What Did You Do In The Name of Creativity Today?

Take a moment and complete the following: Today I did _______________________ to reach my goal of expressing creativity.

What is your answer? Did it come right off the top of your head or did you have to give it some serious thought?

I am creative every day. This doesn't mean I try to come up with new and creative answers to bill collectors. It does mean I sit down for at least five minutes a day and actively create.

Some days I work on an active project. Others, I brainstorm (quickly develop) ideas to pursue or possible characterizations or names or situations. Lots of days, I'm completely flummoxed. Those days I take my trusty legal pad or legal pad, junior (a size I can carry with me everywhere) and quickly dash off notes about my surroundings. It's a great exercise that serves to get me started.

2008 is the first tax year I recorded expenses associated with writing for tax purposes. Unfortunately, it's the first year I recorded expenses that I don't have income associated with them. I'm definitely not a tax expert but when I work with the tax professional in a couple of months I will be sure to tell them that every moment of every day and every night is in active pursuit of creative writing. Each waking moment I encounter an idea I can develop in one way or another. Watching TV, surfing the Internet, talking with someone on the phone is likely to trigger an idea I'll use in future writing pursuits. Likewise, every moment spent dreaming has the same potential. I keep a stack of tablets on my bedside table to quickly dash off ideas that manifest in the twilight between being awake and falling asleep or that wake me from a dream. Over the centuries many creative individuals report ideas coming to them in their dreams.

Take advantage of moments of creativity that present themselves to you over the next few days. Keep pad and paper, laptop, sketchpad or voice recorder with you at all times. Sometimes I use pages and pages to record a character sketch as it occurs to me. Others, I dash down a word or two for later review.

Think of creativity as an ongoing process. For me, it isn't possible to turn creative efforts on when I sit down at the computer, I have become aware that it is part of my existence every moment.

Sometimes the best ideas are fleeting. Be ready to record them when they show themselves to you.

- Bethany Moran