Creativity Tweets of the Week — 7/29/11

Here are this week’s top links on creativity and writing that I distributed this week by Twitter and Facebook. Now that I’ve wrapped this up, I’m going to return to absorbing the insightful — and frank — critique I just got back from my instructor on my first-ever MFA writing packet. As I make myself a martini (gin, not vodka, and stirred, not shaken, very dry, three olives) I’ll celebrate the fact that he did at least praise me for meeting the packet submission deadline.

CREATIVITY

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  Ignore the speed my GPS is indicating (i.e., don't magnify this picture by clicking on it) and instead meet Comma the Chameleon. He was my companion on my cross-country U.S. road trip, so named because of his curved shape and because he comes and goes. The same thing happens with my writing confidence.

  “Always On Innovation,” Dennis Stauffer, Blogging Innovation: Don’t fall into the trap of viewing the pursuit of creativity as an element of a larger project; it is integral to that project.

• “Boost Your Productivity; Cripple Your Technology,” Matthew Might, LifeHacker: Yes, word processing has facilitated faster writing, and PhotoShop more rapid developing techniques, but technology also invites distraction.
• “Creativity Sells,” Ian Kerrigan, Forbes: Remember the commercial with the kid in the Darth Vader mask who uses the “Force” and his dad’s car starts? What car were they advertising? Ian argues creative ads sell even when we lay folks may think they only provide entertainment value.
• “musician and artist pointers for branding,” Stan Stewart, Muz4Now: Speaking of selling, how good are you as an artist at “selling” your brand?

WRITING

• “Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 23 Brilliant Authors,” Steve Silberman, PlosBlogs: Steve is a new discovery, and based on this post I like him and wish him well in his pursuit of writing a 100,000-word book. Based on the length of this post I don’t think he has to worry about producing 100,000 words. That said, there is some great wisdom in here; just carve out some time to read it.
• “Finding Your Voice,” Leo Babauta, Zen Habits: “Creators of any kind must find their voice,” Leo tells us, then provides seven tips on how to do so.
• “The 3 Questions Every Blogger Must Ask Themselves,” Shari Lopatin, Rogue Writer: These are really great questions, and as a fan of Shari’s blog, I can say it’s clear she’s asked them of herself.
• “What’s the Magic Number? How Often Should Writers Blog?” Kristin Lamb, Kristin Lamb’s Blog: Loyal readers know I wrestled with this issue very recently. I’ve shifted from 3 times a week to 2, Kristin is a better time-manager than me and does 3. Like Shari’s post above, this is a useful post for any blogger.
• “Should You Really Call Yourself a Consultant?” James Chartrand, Men With Pens: I include this blunt assessment because I know many of my readers are writing and creativity consultants, and I just gave my freelance consulting business a reboot this week. One word of advice “James” (a pen name) offers? Keep your mouth shut when you don’t know something.

Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, my instructor was actually pretty encouraging, and I  agree with every criticism he shared. I’m paying good money for this MFA so I welcome frank feedback, and he was gentler than some newsroom editors I’ve encountered over the years. And I’m always open to an excuse for pouring a martini. So on to the next packet!

A Creativity Workshop Gone Horribly Wrong

Your first mistake was signing up for a multi-day session calling itself the “Original Low-Cost Creativity Workshop.” There you are, braving Day Two with the workshop leaders — Meagan, a perky school teacher who admits she’s never actually conducted one of these with her husband before, and David, the aforementioned husband who opens the session by verbally berating his attendees for their horrifying Day One performance. As you sit quietly in the front row, David launches into you, offended that you threw a soda can at him on Day One. You must have hit your target; David had a kids’ boo-boo bandage on the side of his temple.

What I’m describing here is not an actual actual creativity workshop. It’s a brilliant send-up of that ever-growing subgenre of self-improvement titled “Meagan and David’s Original Low-Cost Creativity Workshop,” a one-hour comedy show here in DC at the Capital Fringe Festival that I had the pleasure of attending Friday night. I was the one David accused of throwing a soda can. Thespians Jo Firestone (Meagan) and Dylan Marron (David) of GoHorses followed the verbal assault with increasingly inane and painfully funny violations of proper workshopping.

The “Win-Win-Win” exercise — in which Meagan informs us “everybody wins” by having us fire off a vocal “Win” along with a hand gesture to random audience members — goes south when David sends an older man in the front row a “Lose.” David’s trademarked three keys to success — it’s probably best not to share them, lest someone actually try to adopt them — are co-opted by Meagan in an attempt to re-connect with her old flame she discovers sitting in the front row.

