So, a little background, my profession is technical writing. I want to write a novel but I'm struggling a little with getting the creative side of my brain going. Technical writing seems to further inhibit my creativity with all its rules.

I'm looking into local writers' workshops but they're all full at the moment. In the meantime, I was wondering if anyone here has any advice for exercises or things I could do to stimulate my creativity and free my mind from all the rules of technical writing. Thoughts?

Hey everyone, thanks to you who posted in the original Workshop Wednesday; I think it went really well! Here we are for week 2 (sorry it took me til noon, I was busy this morning!)

Some questions:

• do we need a new topic every week? Or will one be enough?
• any other comments/suggestions?

Please begin your comment with [META] to discuss these. Otherwise, I'll copy and paste the guidelines from last week.

What's a workshop?

Basically, a workshop is when you have a bunch of people with poems or stories they've written, and everyone gets together, reads everyone's work, and comments on it, sharing what they got out of it and what the author could do to improve the work for publication. I used to do a lot of them in college, and I've missed the dynamic since graduating. I thought others might also be interested, so here goes nothing.

How this'll work (for now, anyway)

Each week, I'll post a "Workshop Wednesday" post. If you have a poem or (short) story you'd like workshopped, post that as a top comment. Then, read others' top comments and reply with what works/doesn't work/questions you have/ideas you have for the piece that could make it better. If you post some writing, try to comment on at least two other people's pieces as well -- we're here to help each other improve.

So I was talking to @cadadr in this thread about starting a workshop on Tildes, and since today makes for an alliterative title, I thought I'd start one now.

What's a workshop?

Basically, a workshop is when you have a bunch of people with poems or stories they've written, and everyone gets together, reads everyone's work, and comments on it, sharing what they got out of it and what the author could do to improve the work for publication. I used to do a lot of them in college, and I've missed the dynamic since graduating. I thought others might also be interested, so here goes nothing.

How this'll work (for now, anyway)

Each week, I'll post a "Workshop Wednesday" post. If you have a poem or (short) story you'd like workshopped, post that as a top comment. Then, read others' top comments and reply with what works/doesn't work/questions you have/ideas you have for the piece that could make it better. If you post some writing, try to comment on at least two other people's pieces as well -- we're here to help each other improve.

Going forward

Since this is the first one, obviously we can change the format or do something else. Please start meta-discussions with the word [META] so that we know it's not a poem you're trying to workshop!

I'm excited. Let's do this!

I used to work as an artist full-time, and I've learned a few tricks over the years to help me create consistently, even when I don't feel very creative.
I recently read a book called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield that hit on a lot of what I've discovered and presented a lot more insight on the subject of creating and overcoming blocks.

So I'd love to hear what helps all of you out there stay creative and spark the muse. Are you willing to share your process and approach?

I have writing, prose and in verses, that I want to start submitting to magazines. I can't decide if I should use a pseudonym or not. My reasons for using one:

• I have problems with my name: it is ideologically loaded, people can tell my dad was a nationalist, which is an ideology I reject and oppose

• I feel like it would somehow good for me to distance myself a bit from my work, don't know why really

• I guess I am intimidated by potential failure a bit, so maybe "getting my feet wet" with a pseudonym could help me get over it.

But I also want to own my work, and feel like using a pseudonym with complete secrecy is a bit... cowardly, if I am totally honest. I consider using a pseudonym which I will publicly own later, but then, is there a point to it?

What do you think about it?

this seems like a good time to bring back this question and maybe make it more consistent and recurring since there's just been an influx of new people. i last asked this about three months ago and i'm sure there are both new people to answer this question and new ideas that people who already answered or would answer have come up with since.

for my part, i did this post just now as a short little thing. on the larger scale, i've been intending to get back into editing my personal worldbuilding wiki because there's a bunch of shit i want to do with that, but college isn't exactly leaving a lot of time for it and every time i try to start on stuff gets tedious so i've been holding off on it for a little bit. i've also been chipping away at the fun that will be one of several religious books, but i don't really know how i want to structure it yet so the verses pictured and others are liable to get shuffled around at this point.

I do web and graphic design professionally, but currently have some free time.

You can see some of my work here.

You would still need to pay for the domain registration (15$/year), but I could provide hosting.

Bonus if you’re a starving artist, non-profit, or doing something humanitarian. I’d prefer not to do one for a business, since they should be able afford to pay someone, but feel free to make a case.

