If you are creative people, I invite you to read some creativity blogs. Please find a list of great creativity blogs you can add to your RSS feed so that you have them handy when you need a creativity boost.
Get Fresh Minds – Look at Dessert in a New Way
http://www.getfreshminds.com/
In Get Fresh Minds (tag line: Ideas So Fresh They Could be Slapped) Katie Konrath—who has a college degree in Ancient Greek and Latin – shares her fresh ideas with the world. In “A New Way of Looking at Dessert”, she explains that Applebee’s came up with the idea of serving small, shot-glass sized versions of their regular desserts. This has a myriad of advantages: less guilt over eating dessert, since they’re small; cheaper; and everyone can get what they really want instead of having to share. Plus, as she points out, they’re cute.
Wishful Thinking – Time Management for Creative People
http://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/
Wishful Thinking is Marc McGuinness’ other blog. Marc, by the way, is a poet, as well as a coach and trainer for professional artists and creative companies. Download his fabulous free e-book: Time Management for Creative People. That e-book was the inspiration for my blog post:“Making Time to Create”.
Idea Sandbox – Cocktail Napkin Wisdom
http://www.idea-sandbox.com/blog/
One of my favorite features over at Idea Sandbox is their “Cocktail Napkin Wisdom”. Here’s some of them:
Business Doesn’t Mean Being Busy
Edison on Improvement
Forgive and Forget – Or at Least One of the Two
LifeDev – Share Your Ideas
http://lifedev.net/
LifeDev is the blog of Glen Stansberry, and the tagline says it all: “Empowering Creative People”. In “Open Sourcing Your Creativity”, Glen concurs with Seth Godin that giving away ideas is a great thing. In fact, the more you create and share ideas, the better you get at generating ideas. Glen offers examples of successful idea sharing, such as Wikipedia, Firefox, and Linux. He also argues that by embracing collaboration you get better results than if you tried to do everything on your own.
Productive Flourishing – Start Your Idea Garden
http://www.productiveflourishing.com/
Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing asks: Do You Have an Idea Garden? He argues that ideas have to be captured and tended until they’re ready to come out. Charlie adds that an idea garden is a place where ideas get the sun and water—that is, the energy—they need to grow. Head on over to Productive Flourishing and let Charlie show you how to tend your idea garden.
43 Folders – Twyla’s Box
http://www.43folders.com/
Merlin Mann of 43Folders fame announced recently that he would begin to discuss creativity—as well as continue writing about productivity—on his blog. In his blog post, “Twyla’s Box: It’s Where Everything Goes” he talks about Twyla Tharp’s organizational system which consists of a box in which she puts everything that goes into the making of a dance: notebooks, news clippings, CDs, videotapes of her working alone in her studio, videos of the dancers rehearsing, books and photographs and pieces of art that have inspired her, and so on.
Lateral Action – Debate on Brainstorming
http://lateralaction.com/
Lateral Action’s tagline is very similar to the one here at Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online: Creativity + Productivity = Success (mine’s better ). Marc McGuinness asks in a recent blog post: Is “Brainstorming a Waste of Time?” He quotes creativity professionals on both sides of the aisle:
Richard Huntington, Director of Strategy for Saatchi & Saatchi in the UK says: “I hate brainstorms . . . They waste huge amounts of time and talent and they are no fuc**ing good at delivering decent ideas.”
Tom Kelly, General Manager of IDEO says: “Brainstorming is practically a religion at IDEO, one we practice nearly every day.”
Creative Creativity – ABC’s
http://www.creativecreativity.com/
Over at Creative Creativity David Wahl collects resources, inspiration and his own personal philosophy on creativity. In “The ABC’s of Staying Creative”, he argues that A-B-C stands for “Always Be Creating”. Here’s a great quote from that post:
“Multiple projects. Plans. A giant novel about a war between the ant-people and the walrus-people. The perfect cupcake recipe. An elf outfit for your bulldog. A list of believable lies about Abraham Lincoln. A list of heavy metal band names that haven’t been used yet. (That last one is harder than you think.) Designing underwear for chickens. Anything you want!”
Broadcasting Brain – Just Write
http://broadcasting-brain.com/
Broadcasting Brain is Mark Dykeman’s blog. In his blog post “Just Write”he advices that we forget about how awful we think the result of our writing might be, or who might read it, or how they might respond, and just write. You can always edit once you have a first draft, but until the words are down on paper nothing else can happen.
Creativity Portal – The Story as Muse
http://www.creativity-portal.com/
Creativity Portal is a cornucopia of creativity articles. In “The Story as Muse”, the author suggests that you be promiscuous when it comes to literature. The stories, letters, diaries and memoirs of others are fertile ground for generating creative ideas. In addition, reading great authors will undoubtedly improve your writing.