The name of my blog, The Artist’s Road, refers to my recommitted path to bringing out my own creativity. My Twitter feed — @on_creativity — promotes articles and blog posts offering insight on how to tap one’s own creativity. Many of the friends I’ve made through this blog and Twitter are creativity or writing coaches, writing books and instructional guides, and hosting online tutorial sessions and in-person workshops. They have training and experience and are sincere educators.

But what Jo and Dylan point out so skillfully is that there are always individuals — not just in the creativity game — who grab hold of a few buzz words and a handful of well-worn exercises and combine them with enthusiastic salesmanship to promise personal transformations they may not be equipped to deliver. In the case of the fictional Meagan and David, the two came across as well-intentioned, although Meagan let slip that David privately refers to his seminars as “creativity workshops for the non-creative.” Hmm.

There are a couple of lessons here. One is that it’s rewarding to seek out and enjoy local theater productions, particularly by an individual or small ensemble. I love the theater and am always delighted and stunned to have talented people performing for me, right in front of me. It’s even more powerful when attending a black-box show like this one, with limited audience seating. (At one point, when Dylan stepped back in alarm at yet another comical action by Jo, I thought he was going to land in my wife’s lap.)

The other lesson is so old it is known in its Latin form — caveat emptor. Buyer beware. But if you do pull the trigger, register for the workshop, take your seat, and find yourself shooting “Wins” at your seatmates in a contrived “Win, Win, Win” game that will “Win” you no new wisdom or inspiration, I’d suggest you refrain from taking out your instructor with a soda can. At least start by asking for a refund, so you can “Win” your money back.

Do you have some anecdotes of ill-advised workshop exercises or experiences? Share them with us below!

Creativity Tweets of the Week — 7/22/11

It’s back. As yet more evidence that I’m a bit slow, I’ve returned to my Friday tradition of providing you links to the best resources on creativity and writing I shared through Twitter and Facebook this week, despite the fact that the one time I ran a different post in its place, that post went viral, netting more than 8,000 views in less than three days. You can’t teach an old blogger new tricks.

CREATIVITY

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  Heat wave getting to you? Perhaps you should visit Oregon's Crater Lake; I this this photo there in 2004 in late June. I think Frosty the Snowman heads to the Cascades when he has to "hurry on his way."

  “Creative Types are Full of Themselves, Study Confirms,” Cari Nierenberg, MSNBC: Scientists not only posit this hypothesis, they suggest why it might be the case. As for me, I’m not full of myself, I just appreciate excellence when I see it — in myself.

• “An Innovator’s Guide: Five Ways to Think Outside the Box,” Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen, CNBC: I’d start by suggesting that you think of alternatives to cliches like “think outside the box”; that said, the co-authors of “THE INNOVATOR’S DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators” share five intriguing suggestions from their book.
• “Finding Creativity on IQ Tests,” Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, Huffington Post: I’m congenitally allergic to efforts to quantify one’s creativity, but Kaufman provides some insight on how an IQ test can have insights on the test taker’s creative thinking.

WRITING

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  The Crater Lake Lodge is both historic and charming, but Frosty should stay away from the lobby's massive stone fireplace.

  “Joel Friedlander Interview — How Self-Publishing has Changed,” Dan Blank, We Grow Media: You’ll need to carve out some time to watch this 32-minute video, but you’ll learn a fair amount about the evolving self-publishing e-book market.

• “I Know You Just Got Rejected,” Julie Anne Lindsey, Musings from the Slush Pile: That’s not hard for Julie Anne to predict if you’re a writer. In this post she feels your pain.
• “5 Creative Flaws That Will Expose Your Lack of Storytelling Experience,” Larry Brooks, Storyfix.com: The opening says it all: “There are a million ways to cripple a story.  Here are five of them.”
• “Social Skills for Social Media,” Quinn McDonald, Quinn Creative: I always maintain that social media is ultimately about life — it’s just another form of communication. Quinn nails it with this advice list for being authentic online, because as he puts it: “You are what you say in social media.”

If your muse complains that it’s too hot, treat her to some ice cream. Tell her not to worry about the calories, she’ll just sweat ‘em off.

When a Blog Post Goes Viral

I received a bit of a jolt yesterday morning when visiting my WordPress dashboard. The vertical blue bars showing daily page views were all but nonexistent. Then I realized it was because the scale had changed. The bar on the far right, showing that day’s views, was climbing right off of my screen.

My latest blog post on a writer’s must-read list had just gone viral. I watched, with a few clicks of the refresh button, as it hit 200, 300, 500. Within an hour it had hit 1,000. At the end of the day it had reached 4,000, and it’s continuing to get hits on its second day as I type this. (Update: While slowing, the clicks continue. As of 8 am ET on Wednesday the 20th we’re approaching 8,000).

