fourworlds

I’ve finally been able to aggregate the last year and a half of creative output from all of my online identities. They add up to hundreds of blog posts, dozens of comics, songs and videos, and thousands of images. Although I’m a tiny little fish in the vast Internet ocean, it’s been very satisfying to exercise creativity, develop new skills and have a steady stream of new work to share with my friends, family and social networks.

Along the way I stumbled upon a number of strategies that allow me to keep consistently producing fresh work through stretches of burn-out and periods of creative ennui. If you’ve got a creative itch, these may help you find relief:

1. Break down large projects into iterations. This boils down to publishing your work as a continuous series of drafts, posted at least once a week. You can do this with just about any modality, including music, video, images and of course, text. And just because you title something “Part 1” doesn’t mean you’re obligated to follow up with “Part 2.”

2. Look for the creative sparks hidden in your daily routine. I’ve found inspiration in traffic, kitchen mishaps and even sitting on a toilet (okay, maybe the last example is a little sketchy.) The point is that you can find grist for your creative mill in practically every situation if you’re open to the moment.

3. Use tools to transcend perceived limitation. I think a lot of people don’t write, draw, record music, etc. because they compare themselves to “professionals” and feel unworthy. That’s bullshit. If you can’t draw a straight line to save your life, for instance, you can create visual works by using a free comic creation site. You can create music by mashing up loops using a free tool like Sony’s Acid xPress or GarageBand. I’ll post on tools in greater detail in the future.

4. Keep a recording device with you at all times. I’ve lost countless ideas by failing to jot them down when inspiration struck. Since no one is ever separated from their phone these days, you can always leave yourself a voice mail or snap a photo. I really love Evernote, a free information capturing application that runs on Mac, PC and a number of phone platforms.

5. Share your work. Dump all of your work to media sharing sites such as Flickr, Youtube and Issuu. Then selectively post files and links to your social networks. Start a blog; you can get on Tumblr with just a click. Even if only a handful of people follow your work, the magic alchemy of an audience is a powerful motivator to create new work and keep pushing it forward.

6. Show your process. Part of the joy of sharing is helping other people actualize their own creative work. You can do this through listing the tools you’ve used to create a work, or by occasional tutorial posts or case studies.

7. Try new things. One of the most satsifying aspects of the last year and a half has been playing around with new formats such as webcomics and machinima, using new tools like Frameforge or applying old tools in new ways, such as starting to write a story through a series of Tweets.

There you have it! If you give the strategies a try, please let me know how they work for you.