Exercises for the Creative

In all my recent brainstorming I’ve come up with a several ways to exercise my creativity when I feel like I just “can’t get started.” I thought that maybe I would share them here, and on my side blog, for others to use if they need a little bump in the right direction. My exercises are for art and writing… so if you have any others, please share!

Write a story for each of the “Possible Titles” on Chicken Soup’s Website
When I was first trying to start writing again I was surfing the web for info on writing and basically trying to find other people I could read about trying to write rather than actually write… I know, it’s a problem I’m definitely getting over. I came across the Chicken Soup website. When I was 15ish I submitted a poem to the Teen books… never published, but reminded me that they take submissions. So I checked out their possible titles section and chose a few I thought I’d try and get in. Now, I’ve pulled all the titles (even ones I wouldn’t even be a canditate for) and used it as an exercise list. Just write the stories, no itentions of trying to get in the books, but hey, if they’re good, they’re good! Here are some examples I’ve pulled from the site:

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Stories about getting into college (deadline 06/30/08), Stories about high school (deadline 06/30/08), Stories about middle school (deadline 06/30/08), Stories about resolutions (deadline 08/30/08), Stories about Cats, Stories about Christmas and holidays, Stories about dogs, Stories about endurance sports, Stories about seniors and retirement, Stories about stay at home moms, Stories about twins and multiples, Stories about twenty-somethings, Stories about baking with kids.

Write “Cover Stories”
This is kind of funny. One of my oldest school memories has to do with writing. I remember that we all had to pick a folder out of a pile on a table. On the front of each folder was a picture clipped from a magazine. The assignment was to write a story about that image and put it in the folder… a little story book inspired from a clipping. Obviously, I loved the project. Not only because now I’m going to use it now, but because when I had “school” for my dolls as an older kid, I assigned this very same assignment to them. So here’s the plan. Clip magazine images, print images from the web, pull out old photos, whatever… place them in a box or an envelope, etc. and pull at random. Then, past it in a notebook and get to writing that story!

Illustrate Song Lyrics, Poetry, Passages
Just like it sounds… take some song lyrics, a poem or a passage of a book, random or favorite, and illustrate them!

Current Events
Clip headlines from newspapers, magazines… print them, jot them down, etc. Put them all in a box or a bag and pull at random. Illustrate the headline, regardless of whether you remember what it really was. Make it up! Have some fun!

Things-To-Do Jar
I have a little candle holder jar thing on my desk. I ripped up some paper and wrote something to do on each one then stuffed it in the jar. So if I’m ever bored, or struggling to find something creative to do I can just pull one out! Things I have are make a poster, sew, guitar, cooking, draw, paint, new medium, cardboard art, some projects, photography, write, etc.

So that’s the start. I think you could expand on these ideas in a lot of ways. So hopefully it helps! I think it will really help me a lot.