That big blue bar of views was as dramatic in its rise, and as surprising in its appearance, as the state capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska, I encountered on my cross-country road trip interviewing artists.

This is startling. While I love traffic to my blog (what blogger doesn’t?) my primary motivation isn’t hits. I’m not selling anything with this blog. I don’t run ads. I don’t search-engine optimize posts and headlines. So what was going on?

A quick investigation gave much of the credit to The Huffington Post, which featured the post in their Books section. I believe Huffington Post discovered it as a result of it being tweeted by “Advice to Writers” author Jon Winokur, whose Twitter feed @AdvicetoWriters has 71,136 followers and, perhaps more importantly, is on 4,710 lists (including my WritingInspired list). His tweet was then retweeted like nobody’s business, as was one from the Huffington Post. Later that day it was tweeted by @randomhouse. Yup, they’ve got a few followers.

What has this been like? Exciting. Surprising. Confusing. Embarrassing. (That last one stems from the fact that while pleased enough with it the post to upload it, it’s hardly the one I would have chosen to introduce myself to the universe. I didn’t even bother to include my signature touch, a photo that is only marginally relevant with an unorthodox caption.)

The post had been doing pretty well on its own. It had received just under 500 views from Friday (the day I uploaded it) through Sunday, putting it in my top quartile of my posts to date. But this is an entirely different scale, as the disappearing blue bars for Friday, Saturday and Sunday attest.

The Artist’s Road is less than a year old, but I blogged for six years prior to this on two other blogs, and was blessed to see a handful of posts go viral. A post I wrote for a now-defunct think tank’s blog about my personal experience with inaccuracies on Wikipedia spread once it was promoted by Pulitzer-Prize finalist Nicholas Carr.

In perhaps my proudest moment of blogging, a post I wrote for my previous employer the Copyright Alliance went viral to positive results. I blogged about an online “magazine” titled, cheekily enough, “Pilfered,” consisting solely of photographs stolen online and reprinted without compensation of the photographers, or credit, or permission. My post spread through the photographic community, prompting a barrage of pressure on the magazine, and I believe I played some role in the magazine shutting itself down shortly thereafter.

Perhaps a better analogy for that blue bar stretching to the sky would be one of these windmills I saw rising out of Minnesota farmland.

This latest viral phenomenon comes right at a moment when I was thinking of shutting down this blog.

I absolutely love writing it — I’ve enjoyed using it as an exercise to grow as a writer, to provide resources to creative peers, and to learn how to de-program the journalist in me and put more of myself into my writing.

I’ve particularly valued the virtual friendships I have formed through this blog, and am so grateful to its loyal readers (some of whom I thank by name at the end of this post).

But on Sunday, after spending hours on the first “packet” due to my MFA instructor (30 pages of original creative writing and a 7-page critical essay), I wondered if it was reasonable to continue to indulge myself with this blog. It requires time and creative energy. Perhaps it was best to put it on ice for awhile.

But by Monday morning, when my browser opened to my WordPress dashboard, I had already decided to stick with it awhile longer. My compromise with myself was to blog a little less often, two days a week rather than three. But I realized this blog is now part of my creative path. My life mission right now is reconnecting with my muse, and stepping away from The Artist’s Road would be stepping off of that path.

So seeing that ever-rising vertical blue bar, I believe, was my muse’s way of telling me I’m right to stick with it. After all, I’m not chasing clicks. I receive qualitative value by having an outlet to flex creative muscles and a way to connect with creative and supportive peers. But it still feels nice to get quantitative feedback, especially when it’s positive.

My only regret is that once this bubble bursts, until that tall blue bar rotates off of the little chart through the passage of time, my other bars will remain minuscule by comparison.

Now comes shout-outs to some of my most loyal blog readers and Twitter pals in no particular order; like in an Oscar speech, I must note that I’m sure I’m leaving some folks out, and my sincerest apologies to those individuals. If you’re one of them, call me out in the comment field below.

A huge whoop to Milli (@fearofwriting), Amy (@AmyBuchheit), Charlotte (@wordstrumpet), Kate (@KateArmsRoberts), Sue (@Sue_Mitchell), Tanner (@tannerc), Jessica (@JMcCannWriter), Cheryl (@CherylRWrites), Carrie (@ArtistThink), Bell (@startyournovel), Melanie (@DoseofCre8ivity), Jolina (@Jolina_Joy), Paige (@PCrutcher), Liz (@lizmassey68), Mari (@mischief_mari), Elizabeth (@elizabethscraig) Anita (@anitabondi), Melissa (@CrytzerFry), Callie (Notes From Naptime), David (@DavidBGoldstein), Ollin (@OllinMorales), Ian (@IanAspin), Sion (@parisimperfect), Carolyn (@carolynsolares), and Danielle (@Danielle_Meitiv).

