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Breaking Outside the Intended Medium (Madeline Style!)


     When you are writing or doing anything creative, eventually you run out of inspiration. You don't necessarily burn out, but you need fresh ideas and inspiration.

       The best way to get inspiration is not to go read or listen to other writers (if you are a writer.) You don't need to go look at art (if you're an artist.) You don't need to go listen to music (if you're a composer.) No.

     You need to break outside the intended medium.

     What does that mean?

     Don't do what you think you would do to get inspired. Get outside your comfort zone, and maybe do something a little wacky. Before a writers' meeting with a dear friend a few weeks ago, I did three things. They're great ideas for whenever you need to just go a little cray cray for a while.

     Use these ideas and others to start your own breaking out project.

1. Grab some markers and one piece of white paper. No rules. Go. What happened? Try it with a friend. Tell them to just go. I ended up with scribbles, patterns, and words galore. All on top of one another and mixed up. It looked awful. I should frame it. (Those might sound like contradictions, but to me, they are one and the same.)

2. Drum on your washer. Scare your kids. Or your dad, if you're me. So maybe this is better to do if no one's around. If, however, you get the urge to spontaneously freak out your household, go for it!

3. Hug a tree...or a pillar or a lamp post or a vacuum cleaner! Literally. Hugging a person-ish-shaped object will be weird and a little fun. You might even end up drawing a mustache on your vacuum cleaner if you're feeling extra wacky.

     The point of these ridiculous exercises is, sometimes, we just like to get a little crazy. That's ok. We're very creative a lot of the time, and we need to get our wiggles out and come back to our project with fresh ideas and awesomeness.

~Madeline

Comments

  1. Love the idea of getting out of your comfort zone!! Love all the ideas you have. Super inspiring!!!
    Love your blog by the way. :)
    Emily

    ReplyDelete

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Thank you for reading! I cherish each and every comment and usually respond within a day or two. ~Madeline

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