Entries Tagged 'Mindset' ↓

Don’t let these mental minefields blow holes in your creativity:

Fear of failure
If you’re afraid that things might go wrong, or not turn out perfect, then chances are you’ll never get started in the first place. And if you keep imagining scenarios where everything goes wrong, or reminding yourself about times when you feel you failed in the past, then things will keep getting worse. Fear can be paralysing, and is pretty sure to kill your creativity.

Being cautious
Being too cautious can be fatal for your creativity. Perhaps you try to stick to techniques or ideas you already know - or which you think are tried and tested, so good to employ one more time. You might find yourself bowing to authority and not wishing to stick your neck out, trying to fit in and go with the opinion of the majority.
Creativity requires boldness and audacity. Break rules when it suits you.

Listening to your inner critic
There will be a time to scrap what doesn’t work, to throw away the bad ideas, to employ what Hemmingway called the “sh*t detector.” But that’s after the creative process. If you let your inner critic get going before you’ve had time to start generating ideas or getting words down on paper, then it will likely kill your creativity stone dead.

Being humble
I’m English. We do self-deprecating modesty as well as anyone. But sometimes it can go too far. You need to throw off the humble, modest persona for a bit, and be wildly, boldly creative. Other people may be the true experts, they may have had more success than you so far. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be as creative as the best of them. Reach for the heights. You don’t have to tell anyone that’s what you’re doing. But behind closed doors, in the sanctuary of your own writing den, you have the freedom to aim for creativity that ranks alongside the greatest writers there have ever been. Why not? There’s no embarrassment in trying to be good.

Oversimplifying
Creativity is likely to make your life, your art, your writing, more complex. Now, clarity is a good thing. Oversimplifying is not. Embrace the complexity, and ride the wave.

If you feel your creativity is stifled, try this.

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There’s a fascinating piece on a blog site called Study Hacks, which I discovered today because it popped up high in Del.icio.us. It’s aimed at students who need to write papers, but as the article itself points out, the advice applies to just about any form of writing.

The author has dug out a series of interviews with “masters of long form non-fiction” and used the information to create a picture of how professional writers work.

The most striking observations from this study:

The writers work in the morning. They often start very early in the morning.

Five out of ten of the writers described a little ritual before starting their morning writing. A surprising number of these rituals focused on The New York Times.

The writers drink coffee. Lots of coffee.

The writers write in isolation. If they didn’t have families they would push this even farther. Many discussed having no e-mail or phone in their workspace. One purposefully used a “shitty old laptop” to avoid temptations like solitaire. Gay Talese rigged his home office so it could only be entered through a separate outside door.

The whole article, called “How to Schedule Your Writing Like a Professional Writer’” is well worth a read.

Nearly all of the writers questioned said finding a place free of distractions was very important to them. As a professional writer myself, I’d say that is indeed a great idea, but not advice that I’m ever able to follow myself.

There are distractions all around me. I have a phone on my desk because clients might call. There are emails popping up because they might be urgent. Then there’s the dog, the cats, family members, the garden, the sunshine, the internet … you get the idea.

The article points out that magazine writers seem to able to work anywhere. As I started out in an insanely hectic newsroom, perhaps that’s why I’m able to still get at least some writing done.

What do you think of the advice? Is a distraction free writing environment something you have achieved? Do you think it’s even possible?

A new writing site has been launched which looks like it could create innovative ways for writers to share ideas and feedback.

Scribophile is aimed mainly at authors, poets and so on. It’s bound to be of interest to anyone involved in creative writing.

It’s well designed and attractive to look at which isn’t always the case with writing sites, many of which look like throw-backs to the early days of the internet.

The people behind the site (one of whom is a regular reader of this site - hi Alex) intend Scribophile to become create a community of authors, who can help each other and provide support and appraisals of each other’s work.

As the site itself says:

Think of Scribophile as a writer’s workshop, but instead of being in a room with 20 or so other writers, you’re on the internet with millions of other writers, each of them eager to read your work and offer helpful critiques. We pride ourselves on our friendly and helpful community. You can meet other writers with similar interests and interact with thousands of other like-minded authors from around the world.