I would build it with Wordpress and incorporate Divi so you wouldn’t be entirely dependent on me to make future edits yourself.

I’m far from an expert and mostly do front-end, but like helping people and love the community here.

I'd love to hear about how you create your favorite works. Of anything. How did you write your best music? How did you create your favorite character in a story you wrote? Anything of the sort.

I'd love to hear all the different processes people have. It's really quite an interesting topic of discussion, for me.

Personally, I grab a cup of coffee and listen to instrumental music (mostly avant-garde jazz [Coltrane, Washington, etc]) while creating the world of the story I'm writing. There's something very productive-feeling about being wired on caffeine while also having a constant noise in your ears. It's how I compose some of my better characters and settings.

Due to my constant writer's block phenomenon, sometimes I'll smoke some pot to get past it. It's almost like phasing through a wall you can't jump over. There's something lifting about it.

For those that don't know, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is an annual challenge to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of the month of November. That translates to roughly 1,600 words a day. More info on NaNoWriMo here.

I first tried it two years ago though I fizzled out at around 10,000 words and moved on to another WIP. Last year I didn't formally participate though I made an effort to write something every day. Not sure about my word count.

This year I'm doing a series of short stories in a shared setting since I've been doing more short form writing as of late and I've been mulling over the idea for a few weeks now. It's a nice way to experiment with different settings and themes within a "singular" work. I've made some notes on plot hooks, settings, characters, and ideas I wanted to explore, so it's only a matter of writing the stories now. Maybe I'll even share excerpts as I go along.

So has anyone else made plans to do it this year?

feels like we should probably have one of these in here since it doesn't appear we've had one of these as a community in ~creative in awhile--if ever.

i've spent the better portion of my day today working on a census form for the kryfona kingdom, which is one of the many countries in my fairly large worldbuilding effort. the first page actually came out really well, i think, so that was time well spent. i've considered making a post about some of its more intricate detail since i think some people on here might enjoy that, but for now i've opted to just make this general thread since i dunno how well it'd go as a discussion topic. maybe if y'all think it's worthy of one? idk.

anyways, what creative things have you been working on recently?

I'm starting a new phase in my life and with that, quite a few shifts in personality/hobbies. The big hobby that I've started to get into is filmmaking. I feel really comfortable and confident in the technical aspect, such as cameras and all the equipment used to make good films.

The huge part that I've struggled with and continue to struggle with though is writing and creativity in general. I feel like I'm in some sort of restraint when it comes to my personal creativity since I suppressed a lot of my emotions when I was younger and now that's coming back to haunt me. I don't know how to "break free" from said restraints to become more creative again. Sometimes there have been little bursts of creativity that I've had sometimes after waking up as a remnant from dreams or potentially just the recovery of sleep but I don't know how to capitalize on it.

Do y'all have any recommendations on how to become more creative or just to be able to come up with ideas more easily?

I'm a terrible writer, in part because I've got that epistemophiliac adoration for obscure, archaic or onomatopoeic words, word-play, and more pedantry than most audiences can bear.

That being said, I think it would be a fun exercise to create and justify new words. A broad range of examples can be found here.

I'm suggesting this both to give serious writers new tools, and as a light-hearted lower-but-not-low effort community-building exercise to include those who don't consider themselves writers yet.

Rules:

1. Any subject matter, though I'd prefer we kept this SFW.
2. The "logos", or rationale, of the neologism should need little explanation, or be presented in the context of usage, e.g. "asshat", "we're not leaving town, we're staycationing this year."
3. English language is not required - if you can make a logical creole word and provide English justification, that's fine.
4. Please Google to ensure originality.
5. Puns are going to happen. If that's a problem for you, please refrain from complaint unless you feel there's unnecessary cruelty outside the bounds of Tildes' terms of use.

Here's a starter:

mortlifting - abusing the occasion of a celebrity's death to make an unrelated political point.

hey all!

i'm a fan of keeping an idea journal. little snippets of poems or hastily written descriptions of d.i.y. projects that you can go back and pick up once you get some free time.

how do you keep an idea journal for visual projects? like if i have this visualisation in my head of a bit of video, or a sculpture, or a painting i want to create, what's the best way to write that down and still be able to come back to it later?

cheers,

bishop

In honor of starving artists everywhere, the topic for this thread is "scant".

