Awhile back I was emailed a link to an article listing 100 Search Engines for Bibliophiles. I finally had a chance to take a look at the link and found out that there are some pretty cool things there worth browsing through during your downtime.
The list offers search engines for shopping for books, getting book recommendations, doing book research, reading books online and getting books sent to you via library systems or book swaps. All very cool stuff for the reader inside of us writers.
Anyone who reads this blog regularly - or semi-regularly - probably knows that I am a big fan of what I call “creative reading”. By this, I mean reading those books which are specifically designed to draw the reader’s attention to the act of being creative. In many cases, these books are designed specifically for writers and use writing prompts as a way to encourage creative writing.
However, in other cases, the books are designed just to encourage the reader to be more creative in his or her art (such as with Julia Cameron’s The Complete Artist’s Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice
The book that I am reading now - What We Ache For: Creativity and the Unfolding of Your Soul
There are a lot of things that I’m enjoying about this particular creative reading book. For example, the writing prompts at the end of each chapter are really helping me to think about what I’m reading and to integrate it into my work. And there aren’t just writing prompts here. There are some questions that are posed just for contemplation - questions that can be focused on or that can be tucked away into the back of the mind to guide the day’s thinking. These end pages of each chapter serve to reinforce what was described in the chapter itself as well as to allow the reader to go even further with the work.
When it boils down to it, though, the real reason that I love this book is because I agree with its core foundation. It is based on the idea that we can not be completely happy unless we are able to fully realize ourselves as sexual, spiritual and creative people. Those are rigid terms but they imply looser concepts. They say that we need to be able to experience our own senses in the world, to feel that we are interconnected with something bigger than ourselves and to use our perceptions to create something outside of ourselves. When these three aspects of life are in balance, we can be content. I believe in that idea and therefore this is an easy book to like.
Question of the Day: Do you believe that any one of those three aspects - sensuality, spirituality or creativity - is more or less important to your writing than the others?
[Tags] oriah mountain dreamer, writing, reading, books, creativity, sensuality, sexuality, spirituality [/Tags]
I’ve mentioned twice before (here and here) that one of my annual projects for 2008 is to read all of the books written by Armistead Maupin. I started out with reading the Tales of the City series which I love in part because it’s set in San Francisco, the city that I call home. I have now completed the first four books of the series (still several more to go!) and remain in love with the books.
Here are some of the reasons why these books are great:
- They were written over a period of time in the 1970’s and 1980’s. As a result, there are all of these little references to daily things in San Francisco which are reflective of the city during the time period that the books were written. Maupin does a great job of offering little details that make the reader really experience what’s happening in the books so this is a really fun way to get a glimpse back into the cultural past.
- They transcend genres. I initially said that the first book reminded me of chick lit but not quite. That remains true. The books relate to several women’s lives in San Francisco and have a lot of the gossipy, relationship-oriented yet career-driven aspects that you’d expect from chick lit. However there are also many male characters in the book that we get to see from the heart so these aren’t girly books. Plus there’s a lot of mystery in here.
- The mystery. That’s a great point. Each book has some sort of mystery to be resolved. I’m impressed that Maupin can keep things interesting enough from book to book that the style of discovering the mystery never gets old.
- The characters grow. The reason that it’s fun to keep reading these books is because you learn more and more about each character as time goes on. And as time goes on, the characters change and grow accordingly. They feel like real people and that’s what great fiction is all about!
Anyone who likes fiction should give these books a read. And anyone who lives in San Francisco should love them!
Question of the Day: What’s another San Francisco author I should check out?
[Tags] san francisco, writing, reading, armistead, maupin, fiction, books [/Tags]
As a I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve been rediscovering the art of altered books. These are turning out to be an ongoing source of inspiration to me in a number of different ways. These ways include:
- Seeing objects in a new light. I noticed the other day that the junk mail I had sitting in my recyle can was filled with colorful and decorative words that might go well in a page of an altered book. I pulled it out and started clipping. I also noticed that a pile of clothes planned for giveaway could be used as the fabric for book covers.
- Redesigning my creative space. Since I’m starting to save more things to be used in making altered book art, I’ve realized that I’d like to have my various art and writing materials more organized and accessible. This is something I’d always planned on as a kid when I dreamed of having my own art studio. I have the space now to make that a reality so I’m starting to work on it, slowly but surely.
- Writing inspiration. Visual art always helps me bring out themes for writing and that’s been even truer as I’ve explored the idea of putting one theme together on a page in collage form.
