What are your Creative Tools?
All of us need help in our creative lives. Sometimes we want more creative flow, sometimes we can’t keep up. What kind of help do you need, and what tools can help?
This week I talked with a friend who has been experiencing a rush of inspiration such that she starts writing and looks up at 2am wondering where the time went. She loves the creative rush, but ends up short of sleep, (which for most of us corrodes everything else) as well as forgetting to eat regular meals (not good either, over time).
She brainstormed and came up with a couple of solutions: she will use a voice recording app to capture her ideas when they hit (in case she is driving, or unable to write them down), and she will set phone alarms for meals and bedtime.
Sometimes the simplest tools can help you create.
I remember a fellow writer in Romance Writers of America years ago, who took herself to a coffee shop every morning at 6am for a couple of hours. This simple tool gave her structure to write. It got her out of the house, away from her home to-do list and other personal distractions. She liked writing with a background buzz of voices. It was a prefect tool for her.
There are lists of things writers do to help themselves “drop in” to the world of their work:
- playing music that embodies the story (as a sound track does in a movie)
- lighting a candle
- setting a timer
- making a collage of the world of their book
These are just a few examples—I would love to hear what yours are!
What tools help you stay on the creative road? Which ones help you stay healthy and happy?
Piper Pan — illustration by Aisha Zaleha Latip