15 Minute Writer

5 Tips to Nurture Your Creative Side

August 31st, 2011 Tags: be yourself, creative writing, how to write, success, writing encouragement, writing tips
Posted in Creative Writing, Find Your Writing Voice -- Be Yourself, How to Write, Keys to Success in Writing, Writing Encouragement, Writing Tips

What do you do to nourish the creative side of you?

Often times you get caught up in the day-to-day routines of life. You work in various capacities, do household chores, take care of kids or parents depending on the stage of life. These tasks are necessities of life but do you do them to the extent that you neglect your creative side?

Recently, I found my creative self in dire need of nurture. I worked long hours to establish an online business, develop three websites, and create an online writing course. Though I wanted to do this and enjoyed much of it, it involved technical tedious “left brain” work, which means you are not always in the creative zone.

After several months, though proud of my accomplishments, I began to get a little burned out with overuse of my left brain. Then I read in one of my writing books that it is important to cross pollinate and develop your creativity in other areas. They stated by doing so, you will come up with new ideas for the things you have to do.

That was all the permission I needed. Gaining that perspective was well timed because I was getting ready to go visit my creative sister, who teaches art. She has successfully established a wonderful business teaching people who don’t know how to draw a straight line, how to draw beautifully.

We have a creative feast when we get together because we both love art and other creative activities. I decided I would learn to draw flowers. At the same time, I also took an online photography class. My whole world began to lighten up!

As I took photos and focused on drawing principles, I began to see correlations between those two arts and the one I had chosen, learning how to write. I felt refreshed as I explored new levels of creativity and it started showing up in my creative writing.

How can you incorporate creativity into your life?

5 Tips to Nurture Your Creative Side

• Make creative appointments with yourself. Give yourself permission to actually schedule creative activities into your day, week, or even take a creative day once a month.
• Go to a conference or creative, stimulating event. If you have the resources, you can even schedule a block of time to travel to a conference or workshop in your area of creative interest. Even if you don’t have a lot of resources, often times art shows and local festivals are free.
• Go to the library and look through art books or gardening, nature coffee table books, magazines on decorating, scapbooking or crafts, anything that stimulates your right brain.
• Get out in nature. Even something as simple as taking a walk in a scenic area can be refreshing and stimulating to your creative side. Go walk somewhere new or go to a local park and write.
• Take an offline or online writing course to learn creative writing or further your writing skills. If you can’t travel to a conference on how to write, set aside time at home to take online classes to further expand your creative writing skills. For example, if you want to learn how to write or expand your creativity in writing, you can take my online creative writing course, “How to Write for Fun and Profit” or some other course teaching you how to write.

A healthy person has a balance in their life of work and play. You can even justify this if you need to. Often when you take those times for play and creativity, ideas to solve problems in other areas of your business or home life come to you. When you go to have fun, work happens. With these writing tips, you can certainly justify your creative development.

Creativity needs some structure. Accountability, support and encouragement is a winning formula to achieve your dreams. You don’t have to be stuck, you simply need a desire to express your creativity and a commitment to achieve your writing dreams.,

If you want encouragement, productivity tips and strategies to overcome your fears so you can fully express your creative side, Check out the book I wrote to encourage you, “From Stuck to Success:Conquer Your Fears and Achieve Your Writing Dreams.” 

Don’t simply go through life, nurture the creative side of you and enjoy your life!

How about you? What are you doing to nurture the creative side of you? If you are not, then what promise are you going to make to yourself to do so? Let me know what you think in the comments below.