Lots of us feel trapped or stifled when we impose a sense of structure or routine on our days. Maybe it's the inner rebel in us, the feeling that we just don't like being told what to do and when (even when we're the ones telling ourselves). But good routines, with good habits, can be hugely beneficial in building a lifestyle that allows the time and energy we need to be creative.
Read MoreA steady, flowing creative output needs plenty of input in order to keep running smoothly. We can top up that creative well with lots of different things, including time with friends, regular walks and fresh air - and of course, by consuming the art of others.
Read MoreWhen it comes to planning for a creative project - whether that's working towards a specific goal or more simply setting aside that time to hone your craft - putting in place a very strict structure can sometimes work against you.
It can leave you feeling stifled and frustrated, send you off course without realising and even deepen an impending period of creative block.
Read MoreIs it possible to find a balance between living your life (and living it honestly) and sharing it online?
Maybe it's just the season, but it seems as though there's been a bit of a shift in the mood on instagram lately. A bit of reluctance, a bit of resistance - a push against the way it rewards us for consistency of engagement alone. Maybe we're tired of the formulas, tired of the quantity over quality mindset - I know I am.
Read MoreMaking your creative projects a priority can be an important step in building tangible progress and that helps hugely with motivation and staying power. It shifts your mindset into taking your art more seriously and makes it less of a battle to squeeze time for creativity into your day-to-day.
Read MoreWhen we're working on something long term, that nobody else gets to see for a long long time, when it's just us and the blank page, or sketchbook, or wherever - is it still important for us to measure our achievements, to celebrate those tiny, incremental wins along the winding path of a creative life? And for those projects which are purely personal, the ones we do to learn a new skill, or to relax at the end of the day - is the progress irrelevant or even meaningless to the process itself?
Read MoreI don’t believe in creative block. Here's what I do believe in: the difficult business of showing up to your art, again and again and again. When it feels easy, when it feels hard, when it feels impossible. Finding the rhythm and the repetition in this process is the key to shutting the door on creative block and getting the work done.
Read MoreIt seems a little strange to think about creativity as something to invest in. Investing is something you do when you want to profit as a result in the future, right? And not all of us make art with the intention of making money from it. Well, not all profit is financial. When we're serious about living a wholehearted and intentional life of creativity, investing - whether that's our time and energy into a new skill or project; or in seeking external support and accountability…
Read MoreIt's not always easy to tell if we need a break. With all the guilt and doubt that often surrounds taking time away from our creative passions or creative businesses, it's hardly surprising that the issue of time off is one that often feels a little loaded. Sometimes, or course, we simply can't take a break. We have income to make, clients to serve, deadlines (self imposed or otherwise) to meet.
Read MoreGrowing anything is a long game - a new creative skill, a business, a social media account - it takes patience and consistency and a certain amount of stamina when it comes to simply showing up and doing the work, even when it feels like you're not getting anywhere.
It’s so natural to feel frustrated by what feels like an unbearably slow rate of growth, and this frustration is often a major stumbling block for lots of us.
Read MoreHow is your relationship with money? Mine isn’t terrible, but a recent (and very overdue) catch up with my accounts made me cringe a little at all of the unnecessary, meaningless purchases I make in a month. When you couple that with a growing passion for minimalism (which I define as: living more simply, being more intentional with my belongings, surrounding myself with more of the things I love), I decided it could be a good opportunity to reset…
Read MoreThis time last year, if you had asked me how I felt about being photographed, I'd have laughed. Including my hands or my torso in images was the furthest I'd moved towards taking a self portrait I felt comfortable sharing. I took a couple of bio/headshots when I absolutely had to for an interview - but I didn't like them enough to use on my website or blog, and I certainly would never have posted them on instagram.
I didn't start writing fiction until I was twenty two. In fact, I hated creative writing throughout school (vastly preferring the literature of others to anything I could create) - but this doesn't make me any less of a writer now. Looking back, I can recognise my dislike of creative writing then for what it really was - the fear of others (even a teacher!) reading something deeply personal to me…
Read MoreCreating blog content is great for your site SEO because it makes your site look active and engaging, helping it show up in searches and get found.
Even if that isn't your aim, it can also be a really good, regular practise in consistent creativity - which is the best way to improve at something. It invites idea generation, writing for a purpose, building skills in word choice, sentence structure and editing - mostly without you even realise it.
Read MoreAs a quiet person, I don't really believe in saying something for the sake of talking, and the same can be true of the way I feel about blogging and the other content I create. It's important to me to offer something of use, of value - whether that's in inspiration or encouragement, or yes, even advice - in this noisy online world.
Read MoreAfter making good progress for a few solid weeks, I finally got the ‘fear’ with my current writing work-in-progress.
The fear for me comes in a few different forms, but this time it was the sheer overwhelm that comes when faced with the scale of crafting a whole novel.
Read MoreWe can’t create with consistency and dedication if we’re run down or ill. The relationship between art and work and productivity is a complicated one for lots of us. But whether you rely on it to pay the bills or not, your art’s presence in your day-to-day and what to do when you’re ill can be difficult to figure out. Just in the same way that a self-employed person must take care of their
Read MoreIt's a necessary part of any creative process, that we all must start somewhere, that we all must be a beginner. This feeling can fall somewhere between joyful discovery and faint discomfort, but often it's just plain frustrating. We want to be better than we are. We want to get the hang of something right away. It's perfectly natural.
Read MoreWhen we do anything creative, we're asking ourselves to make lots and lots of decisions. Some of those are the obvious, visible kind (what colour should that be? Is that the right word?), and some are less tangible, the instinctual decisions we make without even realising (like when we place a mug on a flatlay photograph without really thinking about it). All of those little conscious and
Read MoreSetting habits and building positive routines is something I'm really interested in this year, particularly as a way to find a more realistic and practical solution towards achieving a goal. New year's resolutions are easy to give up - we fall at a hurdle a few miles along, we get discouraged by our progress and give up, or we just run out of
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