Six

I have a sinking feeling that I may have a lot of disagreement garnered from the topic I’ve chosen for today, mostly because I know a lot of people who hate what I’m going to suggest for you to do. But I’m going to do it anyway, because, well, I think it’s a good idea. And I use it to keep my creative juices flowing, which is of course our topic of the month.

Listen to Lectures

My primary suggestion is TED Talks. You can go to their site and choose what talks you want to listen to, and most of them are relatively short if you don’t have a lot of time to devote to it. There are thousands if not millions of talks available, so you can't complain of not having enough to choose from.

Just like there are a lot of things we can glean from reading other people’s fiction, or learn from reading up on things that pertain to our work, we can also develop a much deeper understanding of what we’re doing when we listen to other people—successful people—talking about the thing they do best.

In this instance, I don’t even think it matters if the lectures you listen to have anything to do with what you’re doing. For me personally, I can feel the ideas in my head growing when I listen to people talking about the thing they most enjoy doing. Whether that’s a comedian talking about replying to spam messages or a film maker talking about the thing that helps him do his work, I’ve gotten a lot out of sitting down for half an hour and listening to a few lectures (or even putting them on autoplay on YouTube in the background while I do my busywork).

It’s a great way to both learn and connect with new subjects and new ideas, which is great for creativity. Maybe you’ll listen to someone and get a new idea for a character, or hear someone say a certain phrase and have a brilliant vision of something you’ve never painted before. In either case, the lecture will have helped you get somewhere—and that’s what we’re really trying to do.

If you’re interested in TED Talks, here are links to two of my favorites, one funny, one extremely beneficial:

JJ Abrams “The Mystery Box”

I heard about this one from Kevin Kaiser, one of my favorite people to follow online. Kevin usually has some fun thing going on for writers, if you want to look him up as well. But I've learned a great deal from this JJ Abrams video, and I think you will too.

James Veitch “The Agony of Trying to Unsubscribe”

I stumbled upon Veitch while I was looking for a different video, but this guy is hilarious. For those of you who prefer a comedic view to life, I think you’ll enjoy him. And for those of you who hate spam email, you definitely need to check it out. He has a few more videos of this sort on YouTube, if you have a mind to check them out.

I hope you enjoy, and I hope the talks give you some wonderful new ideas!

[love]

{Rani Divine}