Create Your Own Sea of Creativity
On finding fellow creative beings
Hello and welcome, my lovely creatives! I hope you had an inspiring week filled where you stumbled into a place where people are sharing their creativity.
I had to laugh about last week’s newsletter. After I hit send, I noticed a typo in the subject, which I was able to correct, but it doesn’t fix what ended up in your inboxes or the URL. But as always, I was just happy to have sent it out. Typos happen, right? Still cringing about it but trying to remember that done is better than perfect.
Tonight, I met up with a friend to write and we stumbled upon an open mic night at the library. I didn’t even know this was something that happened here but it’s cool. People have five minutes to read poetry, nonfiction, or play music. More power to those who are able to do it!
I've talked about the importance of finding creative community before (see here and here). And I guess I take for granted that I work in creative industries and attract creative beings.
But what if I were someplace that felt uncreative? What if I didn't already know creative people? Where would I find them?
After a recent exchange with Ani at lissen! about this, I thought I'd write a letter about it.
Dear Lovely Creative Person,
Sometimes it feels like you're the only creative person around.
The only weirdo in a sea of normality.
It's a sucky sea that drains creativity, sinking it like a stone to the bottom.
And, while we can't escape this sad sea completely, we can create our own little island of creative energy where we find others like ourselves.
Surrounding yourself in a sea of creativity can help inspire you to continue creating things.
The best way I’ve found is to go where fellow creative kindred spirits might hang out.
Some ideas:
Art classes and workshops
Concerts and music events
Art and exhibit openings
Writing classes
Poetry classes
Movie discussion groups
Open mic nights for poetry or writing or music
Online forums and communities like Facebook groups, Discord, Tumblr, and right here on Substack
Basically, anyplace where art is made or discussed or displayed or practiced, whether it be in person or online and depending on your level of comfortability talking to people, you can probably find at least one person who you can vibe with in any of these places.
I wouldn't go so far as to suggest messaging random strangers whose art you admire and try to strike up a friendship (although it does happen!), perhaps connecting with the fans of an artist you enjoy might be a way to discover more creative communities. Is there a fandom for something you enjoy? Or perhaps a group of people writing fanfiction about it? Those might be good people to connect with.
Even within a sea of what appears to be normality, often times I've found people with hidden creative talents that don't necessarily show through in a regular conversation. So I start asking questions to receptive people. And I keep discovering fun and unusual talents I never would've guessed just by first appearances.
Much love and embracing your silly creative self,
t :)
Inspiration Of The Week
I used to write and post random weird stuff on Medium and because of that, I still get
David Milgrim posted this piece called “Arting Made Easy” which you can see here or here depending on where paywalls are in place.
In the seven panel comic, a dad and his inner child are discussing the art-making process, which is more about showing up and creating than it is about getting any made-up medals for your achievements. I loved it so much.
And then I started exploring David’s website One Comic at a Time: Mental Health Comics with Long Time Patient David Milgrim. I love the words “Healing Made Humorous” under his comic essays section. What a great concept! Very much looking forward to checking out more of his work.
What inspired you this week?
Creative Prompt For The Week
This section is a weekly prompt to nudge you to do something creative this weekend. Sometimes we want to do something but just don't know what to create so we need a starting point. I'm going to help the creatively challenged by providing a word, phrase, or some other starting point where you can focus and create something. If you'd like to share it with me, please do, but there's no pressure. I'm here to inspire, not judge or tell you how or what to do.
Your prompt for this week, should it inspire you, is:
TRAILER
I’ve been thinking about trailers lately. I’m trying to figure out what should be featured in my book trailers when I finally finish them. It’s fun thinking about how I can represent my written work in a visual way. You just know it’s going to get weird with my stories, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Some ideas for trailer inspiration: come up with or even create a trailer for your life story (what would be in your highlight reel?), draw a cutie camper trailer inside or out, or perhaps you can add your own voiceover to movie trailers completely changing the tone and story of the movie to something completely your own. I love a great parody!
I hope you have a fabulous week where you’re swimming in a sea of inspiration.
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