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By:
Sue Morris @ KidLitReviews,
on 5/17/2015
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I Wish You More
Written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Chronicle Books 3/01/2015
978-1-4521-2699-9
40 pages Age 3+
.
.
“Some books are about a single wish.
Some books are about three wishes.
This book is about endless wishes.
“Amy Krouse and Tom Lichtenheld have been called the “Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers of children’s books” and here they have combined their extraordinary talent to create a compendium of wishes—wishes for curiosity and wonder, friendship and strength, for joyous days and quiet moments.
What will you wish for?” [book jacket]
Review
I Wish You More is the perfect book for a (grand)parent to give their (grand)child for any occasion or no occasion at all. I Wish You More is also the perfect book to give the child heading off to college, summer camp, or any other get-away.
I wish you more can than knot.
Beginning with two children racing with the wind, a kite flying high above, the text reads: “I wish you more ups than downs.” Each spread continues with a wish and an image expressing that wish. Children will understand most of the test and each of the images. Lichtenheld has created a multicultural set of children, which make the spreads that more adorable—if this is possible.
I Wish You More is simply a wonderful, joyous, high-spirited, positive celebration of what a wish can do for those who receive them, and for those who give them. There really is not much more to say about this beautiful picture book. Read I Wish You More to a young child and they can learn the benefits of kindness and well wishes toward other humans. And, I believe, you can help your little one with their self-esteem. I Wish You More would have been in my office and read to every child.
I wish you more stories than stars.
Each spread is one wish—one special wish with an equally special illustration. Narrated by the voice of a parent, I Wish You More concludes by stating it contains all these wishes, “. . . because you are everything I could wish for . . . and more.”
**Chronicle Books is making two posters from the book available for anyone who would like them. This may be for a limited time, I do not know, so go HERE and get your set of two. They are perfect for any child’s room. There is also an activity kit for teachers HERE.
I WISH YOU MORE. Text copyright © 2015 by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Tom Lichtenheld. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA.
Purchase I Wish You More at Amazon—Book Depository—Chronicle Books.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! (#4)
Learn more about I Wish You More HERE.
Meet the author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, at her website: http://www.whoisamy.com/
Meet the illustrator, Tom Lichtenheld, at his website: http://www.tomlichtenheld.com/
Find more picture books at the Chronicle Books website: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/
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By:
Floating Lemons,
on 12/21/2014
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It's the holidays! I hope you're all having a fantastic time with friends and family. I've taken a couple of days off after finishing up projects for this first term, but now I'm back to work. College has been wonderful ... so far it has been a huge, rewarding, re-learning curve, and I'm still digesting the feast of new creative ideas that I've been fed.
One of them was learning how to rubber stamp. I'm pretty hooked, and am contemplating getting my own carving bits and pieces so that I can experiment further at home. Here, though, is what I managed to get done in class using mini erasers:
And here's a look at one of my college projects. Definitely out of my comfort zone, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with the end result, but love the fact that I'm doing something so new to me. Eventually things will come together, I'm sure. Meanwhile ...
I was given 3 words: shoes, woven and dissect, and after much research, hair-pulling, distracting red herrings, and tons of experimentation -- all loads of fun -- this is what I came up with. Very childish and simplistic I know, but there are a lot of layers and depths hidden behind this sweet creation, so I'm more than happy with it. It's a good start ...
Enjoy the holidays! Cheers.
There’s nothing better to get a new creative project started than by making your own inspirational mood board. Creating your own mood board of idea’s and inspiration will help you to build a collection of concept base ideas to build a new art piece from whether a series of illustrations, photographs or painting. It’s not all that hard to do and once you get started creating a mood board can actually be a really enjoyable part of project building, although if you’ve not made one before here are afew easy tips to help you get started on making your own.
What do I put in a mood board?
A mood board can contain anything from doodles, words, photographs, textures , colour swatches, fabrics and much more based around a chosen theme for your project. So for example a theme maybe “ocean” to which you’d include images of its inhabitants , sea blue colour tones and meaningful words tied to the theme etc.
What do I need to make one ?
Its really down to personal preference but you can make a mood board easily in anything from the pages in your sketchbook, sticking them to a piece of artboard or a cork board with pins. There’s really no right or wrong way because your mood board is personal, there to give you idea’s and pull together concepts for your project that will help it grow.
