Wednesday Writing Tips #7: Develop Your Creative Potential.

Welcome to this series of writing tips. If you would like to pen a guest post for this series, email me at ACBwrites@aol.com.
Today, guest blogger Gemma Gaten shares her ideas about how to improve creativity.

Every person is unique. We are all creative in our own simple ways but most of us haven't realised our full creative potential. Some people are trying to unlock their creativity while others give up trying to know in which field they are most creative. Being intelligent, hard-working, and having a nice attitude are not enough to become successful in your chosen career. More than these things, you must learn how to use your normal intelligence in doing creative work.

Creativity is an element that is present in all fields. Whether you are working in a business, have a job related to the arts or technology and social media, your level of creativity plays a vital role in your profession. Enhancing creativity can impact upon every aspect of your life. That is why making room for creativity in your day-to-day work is important because it can help you become an efficient and productive individual.

If you are not confident or you doubt your creative skills and want to develop them to become more effective in your work, here are some ways of breaking mental-barriers and evolving your creative thinking.

* Being creative is not being destructive

Some people think that in order for them to become different and create something different they have to change their attitude and adopt negative behaviour. This is not a good habit.  Destructive behaviour can ruin your creativity. Do not attempt to do things that aren't helpful in your writing. Like, for example, following a weird or binge writing approach to your written work. This will not make you creative, this will only destroy your dignity as a writer.

* Be imaginative and go beyond.

If you are a writer, you are expected to be reasonable as you write and publish your written work. You might have an out-of-this-world idea or concept for your story but makes sure that it still makes sense. You can write something extraordinary but ensure that your readers can get useful information or message from it because writing without a purpose is never a creative form of artwork.

* Develop a critical reading habit.

Reading, as we all know, plays a significant role in developing creative faculties. If you read a book every day you are developing not only your reading comprehension skill but exercising also the creative side of your brain. Reading is a great way of preparing yourself to become a creative and critical thinker.

* Practise counter factual thinking.

Does the term 'counter factual thinking' ring a bell? Counter factual thinking means when you are thinking or imagining different outcomes to your written work. This is like asking yourself 'what if?'  What if the ending of the story has changed? What if you add a twist to your writing? What if your characters are different? If you think this way, you are practising counter factual thinking.

* Befriend failure and mistakes.

We are all afraid to fail or commit mistakes. But if we keep on lingering on these our creativity will get paralysed. Treat failure and mistakes your friend. Do not be afraid of them. It is normal to fail and commit mistakes. It is part of the process and it will teach you how to improve your skills. 

Creative passion will naturally flow out from you once you figured out how to apply these methods to your work. Thinking creatively means getting out of the box and not limiting yourself in creating and discovering new things.

Gemma Gaten works for a best essay writing service uk. She is a part-time writer and a full time blogger. She loves to write, blog, and read books. She is very enthusiastic in travelling and taking photographs. Her dream is to become a successful travel writer.

 

Adele says: One of the limitations of "rules for writing" is that they are guidelines rather than inflexible truths.  For example, some writers may thrive on maintaining a steady, daily routine while others may not write for months then launch into a highly-focused "binge" of writing.  Each to our  own, always.  I encourage people to experiment and discover which methods work for them.

A novel needn't convey a specific message; it's perfectly ok to write or read something purely for entertainment.  If I wanted facts, I wouldn't research them through fiction.  However, fiction can be used to introduce or explore factual ideas to great effect.

The question of "What if...?" is fundamental to all speculative fiction.  Asking this question can be a fun and practical way of developing story ideas, and it's a method I often use.

Further Reading:

Wednesday Writing Tips #6: The Magic Formula.
Wednesday Writing Tips #5: The Challenge of the Blank Space.
Wednesday Writing Tips #4: Ideas.
Wednesday Writing Tips #3: Read!
Wednesday Writing Tips #2: Edit Your Writing!
Wednesday Writing Tips #1: Write!
Also see: Morgen Bailey's Essential Writing Tips!

World AIDS Day

In the mid-1980's I was working for South Sefton Health Authority.  Based at Fazakerley Hospital in Liverpool, I was part of a small team of Health Promotion Officers who'd drive around north Liverpool in an old double-decker bus.  The lower deck had been converted into a creche, while the upper deck housed a tiny clinic area and an information resource centre.  For the most part, our team handed out leaflets and play videos  - anti-smoking, healthy nutrition, oral hygiene, etc.  One of the leaflets was the infamous AIDS tombstone leaflet intended to terrify people into using condoms to slow the spread of this rampant disease which would, it seemed at the time, lead to us all having to step round corpses in the streets.