- Reading material. I’ve been reading a lot of altered art books lately and reading about art is always a source of new inspiration. Some books on altered art that you may want to pick up yourself include:
- Mixed Emulsions: Altered Art Techniques for Photographic Imagery
Altered Books, Collaborative Journals, and Other Adventures in Bookmaking
- The Altered Book Scrapbook
- Altered Books Workshop: 18 Creative Techniques for Self-Expression
- New Directions in Altered Books
- Altered Book Collage
- #5167 Altered Books 101
I’m currently playing around with my first altered book project. I went to the bookstore with a goal of finding a book for less than $5 to use as my starting point. The one I found is a small square book on Greek mythology. I’m playing around with methods of altering it and just kind of playing around with being creative. The book is going to be about the emotions and flaws that make up the heroes of mythology and the heroes of our own daily lives … and that theme turned out to be something that I pulled together in a recent short essay on fathers as heroes.
Question of the Day: What altered book artists can you recommend as a source of inspiration?
[Tags] altered, art, book, creativity, projects, craft, inspiration [/Tags]
I am currently in the process of reading Creativity for Life: Practical Advice on the Artist’s Personality, and Career from America’s Foremost Creativity Coach
- Artful Living. This describes the act of trying to infuse artistic creativity into everything you do. It’s about being creative in the way that you parent, in the re-using that you do to recycle items around the home, in the meals that you make for yourself and others. It’s about taking each moment of the day and trying to approach it with your own creative vision at its core. (Another great book specifically about this is Living Artfully: Create the Life You Imagine.)
- Art-Filled Living. This refers to the way that we try to fill our days with art. We visit bookstores and art galleries, we play music in our homes and attend concerts when we can, we watch fashion shows on television in order to be creatively inspired. These are the ways that we bring art into our every day life in order to be able to see the world with a broader creative perspective. This is of utmost important to developing creativity because without constantly refilling our own creative wells, our sources of inspiration may run dry.
- An Art-Committed Life. This is what the bulk of Maisel’s book is about and it refers to the life that we live once we have chosen to actually make art as a living for what we hope will be the rest of our lives. It is about art as a way of life and not just a part of life.
We may find that all three artistic ways of living apply to us. We may find that only one is really a part of our lives on a regular basis. And we may find that although we have one of these in life, we aren’t embodying the other as much as we would like. (For example, you may bring a lot of art into your life but not approach life as creatively as you would like so you have an art-filled life but not an artful one.) By examining these different methods of filling our lives with art, we can make wiser choices in how artfully we want to spend our days.
Question of the Day: Which of these art lives is most important?
[Tags] art, creativity, inspiration, artful, living, choices [/Tags]
As a writer, I read voraciously. I consume the written word on a daily basis. Although I explore all genres and all types of books, it has become important to me this year to specifically focus on finding and enjoying more books that are specifically about creativity.
There are many different types of these books. There are lengthy academic books on the creative brain and the creative process. There are tips for being more creative in your daily life. And there are books at every level of the spectrum in between those two ends. They are all valuable for providing writers (and other artists) with new ways of looking at their work - and their lives.
One of the books that I picked up this week is Unleash Your Creativity (52 Brilliant Ideas): Fresh Ideas for Having Fresh Ideas
For example, Tip #23 is “Play Your Part” which suggests that you do some role-playing to embody the character that you are trying to write about. It describes why this is good, why you might want to do it and what role-playing really means. It gives suggestions for doing this at different levels of subtlety so that it can be incorporated easily into your real life. (Such as reacting differently in a business meeting than you normally would or simply considering how you would react differently if you were another race or gender than you are.) It provides a specific exercise, a related quote, and direction to another part of the book for a related tip that can expand on role-playing. It also provides two challenges that people doing this exercise might face and resolutions to those challenges. And it does all of this in five pages.
The tips are easy to complete and have the potential to jar you into new creative action. The book can be picked up and turned to any page so that you don’t have to do the exercises in any sort of order. Each one links to another one in the book so that you can see your creativity developing and connecting back to itself. It’s the kind of book that you don’t read at one time but read regularly throughout your creative life.
Question of the Day: What other writing prompt or writing exercise books do you recommend?
[Tags] writing, creativity, reading, bevan, prompts, writing exercise [/Tags]
Sunday mornings. What a great time for laying in bed, computer propped up against your lap, browsing through the blog posts and news articles that you didn’t get a chance to read throughout the busy week.