Putting a mood board together.
- To begin putting your creative mood board together collect a series of images and inspirational materials linked to your chosen theme.
- On an a3 blank sketchbook page ( or any page size of your preference but bigger is less limiting to your mood board ideas) begin to add your mood board research to your page.
- Stick bits down with patterned washi tape or masking tape to make it more visual and allow you to change things around.
- Make it personal and have fun.
- Keep your creative mood board in sight throughout your project to stay visually inspired and consistant to your project theme to prevent getting creatively lost along the way.
Image by illustrator Katt Frank you can find out more about their work here .
Hi, folks, this is a meandering post, but maybe I've said something that resonates.
Where do we fit? There is a day we all come to, at least I hope so. On this day we allow ourselves to be ourselves. We embrace the fact that we are whatever we are-- animal, mineral, vegetable, you know whatever. We embrace our contradictions and our harmonies. This is awareness began to grow in me when I wrote my Rembrandt book. Van Rijn's message was so clear. He was after capturing the shadow and light he perceived in the world. His self-portraits speak so much to me. He drew his face over and over, recording the ravages of time, the gifts of wisdom, and the emerging soul, His art stamped the idea of capturing the world as it is into my artistic vision.
I tend to be on the edges of the party of life. I like to find a corner and a good conversation, The rest of time I hang out by myself. In groups, I like to sit up front, in the back or along the edge. I'm only a mild introvert; this edge thing is something else. I march to the beat of my own drum. It's not something I want to do. It something that I do whether I want to or not. I'm out of step with the times. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes its unfortunate, but at the end of the day it is me. Rembrandt opened my eyes to just being what I am and being comfortable with that.
One decision that I've made over last few years is to read what interests me. There are entire movements in the book world that just go right over my head. You know whatever shadows and lights draw me in, I go after them. I don't have to read the rest of it. It makes me a really eclectic reader. I'm good with that. I've given myself permission to skip books that I don't connect with , even if everyone loves that book. I also get to read whatever cheesy popular read that I want to. I have freedom. It's alright be out of step.If you are out of step with world, embrace it. Stylizing yourself to fit in just doesn't really bring out great art in my opinion. The space to be yourself will help you bloom.
If you are a wallflower in the world or have been picked last more times than you can count, don't worry about it. Watch the world from your corner and do something amazing with the knowledge. Put that "picked last" into perspective. I mean, folks on the edges generally have big imaginations. I find that they have schemes percolating within. That's a good place to be. Stay away from the myth that you must find your place. It may not exist yet, and you may be carving it out.
Will be back next week.
Here is the doodle:
Here is a quote for your pocket:
The finest clothing made is a person's own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this. Mark Twain
By: frankramer,
on 7/30/2014
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A Pick from the Healing Dream Garden
After working with dreams for nearly forty years, I know that even the worst nightmares contain a kernel of hope or healing. The following nightmare took me a long time to understand. I had several repeats until it finally “hit” me what this dream offered as its healing insight. The dream took a while to sink in perhaps because it chose as the motif of one of my greatest fears: hitting a person while driving. To make things worse, in the dream the feeling of hitting a person was so realistic—as if it really did happen.
Dream
I am driving very slowly because I sense some danger. Then, a group of kids surges in from the left. I see a young boy of 4 or 5 years old either fall or lunge into the left front of my car. Although I slam on the breaks, I hear the thud of something hitting my car. A shock wave of raw realization explodes from my chest as the force of emergency breaking flips the car on its side, throwing me on to the ground.
Stunned, I jump up and grab the child my car struck, looking for injuries. He has a little welt on the right side of his forehead, but otherwise seems well. A huge sigh of relief surges through me and I embrace him in my arms. I see his mother, the other kids and his father at a distance. Oddly enough, they just look at me and smile. They do not seem to be worried so much about the child as about me. Somehow, I know that they won’t take this matter to the police.
On waking the first impulse was huge relief from the realization that this was just a dream! Then, the fear arose that this might be an event which will happen in the future because so many of my dreams, especially the realistic ones, often manifest in the material world just as I dreamed them. I reviewed the dream, looking for clues to indicate this wasn’t such a prophetic dream. While the dream was extremely realistic, especially the feeling I had when hitting the child, there were elements that seemed symbolic. For example, I noticed that in the dream my car was red. I don’t own a red car and probably wouldn’t buy one since I find the color too intense to look at for long periods of time. So I decided that this dream wasn’t prophetic of actually hitting a real child and left the dream alone.
