Picabo Creative

1. Read

Not to sound like every teacher you’ve ever had, but reading is probably the most vital thing you can do to stimulate your brain. Reading everything you can get your hands on from fiction to biographies, instructional books to fantasy will make you a well rounded person. Once you get into it, you’ll start to notice correlations between genres and can draw deeper meaning from the world around you. All of this will flow through your writing or art subconsciously, providing a more significant voice to your work.

2. Narrate your day

This may sound silly, but literally walk around one day narrating your activities. If you’ve ever seen Will Ferrell in Stranger than Fiction, you’re on the right track. She sits at her desk, idly tapping her pen as the cursor on the screen blinks condescendingly. Her breathing is deep and relaxed whilst her mind races to solve this important problem. You get the idea. You’ll find that only a few hours will be thinking more creatively, vividly visualizing the scenes you put your characters in.

3. Create back stories for strangers

Whether you’re sitting on the tube or walking to work, we encounter strangers every day. Create a short little story about them on the fly. Where did they grow up? Was it a good childhood? Was that umbrella a gift from a very important person they no longer speak to? Where are they coming from? It’s worth pointing out that you should avoid staring too much

4. Write

Duh. The more you write the better writer you will become. Just like the reading, you’ll have heard this a hundred thousand times. That’s because it’s true! Blog, write a journal, short stories, your novel. It really does not matter because you’re flexing your muscles. Adding to this, I would say make a point of writing at least once a week by pen and paper. Writing on a computer is great but you start to rely on spell check, your typing speed, and the ability to just delete any mistakes. Writing by hand gets you to think ahead, plan your sentences, and remember how to spell!

5. Practice creative hobbies

I’m predominately left-brained but nothing clears my mind like a hard Suduko puzzle. I exercise different parts of my brain when I do my scrapbooking. I want to get into knitting. It’s these little crafty, but still creative hobbies that keep your brain active and working. Doing one thing all the time will become dull, repetitive and pointless.