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Tap the Creative Inside YouShery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ Imagination is the source of creativity. Its a place where unlimited possibilities reside. Its where pure energy lives. People are innately imaginative and creative. However, most people are simply not conscious of their imaginative and creative selves. Creativity is the cognitive process of developing a novel idea or concept. Teresa M. Amabile, a creativity expert, argues that creativity is not a quality of a person. Rather, it is a quality of ideas, behaviors or products. According to her, creativity has 3 basic ingredients: 1. Domain-Relevant Skills - These are skills associated with expertise in a relevant field e.g., artistic ability, technical ability, talent, etc.. 2. Creativity-Relevant Skills - These skills include a cognitive style or method of thinking oriented towards exploring new directions, approaches that can be used to generate new ideas, and a work style conducive to developing creative ideas. 3. Task Motivation - Recent evidence suggests that a genuine interest in a task for its own sake, rather than for achieving external rewards such as money, enhances creativity. So how can you develop your creativity Here are 2 ways: 1. Provocative Operation, coined by Edward de Bono - This involves disrupting your thought patterns. It works with the premise that the more you are used to something, the less stimulating it is for your thinking. Application: Insert "interruptions" into your day. This can be writing in a different room or area, reading magazines you wouldnt normally read, tuning in to a different radio or television station, cooking and eating something different. 2. Forced Analogy - This method forces you to compare a concept, idea or problem with something else that it has little or nothing in common with. The results are new insights. Application: Compare an emotion e.g., elation, excitement, anxiety with a tangible object e.g., pen, chair, door. How is anxiety like a door When you need to tap the creative inside you, use these 2 techniques. Tap into your imagination and you enable yourself to create new things, come up with ideas you have never thought of before. Tap into your imagination and you awaken your creativity.
| | | | RELATED ARTICLES Youre Published! Now How Do You Tell The Readers The first thing you must do is quit thinking like a writer and start thinking like a reader. That shouldnt be a problem, because you are one. If you dont enjoy reading, you cant write something that someone else enjoys reading. So, when you read, how do you choose what to read The Bottomless Notebook Reading through a writers notebook or journal is like discovering pearls, rubies and diamonds amidst a pile of rubble. Writing Articles You say, I can’t write an article, I have no knowledge of writing. Let me tell you yes you can! Seven Compelling Reasons to Get Your Name on a Book Cover Have you ever considered writing a book If so, maybe you’ve already established firmly in mind your exact purpose for becoming an author. Your reasons may match one or more of those below. Or perhaps you could add yours to the list. Nevertheless, with some 65,000 books being published in the United States yearly, there is overwhelming attraction to joining the ranks of authors. How To Promote A Book Nowadays it’s no longer a matter of whether or not an author should promote his or her book, but how aggressively one should go about it. The sad truth is that publishers often fail to promote books, and if we, the authors, dont promote your own book then it may be destined to a lifespan between that of butter and yogurt, to paraphrase Calvin Trillan. The authors extra efforts may make all the difference between a book becoming a long-lived seller, and being recycled so that some other author can take advantage of the paper. Becoming a Writer The urge to write fiction seems God given for some, a learned skill for others. Becoming the Total Package Being a great writer is no longer enough if you plan to score a bigpublishing deal, especially as a nonfiction author. The Lecture Experience: Part I During the past year or so, I have done nearly a hundred talks about my book, “LADIES: A Conjecture of Personalities.” It’s about the First Ladies – the OLD First Ladies, Martha through Mamie. Since they talk to each other and cross through centuries, it is, of course, an historical fiction. In doing so many lectures, I thought it might be interesting to discuss are some of the things I have learned…. Have You Tested Your Plot Creative Writing Tips – Characters In A Romance Novel Before you even begin writing your novel, you need to know who your characters will be. Minimally, you would want two major characters, the hero and the heroine. They will interact mostly with each other throughout the novel. How they interact with each other will determine the outcome of the story. Will they resist each other in the beginning of the story and by the end, fall in love Or will they fall in love in the beginning of the story and then be driven apart by conflict Once you’ve chosen them, then you need to decide what age they are, their personality traits, and their names. Mainstream media has become a single-minded authority on how we should perceive life. Theirs is a negative perspective. Could there be a new way of hearing the stories we feel are relevant in our lives If you’re anything like me you are really getting tired of the mainstream media’s one-voice-to-many analysis of life on Earth. First of all, it’s just too negative! I read a survey recently that stated that fourteen out of fifteen newspaper and TV News stories had negative fear-based stories. I don’t know about you, but if I look at my everyday life, the amount of good and bad I experience seems to be much more balanced. Why does the ‘big’ media think we all love hearing the dark side of things so much Discover 3 Easy Ways to Promote Your Articles Are you using these methods to promote your articles To Outline Or Not To Outline Ah, the age-old writers debate--to outline or not to outline Freelance Writing on the Internet So, you’ve decided to take up a career in freelance writing. You’ve hooked up the computer, installed the printer, and learnt the nitty-gritty of your word processor. You’ve maybe even been published a couple of times. You’re all set to conquer the world of publishing. But wait. Do you know all the options available to you How Can a White Paper Support Sales and Marketing A white paper supports PR, marketing and sales because it works for all levels of decision makers. Engineers and executives may not be too impressed by brochures, but they are impressed by well-written white papers. The same thing goes for trade journal articles more about that in a subsequent piece. You Can Get On The Oprah Show Before 2011! Oprah has extended her contract until 2011, that means you can still get on her show. You have to know how to get on the show. You also need to know how to make the most of it while you are there! Being on the show can mean millions of dollars worth of free publicity. Many people know that being on Oprah will make their book a best seller or increase sales of their products and make them millionaire. But many people do not watch the show. You have to watch the show and really understand what it’s about. This will assist you in making your topic relevant There is nothing worse for a producer, than listening to someone pitch topics that are totally inappropriate for the show. I host a woman’s talk show. I was pitched a topic on how to date women and get sex without a commitment. That is not a topic compatible with my show.When you record the shows and watch them, look at the credits on the end. There will be producers listed. Take notes on what the show was about and who was the producer. You will then know who to talk to about your topic. How to Write Bad Poetry So you’ve decided to crown yourself with a title that a million other people just like you yes, just like you! give themselves every day. Some people believe giving yourself such a title is equivalent to, and just as beneficial monetarily, as naming yourself Queen of England. But, there is no grace, rarely enough publicity, and only the title of Court Jester seems to be becoming for you because you are a fool among others. 6 Ways to Leverage Technical Articles Technology vendors often contribute bylined articles to trade journals. The articles are great exposure for these companies but they dont come cheap – the trades rarely pay for these articles but the vendors spend time and resources to assign pieces, write them, approve them and submit them. Your PR agency can help your clients leverage their investment by wringing top value out of these articles. Here are some possibilities:ReprintsWhite papersProduct briefsBookletsSpeech outline and handouts A Few Brief Tips for Dealing with Rejection What to do when you get rejected. How To Write for the Web The Scanning Reader |
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