It’s very new so the community is just starting to build. It’s looks like a cracking idea well executed, so please support them and check out the site.

One of the great things about being a writer is that you don’t need any formal qualifications.

On the other hand, getting help in developing our writing skills can’t really hurt.

If you’re interested in some kind of formal training without the expense and time commitment of a college course, then check out some of these free online university writing courses.

I know nothing about any of the courses, so I can’t make any recommendations or endorsements. They all appear to be respectable educational institutions, however.

Word of the day: audacious.

It’s not just a word to use in your writing. It’s a whole attitude to writing. Be audacious, because that way you’re more interesting. And so is your writing.

I can do no better than refer you to the thoughts of the inimitable skelliewag on the subject:

If you’re not afraid to be rejected, you keep putting your hand up. If you’re not afraid to be ignored, you keep putting yourself out there. If you’re not afraid to be criticized, you do exactly what you want…

The best thing about audacity is that it’s not a quality you either possess or you don’t. It’s not the same as beauty, or a gorgeous singing voice.

Audacity is a practice. Do audacious things, and you become audacious.

So next time you’re reading through your blog post, thinking about the next chapter of your novel, or struggling with copy for company leaflets, stop and add a little audacity just to liven things up. Don’t settle for good enough. Ask, is it audacious enough to get noticed?

Photo by Paul.

If you are working as a copywriter, or in any creative field, you need to be able to have ideas to order, to meet deadlines.

The good news is that having ideas is something that can be learnt. There are proven techniques that can be followed. The most famous, certainly in the copywriting world, was outlined in a book(let) called A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, first published in the 1940s.

It’s well worth getting a copy and reading in full. The essence of the book, however,is to break the technique for having ideas down into five steps.

Step 1 - Gather raw materials
The mind gathers its raw material. The material needs to be of two kinds: specific and general. For advertising the specific information is about the product and the target audience. General information includes anything and everything and is a lifelong exercise.

Step 2 - Working over
Step 2 is to chew over the facts, bring them together and see how they fit. Sometimes the facts reveal their meaning more quickly if you don’t look at them too directly. You almost need to “listen for meaning instead of looking for it.” As small, partial ideas come to you, write them down, now matter how crazy or incomplete.

Step 3 - Incubation
Walk away. Put the whole problem out of your mind for a while. Let your unconscious mind work on it for a while. Do something else, something which stimulates your imagination and emotions. It could be reading a novel, going to a concert, listening to some music. You are giving yourself time to digest the facts.

Step 4 - Eureka!
If you’ve done the first three steps successfully, then an idea should appear ‘from nowhere.’ It could come at any time and probably when you least expect it. The answer to your problem may appear to leap into your mind for no apparent reason.

Step 5 - Shaping and development
The idea has to be turned into reality, into something that can be used in the real world. You need to show your ideas to others and see what they think. They may be able to add to it and make it better. It may spark whole new ideas.

Communication is all about the right mindset. And that means embracing the idea that there’s no such thing as a failure of understanding, only a failure to communicate effectively.

Of course, this may not always be totally true in all circumstances. But as a general rule of thumb for communicators of all kinds, it works just fine.

If you’re writing, explaining something, teaching, then you need to make sure that you get the message across in a way that your audience can understand. If they don’t get it, it’s your fault, not theirs.

This is true when talking to a stranger at a party or addressing a hall full of people.

It’s something most copywriters would understand instinctively (or at least, you’ld hope they would). It’s something most effective communicators would never really need to be told. It’s probably second nature to them.

But it’s also true that huge numbers of people just don’t get this. Those people who write instructions for mobile phones, perhaps.
The arrogant guy in the bar pontificating at people who are too slow to follow his argument. The impatient business exec sniping at the temp who’s had no training.

The IT guy who doesn’t explain how to use his software, or even why, just gives you a list of changes made since the last version.
The bottom line is that if you want to communicate then the onus is on you to get it right. Make an effort to explain, rather than expecting people to understand.

This is especially true in mass communications, be it journalism, writing a blog or creating your own marketing materials. It’s so much better for one person to make the effort to explain things clearly than for dozens, hundreds, thousands to have to wade though poorly written copy. Especially as they can always stop reading, and move on.