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Can you write a novel, paint a painting, or invent a new tech solution if you aren’t open to creative ideas at those times when you aren’t sitting down to write that novel, paint that painting, or invent that solution? Is creativity something that you turn on and off...

You do not need to stop creating because you’ve gotten older. Yes, you may need to make changes: Matisse had to move from painting to cut-out collages because of arthritis; and, as a result, created some of his most memorable works. So, while you may need to make...

It’s been a long time since we’ve had that experience of lazing around on a picnic blanket on a summer afternoon, bees buzzing, kids running around, and hot dogs grilling. Can you even remember such a moment? Nowadays we seem to be running and running and never...

Organizational Tips for the Ambitious Let’s say that you’re a nonfiction writer intending to write a self-help book organized around seven principles. You will have your organizational challenges—every book presents organizational challenges. But now imagine that...

Maybe you got away with doing things at the last minute in college. You wrote that English essay at the last moment or crammed for that chemistry exam the night before the test and managed to pass. But if you intend to have a career in the arts and deal with the...

For thousands and thousands of years the thing we call “creativity” has been in evidence. We take that word to stand for everything from cave paintings to dreaming up bread to dreaming up round wheels to creating cosmology myths to turning reeds into flutes. That is...

If you want to be a productive, prolific creative person, you need to get organized and stay organized. Your organizational scheme may not look like anybody else’s: to the outside world, your studio may look completely disorganized. But if you know where things are,...

You Aren’t Creative Until You Pick a Project I’ve been working with creative and performing artists and other creatives for more than thirty years, first as a therapist and then as a creativity coach. Among their many challenges is the following one, a challenge that...

At the core of a creative act like painting or sculpting is the effort to make meaning (and not beautiful objects or money). We are very happy if we make objects we like and if we make money, but what we are really after as we create is the experience of making our...

Dear Dr. Maisel: I’m wondering how important confidence really is to an artist—and if it is really important, what can you do if you’ve lost some of it—or a lot of it! Rachel L., Portland ** Thanks, Rachel. Yes, creativity requires confidence—and life can rob you of...