Tag: inspiration

Spotlight on Devoted to Creating

devotedtocreating

Several years ago, I had friends who were writing for a small publisher’s imprint — AWOCBooks.com/Devoted Books. Devoted to Truck Driving, Devoted to Quilting, Devoted to Cooking, just to name a few.

I decided I wanted to write one too. Mine would be Devoted to Creating. Some people argued that since I don’t paint, I couldn’t write a book about creating/creativity. They didn’t share the same broadness of the definition that I do.

In 2008, Devoted to Creating: Igniting the Creative Spark in Everyone made its debut. Several years after that, the publisher retired and it went out of print. I had requested the rights revert back to me, so they did. I won’t go into why or how it took me so long to re-release it, but here we are!

Devoted to Creating: Igniting the Creative Spark in Everyone is available on Amazon. The Kindle edition is $4.99 regular price. It will be free Friday, November 23, through Tuesday, November 28.

The print edition is available for $11.99.

You Made It!

Welcome to day 5 of 5 Days to Get Out of a Creative Rut!

You made it! Today is the last day.

How did your walk go yesterday? I need for you to think about it for a minute. What did you see that grabbed your attention? Did you take a picture of it?

I hope so.

Take that picture and look at it. I mean, really look at it. Why did you notice it? What is it?

Take that item and any/all associations in has for you and create something around it.

Cook.
Paint.
Write.
Draw.
Sculpt.
Sing.
Compose.
Play your instrument.

Whatever it is that you do that makes you you, do that.

Between your Idea Pocket, your notebook/journal, and your walking with intention (paying attention, looking for inspiration), you have three important tools to help you get out of any creative rut you find yourself in.

If you participated in the challenge and used the hashtag #nocreativerut on Facebook or Instagram, you are entered in a drawing to win a Kindle copy of 80 Creativity Tips or a scholarship to 40 Days of Creativity.

Happy creating!

5 Days to Get Out of a Creative RUt

What to Do When You’re Not Motivated

I was listening to YouTube videos last night as I was doing other things that didn’t require a lot of attention. Carrie Green, founder of Female Entrepreneur Association and author of She Means Business, caught my full attention when she mentioned entrepreneurs as creative people. (I agree, by the way.) Because of that, I thought I would share this with you.

 

Inspiration Station

&copy 2014 Jen Nipps
&copy 2014 Jen Nipps

You know how it goes. You’re going along, keeping on keeping on, and you run out of steam. You feel like you’re going through the motions and not getting anywhere. You’re in a rut. Your get up & go finally got up & went.

What’s a person to do?

Get it back, of course. You have to be motivated to get work done. You have to be inspired to be motivated. Where do you get that inspiration?

The easy answer? All around you.

The hard answer? All around you.

It isn’t a cop-out. It really is both that easy and that hard. It’s easy because we don’t have to go far to find a source of inspiration. It’s hard because, since it’s always around us, we don’t always see it.

One of my favorite sources of inspiration is my youngest niece. We’ll call her Miss J. She’s 5. She’s cute (absolutely adorable, actually!), smart, busy, and curious. She asks questions about everything. (I know. All kids do, but she’s the one currently in my life doing this to me.) Sometimes, a lot of times, I will find inspiration in the questions she asks me. I will get ideas for something to knit or crochet because of something she says. I take a lot of pictures of her.

She wants to know how I feel, how my leg feels, why Gabby (my dog) is running around outside like that, where Papa (my dad) is, when Nana (my mom) is going to be home from work.

She’s worried about not being able to read “good enough” for kindergarten in August!

She is a huge source of my inspiration for pretty much anything I do.