And while people certainly have died from AIDS, (or from the treatments given to control it, especially in those early years), many who now live with the HIV virus no longer need fear an automatic death sentence.  Apparently, a person with HIV can live just as long as someone without it.  No-one can say exactly how long that might be, of course - you might as well ask how long's a piece of string.  However, the stigma around HIV still lingers.

A friend of mine, Ali, has posted a well-written blog about his experiences of living with HIV.  I encourage you all to click on the link, take the time to read it and watch the short video.  Click here.

Feature & Follow Friday

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! .

The Feature & Follow has two hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each has their own Feature Blog.

How does this work? First, leave your name here on this post, (using the Linky tools below.)  Then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and leave a message in their comments section.

And today's question, set by the FF hosts, is:  What’s your favourite Thanksgiving Day food? If you’re not American or Canadian, what is your favourite holiday food?

Here in Britain, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  This festival's historical roots can be linked to our ancient harvest festivals and the English Reformation in 1536, and while some people still celebrate a harvest festival this isn't a national holiday and there isn't a particular food associated with it. 

What we do have, which might interest some readers, are Corn Dollies.  No, you can't eat them, (not unless you've the teeth and digestive tract of a goat), but these charming objects are still believed by some people to bring luck into a home just so long as it is not removed again until the next harvest, when it has to be replaced by a new Corn Dolly and the old one burned.  Whether you believe this superstition is, of course, entirely up to you.

City Stories is Available Now!

City Stories: Tales of Modern Liverpool

ISBN: 9781310916939

Love, terror and 21st century life! From the heart of cosmopolitan Liverpool come nine thrilling views of modern living. Blood-drinkers, killers and secrets. Old sorrows and new beginnings. The light and dark of human life set against the glittering backdrop of a reinvigorated city. City Stories. Tales of life today.

Featuring:-
Tim Hulme
William R Jones
Caroline Hubbard
Andy Siddle
Jason Barney
Jack Horne
Adele Cosgrove-Bray

Pick up your FREE copy today here!

Other distribution outlets will follow over the new few weeks.

Small Businesses and Our Changing High Streets

I spent part of the afternoon in Birkenhead.  It must be close to a year, or perhaps even longer, since I last wandered round the shops there.  I was surprised to see how many empty retails units there are in the Grange Precinct and in The Pyramids.  For the benefit of non-locals, I should explain that this small shopping mall has neither pyramids nor an Egyptian-themed decor; indeed the only remotely pyramid-like aspect to it is its name.

The high number of vacant retail units show how hard the recession has hit, despite debate about whether double-dip or triple-dip recessions are myths arising from the interpretation of statistics.  The Daily Telegraph reported that 27,000 small businesses failed during 2009, when the recession began to bite.  More recent statistics proved difficult to find.  Eighteen shops closed every day during the first half of 2013, just two fewer a day than in 2012 according to The Guardian, so it seems that while the economy has not grown worse, it is still very flat and most forecasters seem to think that it won't really show much improvement until 2015.
 

According to the HMRC, one third of the UK's tax revenue comes from small businesses.   The country needs to make survival easier for micro and small businesses by simplifying the current tax system.  At the moment they have to pay an estimated tax bill six months in advance, and the term "self assessment" seems rather sarcastic when the system is so complicated that even the smallest of businesses requires the services of a professional  accountant. 

Business rates on phone lines are totally unjustified as the technology used differs in no way from that used by non-business lines.  Similarly, business rates of other services need to be stopped or at least made much more fair and justifyable. 

Low rental units need to be just that, low in cost to rent - so encourage more outdoor markets rather than keep building glitzy shopping malls which small businesses simply can't afford to maintain once any reduced-cost trial period is over.  Look at the successes of local farmer's markets and food festivals, or even car boot sales, as proof that this works.

Could one reason why high street revenues have dropped be because the shops are full of mass-produced, unindividualistic rubbish?  The claim that low-end products are market-driven is patent nonsense when hardly anyone is buying what's on offer.  The country needs to make it easier for creative sole-traders to set up  small, low-rent workshops where they can make and sell their own hand-made items.  Look at how well arts fairs are doing, how they're taking off despite the recession having hit everyone's pockets. 

People always want beautiful, individual and unique hand-made things whether these be art, crafts, bespoke furniture or properly-tailored clothing, for example.  Micro businesses should be encouraged by being made easier to start up.