For a long while, and after several repetitive dreams which clearly were begging for attention, I finally summoned the courage to look at this dream. I chose to use the dreamwork paradigm of everything in the dream as being a part of myself. The young boy in the dream, because he was male, represented something work related, and because he was young, represented creative potential that was still developing. The age of the boy indicated a work related project that has gone on 4 or 5 years. I thought of my creative and meaningful work in teaching dreams which had gone on for about 4 or 5 years. A sinking feeling in me told me I was hitting on the correct interpretation. At the time, I indeed felt like this child of my creative labors had taken a hit, not by anything deliberate on my part but just because of the choices I felt compelled to make as I tried to earn a living. Each time I had this dream of hitting a child, I was considering putting my major efforts and energy into taking a well-paying but less than desirable job that would meet my financial needs. However, in doing so, I would endanger the growth of this child. The guilt, grief, and horror were rising to consciousness. Fortunately, the kid’s parents, perhaps representing my higher self, were telling me not worry. They understood. Indeed, when reflecting on this dream while still in bed, a voice from my intuition said in a gentle but informative way, “Don’t make a big deal of this!” Just getting this message provided an odd counter balance to the guilt, grief and horror.
While the child took a minor hit, it was OK. After I felt the child was safe and comforted, I wondered how I would upturn my car to get on my way again. Now, the real problem was how to get back on track after such a near disaster.
Since then, I noticed that every time I considered taking a paying job rather than taking the financial risk of continuing to do the creative but less financially reliable work of writing, teaching and life coaching, this dream of either hitting or nearly hitting a child would repeat itself. My dreams were telling to trust more and continue to nourish and not endanger the creativity within me. Later, as if to confirm my interpretation, I dreamed of three children telling me they want to take me some place I considered special. It gave me hope and made me realize that failing to nurture my creative endeavors would be as traumatic as hitting a child.
Hey everyone ,
Leaving art college or university can be both an exciting and nerve wrecking time for the upcoming graduate. Whether your in art college or university here in the uk or internationally and are ready to pursue your creative career its always best I think to plan and prepare before the big leap.
I remember when I graduated from my bachelor’s degree I thought everything would be plain sailing, though when you actually leave you realise how that bit of planning can help in being efficient and organised in working towards your creative goals and knowing what to do next. So to lend a hand I’ve put together 5 tip on what to do before you graduate in 2014 for pursuit in a creative career.
1. Research : If you know in yourself that your next step is to venture into creative freelancing in your specialism then the best thing to do is gather your research. Looking into things such as freelancing rates, how to register your business, potential business funding or scheme’s available in your area may just help you plan out what course you need to take to do what you love.
2. Prepare your portfolio: The key thing thats going to help skyrocket your creative career is your portfolio and the work you have in it. Now having completed your years of degree or college work you’ll no doubt have a portfolio full of lovely projects. However if like me you came away with dust covered dissertations and little of a portfolio you may feel abit daunting knowing there’s more work to do.
So whether your portfolio is ready or not you need to have it professionally presented for people to view it such as potential clients, agents etc. If your wanting to build up your portfolio from scratch then ideally allocate yourself maybe 3-6 months to build it up to have some fresh new material that your truly happy to promote and using themes like those found here on illustration friday maybe a great place to start generating idea’s.
3. Set money aside : If you’re able to its always a good thing to put money aside to later on use to invest in your business. This will enable you to buy the necessary start up equipment and materials that you need to effectively do the work to a standard that will enable your creative business to function.
4. Gain advice and mentoring : Starting out your own creative venture isn’t easy so I feel that gaining all the support, advice and mentoring that you can will be worth its weight in gold. If you don’t already know what a mentor is or have one a mentor is somebody who can be in your field of practice with experience of the industry who is there to give you advice and guidance to help you along the way now and then.
I am lucky enough to have two wonderful mentors so my advice would be asking someone who inspires you but also who you have established a relationship with whether they would possibly consider mentoring you. Either way mentoring isn’t all take, no doubt you’ll have skills and advice you can exchange so its a win win situation either way.