A Writer’s Must-Read List

What books must any writer read? That’s not for me to say. I have, however, compiled a list of works that lecturers cited as must-reads at my recent Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing residency. This is NOT a definitive list of all of the top must-read books, but an of-the-moment selection with some old standards and some you may not have heard of. I’ve divided the list into craft books (instructional) and examples of craft well done (novels, memoirs, biographies, essays).

Let me note that this is not my semester reading list. I have twelve books I must read (and write critical essays on) during the next four months, but that is a list personalized to my study. There is some overlap; three of my assigned books are listed below. But this list is a broader snapshot of recommendations I heard and had the time and presence of mind to jot down.

Enjoy!

CRAFT

• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard: A classic volume of essays in which the author walks her readers through the pain and joy of writing.
• Theory of Prose, Victor Shklovsky: The author breaks down the novel to its foundation and hints at the infinite ways a new one can be constructed.
• The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, Phillip Lopate: The introduction tells you everything you need to know about writing to a reader about your life and your beliefs; the rest of the book is dozens of examples about how this form is a staple of literature.
• The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as it Takes, Joan Silver: How to manage time in a novel.
• The Next American Essay, John D’Agata: The author collects one lyric essay per year spanning the last quarter of the 20th Century, showing the evolution of the prose form that presents facts that sing.
• The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, Jonathan D. Spence: A look at a 16th Century missionary to China and his development of a method for storing and accessing memories; promoted here as a tool writers can use to better tap their experiences in their writing.
• An Actor’s Handbook: An Alphabetical Arrangement of Concise Statements on Aspects of Acting, Constantin Stanislavsky: This venerable guide for actors can give any writer the tools she needs to perform readings of her works and speak in promotional settings.

STORIES WELL-TOLD

• My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell: A beautiful example of melding factual writing with memoir, in which Durrell focuses on the flora of the Greek island of Corfu but gives the reader much more.
• The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory, Aleksandr R. Luria: This Russian essayist tells the story of a man with unlimited memory in what Luria called a “romantic science” genre, painting a literary portrait of an individual through description of science and psychology.
• A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan: A brilliant novel that works through its manipulation of time, moving the reader back and forth to different moments seen through different eyes.
• The Liar’s Club: A Memoir, Mary Karr: A study of an author who gives what any reader wants, the opportunity to live someone else’s life, with all the bumps and laughs one can find there.
• Fly and the Fly Bottle: Encounters with British Intellectuals, Ved Mehta: A strong example of a collection of interviews where the interviewer inserts himself less through personal revelation and more through his passion for the subject matter.
• Hunting for Hope: A Father’s Journeys, Scott Russell Sanders: An example by the accomplished essayist of examining an important topic (environmentalism) through a personal prism (his relationship with his son).
• Stop-Time: A Memoir, Frank Conroy: A classic work highlighting an author unafraid to combat romantic notions of the magical moments of youth, with stories of brutality and mental illness.

What books do you recommend?

(Loyal readers will note that this post appears in lieu of the normal Friday fare, Creativity Tweets of the Week. Given that I didn’t tweet many links this week, it seemed wiser to offer this post in its place. My sincerest apologies to those jonesing for their weekly dose of CTW; I feel your pain.)

Sharing Without Fear

How do you explain a moment when you’ve experienced magic?

Several friends and family members have asked me to describe my first residency in my MFA in Writing program, and I have no easy answer. You try describing the experience of spending nearly two weeks with people who like you aspire to be the best writers they can be.

Behold the desk where my muse would force me to sit and write at 2 o'clock most mornings when I should have been fast asleep in my too-small dorm bed.

Magic was definitely in play, but explainable magic. I cut myself off from newspapers, television and social media. I spent all of my time in three buildings — my dorm with cafeteria, a lecture hall, and a classroom building — following a rigid schedule that accounted for my every waking minute. I engaged in conversation solely with other students and faculty.

Isolation has long been used with great effectiveness by churches, rehab clinics, terrorists, and cults. It creates a bonding experience with your fellow participants, one that is shockingly disorienting when it ends.

I’ve been away from Vermont for a few days now, back in sync with my life. I’m savoring the afterglow of the residency, but can’t help but wonder how I’ll keep hold of that magic when I’ve experienced my last residency two summers from now.