As more of us shop online, less of us spend money in high street shops.  Combined with the recession and exorbitant business rents and rates, many empty shops are the result.  As our spending habits change, so will the high street.  So what are we going to do with all these empty retail units?  The demand for apartments seems to be increasing and many empty shops could be converted for this use.  Others may be put to community or to arts usage - but both these options still require an income to support them, and surely few of us want to pay yet more taxes to achieve this.

Change, it seems, really is the only certainty.
 

Books, Ponds and Birdies.

City Stories, FREE ebook anthology

 

Contributors:

Tim Hulme

William R Jones

Caroline Hubbard

Andy Siddle

Jason Barney

Jack Horne

Adele Cosgrove-Bray

 

Here's a preview of the front cover for the forthcoming City Stories ebook anthology, which is currently being proofread with help from Andy Siddle and Tim Hulme.  The photo on the cover depicts part of the Albert Dock in Liverpool, and was taken by my husband Richard, (who's currently trying to mend a broken stand for one of my Tangkou dolls).

 Frog pond with pennywort, water soldiers, fairy moss and shy goldfish.

 

Who'd have guessed that fish have personalities?  To prevent the frog pond from becoming home to a legion of blood-sucking mosquitoes, my brother Eric suggested adding a few goldfish.  Three have been making themselves at home beneath the gradually-spreading canopy of pennywort and fairy moss.  They seem to like snoozing under the water soldiers, and they're particularly fond of peeping through gaps around the aquatic iris floaty-pants.  The paler fish has the most confidence of the three; it's always the first to poke its nose out at feeding time then swim out to snatch flakes of fish-food.  The other two seem to watch the braver fish for a few minutes while deciding whether to follow it into open water.

 

There has been a frog living around the edges of the pond, which liked to hide under the shade of the adjacent rhubarb leaves, but now the leaves are quickly dying back, as they always do at this time of the year, the frog hasn't been seen for a few days.

 

Three fish, one pond.

 

Migrating birds gather on West Kirby beach, Wirral.

On the horizon are Middle Eye and Hilbre Island.

 

I couldn't see well enough to be sure of the species, but there was a huge flock of (seemingly) black and white birds resting on West Kirby beach.  The photo above only captures some of the flock.  Flying above my head, as I walked through the sand dunes between West Kirby and Hoylake, were two skylarks in a tumbling dance, and a hovering, almost-motionless sparrowhawk, and perched on one leg beside one of the many reed-shrouded ponds was a lovely egret. 

 

Twitchers were out in full-force, of course, drawn by the seasonal influx of birds.  It's weird how this area is so often overlooked by TV wildlife programmes.  Even Coast gave Wirral no more than a passing, off-hand mention.  Yet the Dee Estuary is one of Britain's most important sites for migrating birds, plus there's the seal herd and the fact that Hilbre Island is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area, a Ramsar Site, (being a Wetland of International Importance), and a candidate European Union Special Area of Conservation.

 

What draws me to the place is the open space, the huge unfettered skies, the sense of peace.  My dogs like charging around the dunes, poking their noses into every mouse hole and paddling ankle-deep in the many pools.  It's a pleasure to hear nothing but the wind through the yellow-brown reeds, the trudge of feet on sand, bird-song and the ever-present susurrant song of the sea.

 

Scattered ponds line the beaches between West Kirby and Hoylake,

giving home to Natterjack toads, sand lizards and numerous birds.

 

Toads and Twits.

Shabby Chic - Toad Style!

 

One of our compost bins has been selected as a desirable residence by a toad.  Here he is, perched on top of an egg shell amidst a colourful squelch of veg and fruit peelings.  Toady seems entirely content, and has shown a distinct disinterest in moving on despite the lower edge of the compost bin having been propped up on an old brick so Toady can come and go easily.  Each time Richard or I go to the compost bin, we first have to check to make sure Toady has ambled off to one side to avoid being buried by a small avalanche of soggy teabags and kitchen peelings.

 

Location, location, location...  It's a handy spot for an amphibian.  The decomposing compost will help keep Toady warm in winter, and the thick recycled rubber walls of the bin itself will protect Toady from the worst of the winter storms.  The neighbours are edible.  And come spring, when Toady's feeling especially sociable, there's a lovely pond a small crawly-walk away which should be great for all Toady's partying needs.

 

This weekend sees the absolutely-final-no-further-extensions deadline for the forthcoming free ebook, City Stories. This is largely a Riverside Writers project but submissions were open to non-members too.  It's an informal sequel to Seaside Stories which has clocked-up a reasonable amount of downloads since it's publication last year.  I have yet to create a front cover for City Stories, but I've begun editing the contents.  I aim to have this project available by mid-November or early December at the latest.