There’s also a variety of business support and advice centres locally no doubt aswell as online for you to access such as enterprise nation, the design trust and the princes trust so please check them out.
Hope you found this little post helpful, kudos to you for getting through all your studies and here’s to a creative venture yet to start! Have you decided where you’re venturing on from here?
Image : “Do more of what makes you happy” illustration by Lindsay at Unraveled design .
© William Cho
I visited the studio of an abstract painter once. There was a group of us. All the others were painters; I was the only writer. We started flicking through a portfolio of abstract paintings, and I have to say that they all looked much the same to me: like wallpaper samples. But every now and again when the next painting was revealed, these other painters would collectively say: “Ah! Now that’s interesting!” Their reactions were spontaneous and genuine – and I realized then that they were seeing something that I was missing.I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve come to understand that appreciating abstract art is about how a painting makes you feel. It’s not about what you think it is. But this is a difficult mindset to get into. Like a lot of people, I like to understand something. I like to know what it’s about. I need to be able to articulate what it is telling me. I’m not used to asking myself how a painting makes me feel.
I visited another abstract painter’s studio yesterday. She had a canvas leaning up against the wall that looked unfinished to me. There was an outline of what could have been the figure of a woman in the middle, and a pool of yellow in one corner and some bright splashes in the other. I wanted to know what it was about: was the woman falling? Was this the sky and this the ground? Which way up was it supposed to be? I wanted to be about something – I wanted to understand the message. “It’s not about anything,” said the artist. “It’s what it is, that’s all.”
A Young Lady's Adventure by Paul Klee
This painter works by feeling. She doesn’t know what she’s going to paint before she starts a canvas, she only knows the colours she wants to use, and which brushes. Then she’ll ‘play around’ until some combination of colours appears that she can ‘have a conversation with’. Then she follows the conversation to see where it leads – which might be nowhere. Or it might become something bigger than she herself was capable of, if she’d tried to impose a plan on it beforehand.
Painting and writing are both creative activities, and I recognized parallels in how she described her process. I know that my trouble with writing is that I need to know where it’s heading, I need to know what the message is, well before it appears. I know that this inhibits my creativity, and presents me from feeling the ‘conversation’ that the book might want to have with me.
I asked her how she managed it. “The first thing you have to do,” she said, “is stop. Then, you have to feel with your heart where you need to go next. You need to be playful, you need to be brave, and you need to take risks. And you mustn’t be afraid to make mistakes.”I know she’s right. The best stuff is always the stuff that we never intended to write about. The best things can’t be articulated, and the most wonderful thing about writing fiction is when a story surprises you, and turns out – to your delight – better than you feel you could have made it. The same process would seem to apply both to painting and to writing – and also, in fact, to life.www.heatherdyer.co.uk
By:
Tonia Allen Gould,
on 4/17/2013
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Copyright Tonia Allen Gould, All Rights Reserved
What’s an idea? The mere concept of an idea is difficult, maybe even impossible to perfectly define. Even notable philosophers couldn’t seem to agree on what an idea truly means. The Free Dictionary Online indicates that according to the philosophy of Plato, the definition of an idea “is an archetype of which a corresponding being in phenomenal reality is an imperfect replica.” The web source goes on to say that according to the philosophy of Kant, “an idea is a concept of reason that is transcendent but nonempiral.” But, even Hagel said it differently. He claimed that an idea means “absolute truth; the complete and ultimate product of reason.” In the dictionary, the definition of an idea reads “something, such as a thought or conception that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity.”
To me, an idea is something that begins as a glimmer; a mere flicker in the mind that can suddenly grab hold, and unfold through any period of time, like the single root of the ivy plant that grounds itself deeply into the soil before it grows upwards, clinging to a wall with its tiny tentacles, reaching out and hanging on, until it forms its own shape and dimension. The ivy grows and grows, like no other ivy plant in existence, and reaches for the sun in a way that suits itself in order to flourish. Like an idea, the ivy didn’t plant itself. Someone had to place it there. The gardener of the ivy had to have foresight to buy or rent the house, invest in the fertilizer and the soil and the tools; he had to invest in the plant and spend his time digging the hole and planting it in the hopes that it would grow.
