comment below and let us know your thoughts.

How To Release Your Inner Creativity:

Many of us are told when we are young, “There are a lot of artists out there and you’re not good enough to make money from what you love.” And this is true. That is, if you continually wait to be picked. But the trick is, in this crazy artistic world full of some weird and wonderful things, you need to pick yourself. So I challenge you this year to give your creative self a chance, give yourself permission to be an artist and turn what you love into something you can get paid for.  Don’t be trapped in a job you hate.

You ARE Good Enough To Create Art

In 2011 I realised my back up plan had become my life, and it sucked. I had to ask myself, how much worse could taking a chance on my true passion be? Now I ask you the same question.

If you’re ready to change your life, if you are ready to shout “I’m a writer!” in your best Tarzan voice, then keep reading. I’m going to give you three things you need to do to make your true passion a reality this year. Are you ready?

1. Break Free Of Your Programming: As children we were told in school that we should fear failure. We were punished if we didn’t have the ONE right answer. As if the world ever works that way. Einstein has this fabulous quote, which I think is something everyone, particularly parents, should keep in mind: Everybody is a genius. But if we judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it is going to end up believing it is stupid forever. So what is holding you back? For most people (this comes from our childhood robot ‘programming’ years), the answer to that question is fear. Fear of being found out as a fraud. So to break free of that programming you have to dance with fear, you need to celebrate the failures as well as the successes, because it’s only by failing that we learn to do things better. So your action step to help you break away and dance with fear, is to create something new every day. I don’t care what it is, whether it’s a paragraph, a chapter, a haiku, or an artistic photo for your Instagram. Get into the habit.
2. Educate yourself: You need to learn the conventional wisdom, the rules if you will. Of publishing, of writing, of genre, of life. Not so you can obey them, but so you can break them. Writers are born with a seed of talent, but if you want to make a living out of your passion, out of your art then you need to fertilise that seed with a trailer load of manure. You need to stink yourself out. You’ve got to build the skills, there is no such thing as natural born talent. To be an artist, to call yourself a writer, you must create something new every day, and to create something new, you must learn what came before. I’ve done a post on this blog about the importance of educating yourself before. So go get to it, grab a crap load of books, listen to podcasts, videos, and search out mentors (who are by far the greatest way to accelerate your learning). Learn how people do stuff so you can be a bull in their china shop.
3. Share Your Art With Others: What you create isn’t art unless you share it with someone. Unless you say, “Here, I made this for you.” It is only by getting feedback that you can learn from failure and improve. Only then can you make a difference in someone else’s life with your art. You need to look your fear in the face and connect with people. And how do you do that? You need to go online, find out where your tribe is, where the people like you are and create that connection, so that when the time comes to present your art, you have people who have bonded with you and who will help you improve and create bigger, better art.

Make this the year you call yourself a writer.

Image:  Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception and Flickr Creative Commons Dinosaur by Joseph Wu.