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An artist had better not wait to be inspired before beginning to work, since inspiration typically only comes to artists who are willing to work when not inspired. Tchaikovsky put it this way: "I'm inspired about every fifth day but I only get that fifth day if I show...

An artist had better not wait to be inspired before beginning to work, since inspiration typically only comes to artists who are willing to work when not inspired. Tchaikovsky put it this way: "I'm inspired about every fifth day but I only get that fifth day if I show...

An artist had better not wait to be inspired before beginning to work, since inspiration typically only comes to artists who are willing to work when not inspired. Tchaikovsky put it this way: "I'm inspired about every fifth day but I only get that fifth day if I show...

An artist had better not wait to be inspired before beginning to work, since inspiration typically only comes to artists who are willing to work when not inspired. Tchaikovsky put it this way: "I'm inspired about every fifth day but I only get that fifth day if I show...

The following is an important lesson for writers inspired by an incident at a Paris open air market many years ago. There I encountered a fruit vendor demanding that customers take the bruised apricots along with the perfect apricots. What an excellent reminder for...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how you can use your “sleep thinking” to improve and increase your creativity. Many of you wrote to ask how precisely this process works and if there were steps to take to increase your own sleep thinking abilities. There are indeed...

Spring may not be here yet but we can begin to anticipate it! Some inspiring quotes from women artists: "I have gone into roses and have over a thousand planted. There is nothing like making pictures with real things."-- Mary Cassatt "Just as I begin to mourn the...

A little inspiration from Vincent van Gogh: + "If we look at the Japanese artist, we see a man who is undoubtedly wise. What does he spend his time doing? Studying a single blade of grass." + "The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts. I should like to make...

And here are the last four tips in the "completing creative projects" series! 9. Get strategic help. You’re trying to finish up your independent film documentary but a handful of tasks stand between you and completion. Some of them are technical and require new...

Last week I shared four tips for completing your creative work. Here are four more! 1. Create a completion checklist. Devise a way of creating a punch list that helps you check off tasks. If, for example, you are doing something as complicated as making an independent...