Posts Tagged ‘bold creativity’

This gorgeous shot of Waikiki, HI was taken by Lisa Reilly in July 2007 with her Motorola Razr

Share your phone photos too!

Two-words to give you a bit of creativity. Do with them what you will – and don’t forget to share!

Break something






Confused? Check out the start of two-word Tuesday

Last week I wrote a guest post on The Everyday Web Expert about writing tips for designers. These were basic writing tips for people whose focus is the graphics, not the words.

Today, I am tackling the other side of the coin – design tips for writers. Just because your writing is fantastic doesn’t mean your design skills have to be sub-par. Here are 4 simple design rules that every writer should know:

1. Color is your friend. I can’t count the number of writer’s sites that I have seen that are simply blah. Black, white and one other color for emphasis. Boooring…. Just because you are trying to show off your writing skills doesn’t mean you can’t use color and make it pop. I’m not talking following in my footsteps (I love bright colors) but by adding some eye catching graphics and colors to your site increases the likelihood of people sticking around longer. People like attractive images, colors and creativity. First impressions are important, whether you mean to or not, a bland site will create an idea about your writing…

2. Images make your writing stronger. 

3. Text can be beautiful and creative. Typography (or the art and techniques of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs.) is just one simple way to make your writing better. Many writers chose whatever the standard font is, assuming it doesn’t make a difference. But, your font can make a huge difference. Next time you are ‘just going to go with times new roman’ (or if you’re wondering what that means), choose a different font!

4. Google Images is a search engine. Many writers think that their writing is just for the main site, and will forget that they need to label images properly. When you do place images on your site, make sure to title them with a search engine friendly name. Google Images scours sites for the titles of the images and will help your seo if you label them correctly.

Not all of my writing is perfect. I know, *gasp*! But in all honesty, it isn’t. The biggest culprit? Laziness. I have written a few lazy posts. The idea was there, the execution just wasn’t up to par. Yesterday’s task from problogger was to breathe life into an old post – to fix it up and make it better. It would have been done yesterday, but I traded blogging for spending the entire day with my hubby and our families. A much better choice I thought

Anyway, the goal of breathing life into an old post is to correct errors, improve on the writing, and beef up the research. I chose to work on a post that I wrote about doing things, rather than just waiting for things to happen (click for the original post). The post has a good basic idea, but wasn’t well thought out. I talk about the easiest and the hardest parts of creativity, but not many details on it. The title is boring and the sentence structure could use some work. I could have also done a bit more research and shared some good links. After re-reading the post and making some much needed changes, here is the new version:

Is creativity easy or hard?

Creativity requires effort, it requires time and patience, and it requires doing something. Creativity is a double edged sword. It can be easy and it can be difficult (and often can be both at the same time). Let’s take a look at both sides of creativity by answering a couple questions:

1) What’s the hardest part about creativity for you?

2) What’s the easiest part about creativity for you?

I’ll go first:

1) Getting started is the hardest. How many times have you wanted to write but haven’t been able to come up with an idea? It is often difficult to get motivation staring at a blank page. A blank page is unforgiving. It stares back at you, daring you to type that first word or put in the first picture. It’s just waiting to see what you do so it can tell you it doesn’t work.

2) Getting started is the easiest. On the other side, sometimes the easiest way to be creative is to have  the complete freedom of a blank slate. For example, re-writing this post is difficult because I am trying to keep some of the original text in it. If I could just delete the entire thing and start from a clean slate, it would be much easier. There would be nothing to contend with, no structure I had to try to keep. I could just let my creativity flow.

The moral of the story is creativity can’t exist if you do nothing. Whether you are working from a clean slate or an already created design, just do something with it. Do something, anything, and creativity will follow.

Share your thoughts, what are the hardest and easiest parts of creativity? Do you believe creativity can come just from making yourself start or continue the task?

What do you think of the new post? Did I improve it, or just change the words? What can you do to improve some of your past writing or do you think you should just leave the past posts alone?

Today is day 10 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Here is a quick recap of #1-#9:

1. Read in public

2. Quit your job

3. Contact someone you look up to

4. Do something you never thought you could

5. Disconnect

6. Don’t follow the crowd

7. Be nice

8. Ask questions

9. Let yourself be wrong

Bold Move #10: Stop reading and start doing!

Not to sound ungrateful to my readers, because I love each and every one of you, but stop reading (at least until tomorrow’s post ). Seriously, stop reading about being bold and GO DO SOMETHING BOLD.

Click here to see the other 9 bold ideas

Today is day 9 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #9: Let yourself be wrong.