The key, it seems, is to find a way to create that level of creative connection and intimacy in your daily life. Isolation may have sparked that Vermont magic. But that element wasn’t the source of our magic.

The magic’s wellspring was trust.

We students ranged in age from 22 to 72. We came from all across the U.S. and other parts of the world, including Europe and the Middle East. We wrote poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction. But we all had in common a passionate, heartfelt commitment to improving ourselves as artists.

That common commitment was evident by our very appearance at the residency, and that shared knowledge facilitated our taking emotional risks. By the first full day, many of us first-semester students were on our own initiative practicing reading our works aloud to each other, rehearsing for when we’d be in front of even more students and faculty. We cheered while offering practical criticism. We had formed an ad hoc workshop, mirroring the formal ones we participated in as part of the residency.

Over cafeteria trays by day and Vermont microbrew beers by night we shared our dreams, our ambitions, what we hoped to create with our new wisdom, the creative lives we hoped to shape for ourselves. We shared our fears, our doubts, both in conversation and in our own writings we shared at our readings.

I can’t speak for my classmates, but it’s safe to say it has been a very, very long time since I’ve allowed myself to be so vulnerable. It was liberating, and led to many positive results, including a fantastic last night in town in which some of us took turns butchering pop tunes at a local karaoke bar. (I mangled Brian Setzer’s “Stray Cat Strut” and Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.”)

There’s a reason we rarely expose ourselves so fully to others. It’s simply not advisable. The opportunity for pain, for victimization, is quite high. But as I prepare for my latest meeting with a local writer’s group, I know that trustful sharing doesn’t have to happen only in an MFA isolation tank. It can happen with other creatives in your social circle, whether in person or through social media. It can happen with your spouse, your sister, your son.

The major task I’m working on with my faculty adviser this semester is learning how to reveal myself in my writing. As I’ve written here, it’s hard to suppress the journalist in me and tell my own stories with the same level of detail I tell the stories of others. But I feel I already received a head start on that creative-writing growth by revealing myself to my MFA peers.

I am determined to find ways to create that level of intimate trust in my broader life, away from the safe bubble of trust I found in Montpelier, Vermont.

Do you have people in your life with whom you can share the ups and downs of your creative path?

Embracing an Art-Committed Life

While away at my MFA residency I’m highlighting posts from early in this blog’s life, posts not seen by most current readers of the Artist’s Road blog.

What does it mean to be creative? How does that relate to living an art-committed life?

“Living an Art-Committed Life,” November 1, 2010

Creativity Tweets of the Week — 7/8/11

While away at my MFA residency I’m highlighting some of the  links I’ve posted in past Friday posts.

CREATIVITY

• “How to be a Creative Badass,” Justine Musk, Tribal Writer: 12 great tips, including “love the world” and “make mistakes.”
• “The Easiest Way to Crush Creativity,” Paul Sloane, Blogging Innovation: It’s easy, just shoot down those ideas.
• “Nine Ways of Being for Amplified Creativity,” Gregg Fraley, creativity and innovation: I come across a lot of lists on this topic, but Gregg’s has a bit of variety, including #7, “Don’t compare yourself to others.”
• “Silencing Your Inner Critic,” Kathryn Lilley, Kill Zone: She cites science showing you must silence the critic to foster creativity.

WRITING

• “Reject the ‘New Rules for Writers,” Andrew Shaffer, Huffington Post: A fiery post in defense of traditional elements of publishing, from MFA programs to editors.
• “Getting Your Work Out In the World: The Mechanics,”  Charlotte Rains Dixon, WordStrumpet: Five great suggestions on how to be a professional when submitting your work.
• “Cheap Therapy,” Milli Thornton, Fear of Writing: Talk aloud with your muse (and I’d add, let family members know you’re not going crazy).
• “10 Signs of a Typical Writer’s Day,”  Elspeth Antonelli, It’s a Mystery: This humorous post will ring true to any writer, and it also features cold coffee and unforgiving pets.

Creativity and Originality

While away at my MFA residency I’m highlighting posts from early in this blog’s life, posts not seen by most current readers of the Artist’s Road blog.

What does it mean to be original with your art? Can you truly be original when you follow the wisdom of those who preceded you?

“Are You Original?” November 22, 2010

On Embracing Self-Employment

While away at my MFA residency I’m highlighting posts from early in this blog’s life, posts not seen by most current readers of the Artist’s Road blog.

Six months ago I jumped off a cliff and became one of the millions of self-employed. In this post I list 9 steps I vowed to follow to make the most of my new career. I will decline to share how well I’ve followed this advice.

“9 Steps to Self-Employment Success,” December 10, 2010