• Feel free to open it up to interpretation as literal or loose as you'd like
• Whatever medium works best for you! Even though I labelled the thread as "visual", it would be great to see work from any writers or musicians if any would like to participate as well.
• Entry should be your own work
• Multiple entries are great if you feel inclined

@userexec won the last round of the Visual Weekly Activity. I don't want to steal the glory, but I also got ants in my pants. So this is an unofficial thread and hopefully userexec will chime in with a new official thread when they have time.

Edit: moved the user tag down so the main topic is more visible.

We've been having a smattering of art, poetry, and photo participation posts, such as this, and this, and this, and this.

We seem to have enough ~tilders to have a schedule of sorts, but not enough to have each activity every week. How about we rotate weekly activities for a while and see how it goes? I'm thinking we have enough interest for a series of visual/craft based threads and a series of writing based threads. For example:

July 3-9th Photography (subject exploration or technique)
July 10-16th What are you making now?/Speedart
July 17-23rd Photography (topic or equipment)
July 24-30th What are you making now?/Media challenge

July 3-9th Freestyle Writing (up to a thousand words)
July 10-16th Themed Drabbles
July 17-23rd Poetry format challenge
July 24-30th It was a dark and stormy night

Please note that these are suggestions and not an arbitrary bid to codify content or become TEH LEADER. I just think it would be fun to have an activity to look forward to every week. We could even just sign up for hosting a week's topic, and whoever is in charge of the week picks the activity.

What does everyone think?

Hello Tilderinos!

Do any of you crochet or would like to learn to?

I've been crocheting for about two years. It's a fun pastime that gets you addicted to yarn (you can never have enough). I learned primarily through a book and lots of YouTube videos. It took a while to learn the lingo, but now that I have a hang for it I've started to delve into pattern making for stuffed toys. That alone is an entirely different beast!

For any sort of art in general. What are you excited about creating?

For me, I'm a photographer, and I've got some plans for some large format shooting during my camping trip. Because my trip lines up nicely with a nearly new moon, and I'm going to be in an area with nearly no light pollution, I want to try capturing the Milky Way on slide (color positive) film, and also doing a shot of some star trails behind a lighthouse in that area, or star trails reflecting off the lake.

Whether digital or physical, what certain tools do you use and what unique ways do you use them to achieve the best results? Namely, what tips would you be able to share with someone looking to get into making art somewhat similar to yours?

Examples:
oil painting - Are expensive brands of paints worth it? Do you prime your painting surface? Why/why not?
digital painting - Are their tricks to the way you can use some photoshop tools? What bumps your game up from beginner to mid-level?
photography - what can/can't be accomplished in Lightroom? What's worth investing in? And how do you make a photoshop selection to cut out a person or animal with fuzzy or whispy hair?
crafters of all mediums - what adhesives are good? What's the best place for materials?

This is obviously an open-ended conversation as tilde's user base is still growing. What type of art do you do and what personal tips can you share?

Over the last little while I've started buying (and fixing) up some old cameras, and have really been enjoying the experience of slowing down a tad after so many years of digital. This my collection at the moment: on the left a Zenza Bronica ETRS, then from top to bottom on the right, a Canon A-1, a Voigtländer Perkeo I with a Sekonic LC 2 meter on top, then a Canon 3000N (not as fun to use as the others, but it takes EF lenses and is super light so it's good to have around).

I've got a few rolls going on the Bronica, some Ektar 100 and some Fuji Acros 100 (I think, it was a while back and I very helpfully just labelled it 'B/W 100 ASA') and I'll definitely post some of my favourites once they're developed if I got anything good. Also, my local photo place was selling expired rolls for just $5 the other day so I picked up a couple of 35mm rolls too - it's always nice to find some cheap stuff as film seems to just be getting more and more expensive...

So, any other analogue enthusiasts? Favourite films or cameras? Got any photos you wanna show off?

I have been writing for quite some time, but always look for new ideas, new perspectives, new genres, new ways of promoting or improving or sharing my work. I'm not a professional and still have lots to learn. I am open to all kinds of writing and levels of expertise, and want to open a space where there is genuine and helpful sharing, rather than snarky and dismissive barbs.

I don't think this should be a place where someone writes a quick and sloppy sub-first draft and then eagerly begs for only positive comments. Writing is hard work. It is a craft and takes serious study and time. It can also be lonely and discouraging.

I envision a virtual coffee shop where we have all gathered with our latest work, wondering what our next step is, how a good editor can be found, how to write a query letter, is self-publishing a good choice, how did you get an agent...those sorts of discussions.

How is a new group formed?