 

Earlier this year, I took up swimming.  Swimming used to be a regular family activity, back when I was a child, but life moved on.  Earlier this year, I watched people swimming in the local pool and it looked like fun, so I bought Richard and myself swimming costumes and into the water we went - only to find that while our brains remembered how to swim (more or less), our bodies didn't altogether co-operate.  I managed to swim three-quarters of a length before having to grab the pool side and gasp, purple faced, for air.  Richard managed a whole length but with similar indignity.

 

Seven months later (or thereabouts), having been going twice a week, I now usually swim 40 lengths and need only a small number of short breaks - and these are without turning a funny colour.  I've lost approximately half a stone in weight without dieting, but I've also toned up a bit.  The other swimmers have been nothing but encouraging.  There are several elderly people there who are inspirational!  There's one guy, who must be in his seventies, who speedily swims length after length after length and only stops after an hour or more.  For every length I swim, he does about four.  There are several elderly ladies who zoom past me in the water!

 

It's a good job that I've been enjoying it so much, as a week ago I received a round robin email from Wirral Council to say they'd accidentally taken £1115 from my current account instead of the correct monthly swimming pool subscription of £11.15.  I was not amused, especially when they claimed they couldn't pay me back and I'd have to sort their mess out myself.

 

I was even less amused when my bank proved to be of minimal help.  First, the cashier told me I'd have to use the phone in the corner of the room.  The phone's desk space, on which I needed to lay out various relevant documents, was the size of a matchbox.  Then the computerised phone helpline couldn't help as I don't have online banking with them so I went back to the cashier, who said someone would come down.  So I took a seat and waited.  And waited. And waited...  Twenty-five minutes later, just as I was about to return to the cashier again to ask what was happening, the branch manager strolled by and asked if I was being attended to.  "No, not in practise," I replied.  It turned out that the cashier had just assumed someone would come to talk to me.  She hadn't actually had the sense to tell anyone that a customer needed attention.

 

So, in the manager's office, I was told that the only way to fix the problem was via the computerised phone helpline.  As I didn't have online banking set-up, (something which I'm in the process of amending in case this happens again), all she could do was photocopy my printed-off email from Wirral Council and staple it to a request form which, she said, might get sent back to the branch as, yes, all Direct Debit Indemnity Claims have to go through the helpline.  I'd have to check my account, she said, and if the money wasn't replaced come back in and try again.

 

Dissatisfied with a vague hope of maybe-or-maybe-not having the issue resolved, I found another helpline number  from the bank's website.  I rang this, and spoke to someone who kept trying to get me to cancel the Direct Debit before bothering to actually listen to the whole story.  No, I didn't want to cancel the DD as I've had it for a while and the problem was due to a stupid clerical error.  What I wanted was clearly outlined in the bank's own DD guarantee and terms of service - namely that the bank immediately replaces my money and the bank then pursues the error/debt from the council.  "Oh," he said, "I will have to speak to someone else about this, madam.  Would you please hold the line a few moments?"  Well, after enduring a torturous recurring cycle of an unidentifiable keyboard sequence, he came back to the phone and said it was all fixed. 

 

Here's hoping.  Watch this space. 

 

Good news:  After months of phone calls from a colleague and myself, finally Knowsley Community College has mailed out certificates.  One is an OCR Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service, the other is an OCR Level 2 Award in Business Skills.  I completed the courses in April this year.  The Business Skills Award made me chuckle a little, as I had to wonder how many of the boffins who grade these courses have co-run a city centre business for the last 20 years, as I have.  My sister Hazel said that at least I now have a piece of paper to prove I can do this.  Isn't 20 years-worth of tax returns proof enough, hmm?
 



# 78 in Kindle Best Seller List

Entering the Grove is currently #97,303 in the Kindle 100 Bestseller list, and #78 in the Inspirational & Religious list.

 

Stapledon Woods on Caldy Hill, Wirral.

Steep steps leading up to Mariner's Point, West Kirby.

A doorway in the woodland realm.

 

 Fabulous red sandstone - with a strange light behind the fallen branches.

 

 Part of an old train, half-buried on the woodland floor.

 

Four old train wheels.

 

 

Heather covers the summit of Caldy Hill.

 

 Just one of many tangled thickets in Stapledon Woods.

 

 The fairy pond, currently no more than a shallow smudge of mud.

 

Woodland canopy above the fairy pond.

 

Rain rolling in to the Dee Estuary.

 

To view these photos bigger, simply click on an image then use the slideshow.

 

All photos (C) Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2013.