Here are some of the articles on writing, creativity and other things that I’m reading this morning:
- The Best Way to Feed Yourself @ Pureblogging
- Writer’s Spring-Greening @ WOW
- Fiction Writing: How to Capture Your Big Idea @ MenWithPens
- My Blog Client Wish List @ Freelance Writing Jobs
- The 3 Ways to Write a Blog @ ChrisG.com
- What Can John Lennon Teach Us About Creativity @ Brad’s Reader
- Books on Writing @ Six-Figure Freelancer’s Blog
- Are Your Comments Stressing You Out? @ BloggingTips
- Creativity @ Electron Blue
- What on Earth is Wrong with Gravity @ How to Write for the Web
- Don’t Save Your Best Ideas for Later @ Creative Creativity
- Writing and Cleaning the Toilet @ Using Dreams
- Kick Starting Creativity @ Fur in the Paint
- Creative Journaling @ Authentic Artistry
- Thoughts on Creativity @ My Hungry Heart
And here are some of my favorite works that I authored throughout the week:
- Wi-Fly: Voice Communication on Planes @ Dial-a-Phone
- The Poetry of Altered Book Art (here)
- Amsterdam Art Galleries @ Discount Travel
- Bringing Gifts on a First Date @ Dating Weblog
- Infertility and Survival of the Fittest @ Touched by the Stork
- Planning a Honeymoon in Hawaii @ Kathika
- New Testosterone Gel for Menopausal Women @ Wellness Corner
I mentioned before that I had been thrilled to discover the author Armistead Maupin. It’s rare that I find an author who truly captures my interest and makes me want to read every single thing that he’s ever written. As I come towards the end of reading Maupin’s second book in the Tales of the City series, I find that he’s become one of my favorite fiction authors.
Here are some of the reasons that I like this series:
- The characters are believable and lovable, flawed but in a totally perfect way. They are multi-dimensional and interesting and I can see having them as friends (and enemies!)
- The chapters are short but poignant so it’s easy to enjoy reading just a few pages while on public transit and it’s just as easy to get lost in a hundred pages at a time.
- Maupin has an uncanny ability to describe things in a way that makes you think twice. I have literally laughed out loud as I read the description of a character’s reaction.
- Plot twists actually have caught me off guard. I find most books to be predictable because I’ve read so many but this one actually has managed to surprise me more than once.
- There is an interconnectedness between the characters that extends through multiple books in the series.
- It’s set in San Francisco mroe than twenty years ago so many of the city’s details are the same as what I’m used to now but some are different enough to make me feel like I’m learning something about the history of the city as I read.
- It’s fun.
Anyone who likes general fiction, chick lit, and character-driven works will probably find this series to be enjoyable, especially if those people happen to live in San Francisco!
[Tags] maupin, tales of the city, san francisco, book, writing, reading, recommendation [/Tags]
(Writers, remember to check out the links to available jobs in the post below this one.)
I generally spend some of Sunday morning trying to catch up on reading blog posts and news articles that I missed during the week. Most of these are related to writing, blogging, Web 2.0 technologies and general creativity. Here are some of the things I’ve found today that I think are worth checking out:
- Why You Should Use an Editorial Calendar @ Freelance Writing Jobs
- Is There a Book in Your Blog? @ Pureblogging
- John Grisham Has No Illusions About Writing @ CNN
- Writing and Sbumitting @ Anniegirl1138
- Wordy Equals Weak @ Good Karma
- Think Orange! Creativity and the Sacral Chakra
- Bucking the Trends @ Women on Writing
- Creativity as a Means of Communication @ Damian Daily
- 10 Reasons why Bloggers Hate Blogging @ Geeks are Sexy
- Perfect Imperfection @ The Wishful Writer
- Day Camp Inspires Creativity @ The Iowa Press-Citizen
My favorite articles that I authored this week were:
- 5 WordPress Plugins that Can Dramatically Change your Site
- Frequency of Freelance Applications
- Top 10 Smallest Mobile Phones in the World
- Visiting the Jefferson Memorial
In the spirit of link love as well as in the general interest of pointing other writers to the stuff that I think is worth reading, here are some of the things that I found interesting on the web this week:
- 16 Blog Posts that Improved, Expanded and Inspired my Writing
- First Experience with GetAFreelancer
- Remember the First Time You Saw Your Byline?
- 40 Celebrity Book Authors
- Writing 2.0
- The SMART Framework for Goal Setting
- Creativity & The Road
- Writing and Breathing
- Top 10 Blog Writing Tips
- How to Grow Your Ideas with a Project Incubator
And here are some places that you can find some of my best work on the web this week:
- BlogStorming: Generating Ideas for Blog Posts (@ Pureblogging)
- 8 Ways to Green Your Writing (here on this blog)
- 8 Uses for Olive Oil That Have Nothing To Do With Food (@ HubPages)
- Family Restaurants in Orlando
- Your Neighborhood Impacts Your Health Screening
- Carrying Your Best Friend’s Baby
- Romantic Places to Visit in Hawaii (also in Italy and Paris)