Like the gardener; creative professionals must make an investment in time, be committed to the outcome, and diligently work to understand and meet the project objectives. That’s a lot of footwork and fancy dancing already. But, what about the ideas you generate…those tiny seedlings of thought, that grew and took shape and added a dimension to the project that were unlike every other idea before it…those absolute truths…those nonempiral transcendent concepts of reason…those imperfect replicas…what about those? Those ideas, my friends, have value and they are your greatest asset. Sometimes, we forget that and give them away too freely, as if they have no value. So if you’re questioning your creative worth, maybe you should start looking first at your assets. #yourideashaveworth
By: MP,
on 8/31/2012
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Words From A Clear Inner Voice by Irene Cohen, MD In 2009 I undertook a one year course of study with two teachers who created a program called the Voice for Love. This program teaches one how to hear her clear inner voice. The program consisted of meditation, writing, speaking from this voice and learning spiritual counseling. As a psychiatrist I had been interested in the connection between mind and spiritual practices for many years and found this program illuminating.
I didn’t start out to write a book. As a long-time meditator, I prefer to sit in the early morning before the day begins. This practice has always set the course of the day for me and creates the sense of peace and concentrated focus which I bring with me no matter what occurs. Although I did not start out to write a book, I found that during my meditations, when I was quiet and empty of thoughts, words began to come to me with the prompt to write them down. So I started to meditate with my netbook in my lap, sitting on a cushion. Without asking any questions or thinking of any particular subject, messages and contemplative pieces came forth. Through a melding of my mind and my own unique abilities, something greater than myself emerged. The information I wrote down was not channeled, but it was a part of me, a greater and vast part, a larger Self. In this process, during which I am fully conscious and aware, words come forth effortlessly and in a sharper, clearer way than if I were to try to explain them myself.
When my book of 100 short meditative passages was finished, I also edited it from the place of my higher self. Getting myself out of the way, with my ego’s doubts and fears, made the editing and rewriting process much easier. If I am editing from that space of higher knowing, I can think with more clarity about what I am trying to convey and in doing so, create more of what was meant to be.
But isn’t the creative process always so? We write from another place within us which feels compelled to express itself. Artists and writers have often called it inspiration. It is a blossoming of who we truly are. If we gain clarity from a quiet mind, which for me means a regular, daily meditation practice, we can all write with less effort and more ease, knowing that what we mean to say will be distinctly in our voice.
* * *
Irene A. Cohen, MD is a psychiatrist, acupuncturist and interfaith minister who has maintained an integrative practice for almost 30 years. Hay House / Balboa Press just released her first book, Soul Journey to Love: 100 Days to Inner Peace . Visit Dr. Cohen on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and blog with her at www.drirenecohen.authorsxpress.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By: Marty Qatani,
on 2/2/2012
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I alway enjoy looking at favorite artist's work process. It's been a while since I posted one. Since I'm in the middle of experimenting with my Photoshop skills, I thought this would be a good time to do so again.
Below is a recent sketch of mine, that I'm currently in the middle of coloring...
I've long admired picture book illustrators whose style has a soft almost painterly look. Being primarily a vector artist, which I also love, I haven't really developed that soft look that I really admire. This is the year that I decided to really develop that look more. I doubt that I'll switch over to that look permanently, especially since it will take a while for me to develop it to the point that I'm happy with it.
Here's step two... I'm not even sure if I'm staying with these colors. I'm just trying to fill in blocks of color and try to see what I like and what I don't. Two big key changes to the way I'm working with this are, 1) use textures when I paint, and 2) painting on a "multiply" layer. The concepts aren't new to me, I've just never used them before. I like the effect and technique, I just don't know if I'm happy with the result yet.
You know what just occured to me ? This is supposed to be a polar bear.. white dummy... arghh..
My next post will sure the next, maybe next few, evolutions of this pc.
Thanks.. as always, thoughts and comments are appreciated.
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Review: Made to Play (Handmade Toys & Crafts for Homegrown Imaginations) by Joel Henriques
About the author (from his Amazon.com bio):
Joel Henriques is fascinated by color, shape, and craftsmanship. He was drawn to painting as a child, inspired by his grandmother, a painter herself. She spent hours showing Joel the paintings of Matisse, Picasso, Miró, and many others. Through these and her own paintings, she taught him ideas about color and design and eventually coached him on his earliest paintings. These childhood experiences lead him to pursue a B.A. in Fine Art and Philosophy.
