Four

All this month we’re talking about ways to keep those creative juices flowing, things that will help us not fall into the trap of no longer creating, which somehow often comes at the start of a new year. And today, I have a good one for you.

Hopefully, most of you writers out there are already doing this.

Read Fiction

Okay, okay, maybe it sounds obvious, but it’s one of the best ways to keep yourself creative. Read someone else’s creativity, and build off it. Use it as a platform for your own creativity. Whether that means you’re writing fan fiction, using an idea you read in a book, or drawing a character from a novel you’ve read—use it.

See, to have creativity, sometimes it helps to know that someone else out there has creativity too. For some reason, we tend to think that we’re the only ones who have creativity, if we’re not surrounded by creatives. We think that we’re alone out there, that no one else will understand what we’re going through when we want to create but don’t have any of those juices.

Sheesh, we can be dramatic, can’t we? That comes with creativity too. And it’s not a bad thing. But by reading fiction, we get to see creativity done by someone else. It’s a constant reminder that there are other people out there who are just like us, who do the same thing we do.

The trick here is not to get into the “but they’re better than I am” trap.

Sure, Stephen King has a ton of books out there. The man writes like a maniac. But you know what? He’s not the only good writer out there. There are millions of others who have followings, and you could be one of those. Heck, you could be the next Stephen King!

For you artists out there, remember, you don’t have to be Michelangelo to be a great artist. Art is subjective, creativity is subjective. No one’s work is better than anyone else’s, if you ask me. The playing field is level.

So go out there and read a book.

I’ll admit, I was bad at this last year. I think I read a grand total of three books, aside from the ones I have to read for work. So this year, to keep that creativity flowing, I’m reading. I’m starting the year out with Lord of the Rings, and we’ll see where I go from there.

But you know what? I haven’t had any problems writing, drawing, or painting—since I started reading.

Don’t take my word for it. Try it.

[love]

{Rani Divine}