Writing and Videos

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Posts tagged creative inspiration
How Tolkien Turned Boredom into a Bestseller

Be alert for creativity to strike in the midst of the mundane. Even an unexpected blank page can hold the beginning of your next masterpiece.

You don’t have to be working in a cabin in the woods to have creative insights. You don’t have to be a hermit, or to wake up before sunrise and meditate.

You don’t even have to be doing something creative.

In fact, creative insights sometimes strike in the midst.

In the midst of cleaning your kitchen. In the midst of driving to work. In the midst of formatting TPS reports.

JRR Tolkien tells a cool story about how he started writing The Hobbit. Tolkien wrote some of the most beloved fantasy novels of the twentieth century. But, like me, in his day job he was a university professor.

In a BBC interview in 1968, ​he recalls​ how the first line of his book The Hobbit came to him.

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The Creative Wind Tunnel

In the world of creativity, there's something called the Creative Wind Tunnel. Ryan Tedder, the songwriter behind hits for artists like Beyoncé, Adele, and his band OneRepublic, uses this term to describe the phenomenon when creators get tunnel vision and start thinking their work is perfect, losing touch with reality.

When you're in the Creative Wind Tunnel, you can’t see your work’s flaws because you’re too caught up in it. This can stop you from making something truly great.

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