Do you wish you were more creative?

If you would like to be more creative but have no clue where to start, read on! 

First, you need to allow yourself to play. Play and creativity are pretty much the same thing. Play is an exploration of what will happen if… and so is creativity! 

I’ve heard a lot of folk tell me that they’re not creative. Which in my world is the same as saying ‘I am rubbish at playing ’, and we all know that is nonsense, right?! 

The quickest way to start being more creative is to shake things up a bit. If you always park in the same place when you’re in town, try parking somewhere else.

I am such a creature of habit that I tend to park not only in the same car park, but also on the same level of the same car park. It took me a few years to stop parking in the same spot on the same level in the same car park! I once parked at the opposite end of town and discovered a barrage of interesting independent shops and coffee shops, and felt like I had had a mini holiday by the time I was finished. 

Pick something new! New places for coffee, new items off a takeaway menu

Find more interesting places to have coffee. Find quirky independent coffee shops selling delicious cakes. Try picking something new next time you order a takeaway! It just gets your brain out of ‘doing what I always do’ mode and into a more creative mindset! If you’re not sure what to pick, try picking what the person in front of you ordered. (If you hate it, please don’t get mad at me!)

But I don’t have time to be creative?

Firstly, I would like to ask you if that is really true? I know that I tell myself and anyone else who will listen that I ‘don’t have time’ to be creative. But then I realise that I am on season 8 of my favourite tv show (no mean feat given most series of said show have 24 episodes each). So clearly time isn’t the issue!

Often you can fit in snippets of time to be creative (in fact you may have to be creative with your time management to manage being creative!)

Try taking your notebook with you when you go to the dentist and do some writing whilst you wait. Or ringfence time in your diary for being creative, putting one afternoon or one morning or even a couple of hours if you can’t manage that. Mark yourself as busy and don’t let anyone distract you from your creative pursuits

Do I need to do a course, or research how to do things properly?

Generally speaking, no, unless you really want to. Most things can be learnt by experimentation. Unless you want to get good at things quickly, I wouldn’t bother. Often courses take away the creative process and leave you with something that’s someone else’s idea of good. I firmly believe it’s time to rip up the rulebook, put red, orange and pink together and experiment with what does and what doesn’t work! 

What if it’s no good or if I’m wasting my time?

It’s a good idea to let go of the idea that what you do has to be good in some way. The whole point of being creative is to let go of the need for perfection and success. It doesn’t have to be good; it doesn’t have to make you a zillion quid.

It is all about playing, in the same way as you probably played with Lego as a kid, stacking bricks one on top of the other just for the sake of it, or how you’d kick about a ball just for the sake of that too.  Just enjoy the process without focusing on a specific measurable outcome. 

The other important thing to note is that when you get creative, you may find your brain starts to unwind a little, and it is often then that you have an amazing a-ha moment where you come up with some kind of solution about a problem that had been living rent-free in your head. You may also find yourself starting to breathe a bit deeper, smile a bit more, and the tension in your shoulders starts to ease off

Stock up!

Next, I would pop to a good stationery shop (or if you’re lucky, a supermarket with an extensive back-to-school stationery range!) and buy a hard-backed sketchbook or hard-backed watercolour book (if watercolour is something that interests you!) Decide what size you want to have. If you’re mainly going to be using it at home, you go for an A4 or even A3 sized one, but if you’re planning on carrying it in your bag or keeping it in your car or caravan, you may prefer an A5 or A6 size one. 

I’d also get at least one notebook suitable for writing in. It’s up to you whether you prefer plain, lined, or squared paper. Some notebooks and journals come with a variety of pages or come plain with grid lines you can pop under the page as you write. In fact, you may need to get two notebooks. I have one that lives in my bag and one that lives in my car (for emergencies like when I arrive early somewhere or when I have to wait for my daughter).

Buy nice pens (if you don’t already have some) and maybe a glue stick. You could treat yourself to some watercolour or acrylic paints, colourful pens, and stickers. Whatever makes your heart sing. I often use a ‘proper’ ink pen when I am being creative; somehow it helps the flow. 

Good places for stationery include: https://www.afth.co.uk/ and https://cultpens.com/ 

If you fancy doing something like jewellery-making, sewing or knitting, you may need to visit the cone exchange (term time only) or ask friends if they’re destashing anything.

What can I do to be more creative?

• You could
• Write a poem
• Write a short story, blog post, magazine article or blog
• Write a letter to someone
• Write a song or song lyrics
• Paint or draw a picture
• Take your sketchbook to your favourite place and draw
• Write a travel guide or travel blog giving expert tips on travelling
• Teach someone to do something on YouTube or TikTok
• Get some Fimo or air-dry clay and make something
• Upcycle some furniture
• Customise clothes or make your own clothes
• Crochet or knit something
• Make something for someone as a gift
• Make a showstopper cake
• Make jam, marmalade or chutney
• Do something funny

Where can I start?

• Take the first line of a poem and write a new poem from it
• Pick a book from your bookshelf and go to page 27 and look at line 9; use that as a starting point for your own writing
• Use random objects as starting points: a postcard, a toy, a clock, a photograph, a whisk from the kitchen, who cares? Pick something!
• Choose colours that go with your sitting room and paint a big canvas for the wall to tie everything together
• Pick a new recipe or try to recreate something you ate at a restaurant by guessing the ingredients
• Watch tutorials on TikTok and YouTube for creative ways to ake photos using your phone and try some of those ideas

Other posts you may like

https://www.sarahcooper.co.uk/easy-ways-to-upgrade-your-life/ 

https://www.sarahcooper.co.uk/how-to-stop-feeling-overwhelmed/