Becoming a parent was, for Joel, another way of looking at art in the world. As a young child himself, he made many of his own toys. As a father, he began making toys for his young twins. He began to see that a beautiful, minimal, well-crafted object allowed his children to use and develop their own imaginations, rather than having an object tell them how they must play with it.
Moved by his children’s interaction with art, Joel began documenting these crafts on his blog, Made By Joel. Creating art for children, and for the child in everyone, is a powerful thing. Joel lives with his wife and three children in Portland, Oregon. See more of his crafts at www.madebyjoel.com, and see more of his art at www.joelhenriques.com.
About the book (from the publisher):
Delight young children and encourage play through unique handmade toys. From sewn and stuffed musical instruments to interlocking paper building blocks and wooden animal figurines, the projects in this book are meant to encourage open-ended play. Organized by kid-loving subjects, the toys here follow the themes of Zoo; House; Blocks, Cars & Trucks; Dress-Up; Music; and Art. Overall, the projects here are meant to stimulate imagination, build confidence through success and enjoyment, and enhance the bond between family and friends through the creation of unique, artistic handmade toys and crafts.
The thirty-five projects in this book include a variety of crafts, from drawing to sewing and light woodworking. The toys presented here are made out of wonderfully tactile materials—repurposed fabrics, wood, and paper—and invite opportunities for creative and imaginative play. Every project is easy to complete, made with accessible materials, and requires little time to make. The projects are simple enough that endless variation can come from the making of each, leaving enough room for you to make the item to suit your own personal interests.
My take on the book:
I was very pleased to receive a view copy of Made to Play by Joel Henriques. If you are a fan of Henriques’ blog, Made by Joel you will love this book.
As mentioned in the description above, the book is full of fantastic craft projects. I was dually impressed with the clearly written and illustrated instructions. Mainly because it always a craft project novice like myself an opportunity to participate in projects I know my daughter will enjoy.
Many of the projects use paper, wood, or wire and you’ll need some special tools such as a scroll saw and jigsaw to do the wood projects.
I’m looking forward to doing some of these projects during the holiday. I really want to make some of the dollhouse furniture and also the modern alphabet
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Robin Brande,
on 11/13/2011
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Gotta love it when people find their place in the world. This guy is obviously doing what he should with…
Cartoon by Taillefer Long
By: Cher'ley,
on 1/23/2011
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WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin)
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Focus is like hocus-pocus. The day disappears before our very eyes. Hocus-pocus and other such charms were words said as a distraction technique ('busying the senses').
Writers perform hocus-pocus. Procrastination, not having the desire to write or no time to write are three things that cause focus lost. The goal is fuzzy, like looking through an out of focus camera lens. Make adjustments to bring goals back into focus. Stop busying your senses.
Procrastination (Things not to do)
- Check Facebook every three minutes
- Play a quick game (or ten) of Bejeweled or Solitaire.
- Watch TV.
- Count the snowflakes/raindrops/stars.
- Take your third bath of the day.
No Desire to Write
- Join a critique group.
- Analyze someone else’s work.
- Read a novel.
-
By:
Ken Baker,
on 10/11/2010
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When you’re stuck for ideas in your writing, brainstorming is one of the best ways to get unstuck. There are a number of brainstorming techniques, but a few of the most popular ones include listing, free writing, what ifs, and webbing (aka spidering, mind mapping, ballooning, clustering). No matter what technique you use, one of the most important things to remember when brainstorming is that there are no dumb ideas. When you brainstorm, you turn off your internal editor and write every idea that comes to you to allow your creative juices to flow freely.
Listing is perhaps the easiest brainstorming technique. As the name suggests, you simply make a list of every idea that comes to you. Listing can be particularly helpful if you have a general topic or idea of what you want to write about, but you need to get a little more specific. For example, you might want to write a story about dogs, so as fast as you can you start listing everything you know about dogs. Your list might start off something like this; bark, fleas, collar, drool, fetch, roll-over, food dish, snoopy, leash, Frisbee, and the list goes on.
