#creativity tips

hey lovelies! ✨

i've been thinking a lot about creative intuition lately, that quiet inner voice that nudges you toward certain ideas or projects. for the longest time, i was absolutely terrible at listening to it. i'd get these little sparks of inspiration and immediately talk myself out of them. "that's been done before" or "you don't have the skills for that" or my personal favorite: "who do you think you are?"

sound familiar? thought so.

the thing is, i've slowly been learning that my intuition actually knows what it's talking about. those random ideas that pop into my head at 2am or while i'm in the shower? they're not random at all, they're my creative compass trying to guide me toward what truly lights me up.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ recognizing intuition vs. fear ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

the first big challenge was learning to tell the difference between my intuition and my fear. they can sound weirdly similar sometimes!

my intuition tends to feel like excitement mixed with certainty, like "yes! this!" even when it makes no logical sense. it feels light and expansive, like opening a window in a stuffy room.

fear, on the other hand, feels heavy and contracted. it comes with a lot of "shoulds" and worrying about what other people will think. it's the voice that compares my chapter 1 to someone else's chapter 20.

i started keeping track of when these different voices would speak up, and slowly got better at recognizing which was which.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ creating space to listen ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

intuition doesn't shout. it whispers. and in our noisy, constantly-connected world, those whispers can get completely drowned out.

i realized i needed to create actual space to hear myself think. for me, that looks like:

morning pages: three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing before looking at my phone

solo walks without podcasts or music (just me and my thoughts)

intentional boredom: staring out windows, lying on the floor, letting my mind wander

reducing input before trying to create output (no scrolling before creative sessions)

it's amazing what starts to bubble up when you're not constantly drowning it out with other people's voices and ideas.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ the "stupid idea" notebook ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

one of the most helpful tools has been my "stupid idea" notebook, a judgment-free zone where i write down every creative impulse, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

the name is intentionally silly to remind myself not to take it all so seriously. some ideas truly are stupid, and that's perfectly fine! but some turn out to be the beginnings of something meaningful.

the rule is simple: write it all down, evaluate later. this creates a safe space for intuition to speak without immediately being shut down by my inner critic.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ small intuition experiments ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

trusting your intuition is like building a muscle, you start small and work your way up.

i began with low-stakes creative decisions: which color to use in a drawing, which topic to write about in my journal, which route to take on my walk. when something felt intuitively "right," i'd go with it, even if i couldn't explain why.

gradually, i started trusting my intuition with bigger choices: which project to pursue, which opportunities to say yes to, which creative direction to explore.

with each small win, my confidence in my inner guidance grew stronger.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ embracing the "wrong" turns ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

here's the thing about intuition: sometimes it leads you down paths that seem to go nowhere. i've followed creative impulses that resulted in projects i never finished or ideas that didn't work out.

but i'm learning that these aren't failures, they're necessary detours. every "wrong" turn teaches me something i needed to learn or leads me to connections i wouldn't have made otherwise.

intuition isn't finding the most direct path; it's finding YOUR path, with all its twists and surprises.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ letting go of external validation ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

perhaps the hardest part of trusting my creative intuition has been detaching from external validation. when you follow your intuition, you might create things that don't immediately resonate with others or fit neatly into what's trending.

i'm still working on this one, honestly. but i've noticed that my most intuitive creations... the ones that felt most aligned with my inner voice, are ultimately the ones people connect with most deeply, even if the audience is smaller.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ a gentle practice ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

trusting your creative intuition isn't a destination, it's an ongoing practice. some days i'm better at it than others. sometimes fear still wins. but each time i choose to listen to that quiet inner knowing, it gets a little louder, a little clearer.

if you're struggling to trust your own creative voice, start small. create tiny spaces of silence. write down the whispers. follow the sparks of excitement. and be patient with yourself when you forget.

xoxo, mindy 🤍

If you're like me and have autism+adhd, the power of Music Association is a powerful thing :D

If you have a particular band/artist you enjoy, see if they have any albums you haven't listened to yet, and then just listen to that album on repeat while you're you're outlining and then also writing your story-- combined with some nice-quality headphones, I can sit and crank out a ton of words in one sitting as the music eventually becomes background noise while also tying itself into the writing .

The Most Random Song Possible can and will overtime take on symbolic meaning beyond anything the actual lyrics convey lol.

I want the name to sound natural for a pmd environment (aka not a human name)

Smol bits of character I have are:

- likes to fight

- acts first, ask questions later,

- bit of an airhead

- nerd

Oooh, this is a topic I love. Names are such a joy to tinker with when creating characters. I'll start out with a preamble on naming characters in general before getting into specific names I'd recommend for this charmander in particular!

It’s safe to say all creative people are familiar with the wretched, empty feeling of not being able to create. Feeling that the well has gone dry, we’ll never get another good idea again, and what are we even doing calling ourselves ‘creators’ after all?

I’ve heard it said that creativity is a muscle, and I think it’s a particularly useful analogy. Not only because a muscle is something that can be exercised, and strengthened, but because it is already inside us. When creativity strikes, it often feels like a lightning bolt from the sky, out of nowhere. But in truth, of course, it comes from within ourselves. Feeling uncreative is, without a doubt, connected to a lack of trust in our innate ability.

Consider the number of thoughts you have throughout a single day. Imagine them as fish in a swift river. Among the many dull, everyday thoughts are a few beautiful, rainbow-scaled ones, rare and maybe wish-granting. But they slip past unnoticed because most of the time, you don’t stop to catch them.

start carrying a notebook, to catch your thoughts.

The number one thing that has helped me trust in my own creativity, and increase it, is taking a little notebook and pencil everywhere I go. I mean everywhere. So that when I notice something interesting, or think of something interesting, I can write it down.

A lot of the time what I write isn’t novel-sparking material. But it has completely changed the way I think about my creativity. The notebook serves as a net, cast into the current of my daily thoughts. It catches the dull ones along with the brilliant ones. But without it, I’m not going to catch anything.

Creativity is not a well that can run dry. It’s a river that’s always flowing. Every day we pick up details from the world around us, and process them, and sometimes those details spark ideas. Sometimes those ideas become art.

Start writing down what passes through your mind, even if it seems insignificant. Transcribe an odd conversation you overhear on the bus. Describe a tree branch that reminds you of a frail, elderly hand. Pretty soon, you’ll notice that what you write sheds light on the way you see the world, and you may start to realize you’re a lot more creative than you thought.

The notebook doesn’t have to be fancy, just as a good fisherman’s net need not be wrought of gold. My notebook of choice is a bit bigger than the size of my palm, with an elastic band to keep it shut, and it works perfect for me. But the notebook itself is only a tool. The magic comes from you.

I’m not putting this forth as a cure-all solution. I still have moments when I feel uncreative. But whenever that happens, I can flip back through my notebook, and be reassured that creativity doesn’t vanish or run dry. It’s there within me all the time.

Steps to Increasing Your Creativity | STEPS: Building Creative Habits