Think about it: If you are never wrong, you never have the opportunity to learn something. We all like being right, ask any of my friends, I don’t do ‘wrong’ well. But, I have learned more about business by being wrong than I ever have by being right. When I am wrong about something, it allows someone who knows more than me to teach me something. It is the same in all walks of life – from business to relationships. We can’t all be right all the time, it is a physical and mental impossibility. Let yourself be okay with being wrong and you’ll be amazed how much more you learn, and in turn, how much more often you can be right. The minute we stop learning, the minute we stop living.

Have you been wrong recently and had it teach you something amazing?

Click here to see the other 8 bold ideas

Today is day 8 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #8: Ask questions…not for the answer but for the conversation that it creates.

Creativity is not a solo sport. If you were to lock yourself in a room and cut off all interaction, you would lose creative steam fairly quickly. You might get a few more things done in the beginning, without the distractions, but how long would it take before you couldn’t think of anything creative or new? Other people are what give us ideas. Things that happen in our lives inspire our writing and our ideas.

Today is about starting conversation. Find someone on twitter that interests you, and respond to something they ask. Ask a question on Facebook and see where the conversation goes.

People love to participate. People want to participate. So, give them the opportunity to participate.

Here is your opportunity to participate by answering today’s creative conversation: What makes a creative expert? What makes you stop and take notice of their ideas?

Click here to see the other 7 bold ideas

Today is day 7 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #7: Be nice. Genuinely, honestly and truly nice.

This sounds like a very simple, and not-so-bold task, but it is often forgotten and has a larger influence than we often think. Creativity is driven by the interactions in our lives, so why not have those interactions be kind ones?

Rather than tell you a story about how someones kind attitude stirred my creativity, I want to hear your stories. Have you met someone that surprised you with niceness and made you think? Have you treated someone well, just because, and had it reward you? Feel free to share a name or keep it annonymous.

Click here to see the other 6 bold ideas

Today is day 6 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #6: Don’t follow the crowd. There is nothing we have to do, nowhere you have to go and no path we all should take.

The best way to look at this is to think about some of the things you heard about college growing up: “You have to go to college”. “Without a degree you’ll never be successful”. “You need to join a corporate world, get the 401K, the benefits, work til we’re 55 and then retire”. “Starting your own business is a pipe-dream”.

Were they right? I don’t think so.

Growing up, I watched my mom build a Mary Kay business from the ground up and become a successful senior director – with only a high school degree. Good thing too, because I learned more from her about business than I did in any of my colleges classes. She taught me the power of networking and talking to people (face to face, imagine that!). I learned how to market a business (by actually giving people something that benefits them, not just a bunch of ad-speak). She showed me that hard work didn’t have to mean 9-5 (she usually worked before I was awake, when I was in school and after I went to bed, so she could be a mom too). Don’t get me wrong, college is great, and I absolutely loved my time at CSULB – it was a time to learn, mature and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. But, college isn’t for all of us. Some can’t afford it, and others just don’t fit into college curriculum. My mom couldn’t do the college thing because she had to work full-time to support herself from the day she graduated High School.  What was more impressive was the fact that she never used not going to college as an excuse. When business was hard, she never complained about not having a degree, she just worked harder. Not only did she prove college wasn’t necessary to be successful, she did it with class and self confidence. Now just barely 50 (sorry for revealing it mom), she has been happily retired for 5 years and is spending her time traveling the country with my dad and visiting me because that is what she wants to be doing.

My point? As my mom always reminded me, in business and in life, “If you think you can; you can. If you think you can’t; you’re right.”

What do you think? Is college a must? Share your thoughts and experiences.

Click here to see the other 5 bold ideas

Today is day 5 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #5:

Disconnect. Turn off your computer, your blackberry/iphone/palm/etc, any method of people getting in touch with you and go outside. Many of us assume that we are the most creative when we are in our offices, our what we have determined to be our optimal creative environment. In reality, if you are always in the same environment, creativity begins to slow and we often will reach our breaking point. Taking some time without any interruptions and without our normal tech gadgets, we can often get our creativity flowing more smoothly.

Since I live in Orange County, I am lucky enough to have the beach nearby. Twice a month, I take a couple hours and turn off all lines of communication. My hubby and I take my Mustang and cruise up PCH to Laguna or down to San Clemente and walk around the beach. Usually we end up sitting somewhere, watching the waves and catching up on our days. During the week, things tend to get so busy that our time alone at the beach is the only time we get to clear our heads and actually talk. When I get home from the beach, I like to take out a notepad and just start writing down ideas for new blog posts or story lines for my book. There is something so natural and real about a pen and paper that we often loose with a computer and keyboard. Technology has improved our lives in many ways, but it is important to remember that it is not necessary for creativity – and can sometimes hinder your creative flow.

How often do you ‘disconnect’ and take a day away from technology? Does it help you to re-focus?

Click here to see the other 4 bold ideas