Free writing is another great way to get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes we stare at a blank screen for so long, we condition ourselves to think we’ll never come up with a good idea. Free writing is a way to shove aside that negative thinking, by simply writing whatever comes to our mind. It can be words, whole sentences, paragraphs—whatever comes to our mind, we just type it, no matter how nonsensical or unrelated the thoughts are. Once again, you turn off your internal editor and let your imagination go free.
“What ifs” is a good technique to use in conjunction with listing and free writing. You can take some of the more interesting things from your list, and ask what if questions about those items, and free writing your thoughts or answers. For example, you could free write answers to the question what if dogs couldn’t bark?
Webbing or spidering is my favorite type of brainstorming, especially when it comes to creating and developing plots. Like the other techniques, with webbing you write down whatever ideas come to you, but you make visual connections between your different ideas. For example, to web a story idea about dogs that can’t bark, you write “dogs can’t bark” in the center of your paper and as you come up with your “what if” ideas, you write them down and connect a line between it and main your idea. If one of your new ideas sparks another idea, you draw a connecting line between those ideas, and you just keep writing and connecting ideas until you have what looks like a spider web of ideas or something like my picture at the top.
I like to use a whiteboard for my web brainstorm sessions, but the problem with whiteboards is that they aren’t permanent. But here are two easy ways to solve that. The first is to take a picture of your web. The second, which is my preferred method, is to enter your results into a webbing program like
FreeMind, (a free mind mapping program). Or if you prefer, you can skip the whiteboard and just begin with the webbing or mind mapping software . My preference is to use a pen and whiteboard first. For some reason, my creative side seems to like the feel of a pen in my hand.
What are your favorite brainstorming techniques or tools?
By: Diana,
on 9/9/2010
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Business Card Stripe Designs
Stand Out! Use these unique business card designs and patterns for your indie business.
Tired of your old design? Try these retro and chic biz cards, with strip patterns and a single bead strand on the left side.
How it works:
After you order, you will send me all your biz and contact information that you want on the card. Send it to diana [!at] dianalevinart.com or through Etsy message conversations. I will place your info on the card and send you the new version ready for print
You will receive through email an electronic packet consisting of 2 psd and jpeg files: Yellow stripes and Peach Stripes with your information on each card.
Go to the listing page now to order your unique biz cards
By: Diana,
on 5/7/2010
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It’s time for my weekly Blog Recommendations. Every once in while I stumble upon a blog that really speaks to me. Here are 3 fabulous blogs that I am currently following:
*
The Escape Hatch: a blog published by Susan Baker, a Creative Career Consultant of The Escape Hatcher. She helps passionate people make money doing what they love. I recently had my article, “The Mystery of Inspiration is Solved” featured on her blog. The Escape Hatch is full of inspirational stories and insights from people who got creative about making a living.
*
Marie Forleo: This woman is amazing. She teaches women entrepreneurs how to have it all. She offers some very powerful insights into living “Rich, Happy & Hot.” I love that motto.
*
Rock Unemployment: What a clever idea for a business. I met Melanie at a local Biznik mixer. She gave me her card which read, “Rock Unemployment.” I was sold. She helps creative freelancers go from unemployed to “happy and hired.” No more making excuses about why we can’t get work. Rock Unemployment offers a way for creative freelancers to get back on their feet.
By:
Darcy Pattison,
on 4/7/2009
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To Market, To Market
Find yourself doing more marketing lately? Me, too. With the publishing layoffs in December and the market skittish, we need to market smarter. Here are some articles I’ve found interesting:
And, in the upheaval, several former book publishing professionals are seizing the opportunity to move to independent book publishing professionals, looking at the opportunities and the silver lining in all that’s happened lately:
- Kara LaReau, former editor at Scholastic and before that, Candlewick, opens a creative consulting firm and has this advice on keeping a writer’s journal.
- Former publicists at Harcourt Children’s Books, Sarah Shealy and Barbara Fisch have opened a publicity and promotional company, Blue Slip Media. What talent! They were creative and efficient in everything they did for Oliver K. Woodman.
Post from: Revision Notes
Revise Your Novel!
Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.
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- Press kits and book covers
- Writing v. marketing
Today's high five comes to us from Dr. Jonas Salk, the doctor and researcher who developed a vaccine for poliomyelitis:
I think that you might be surprised to find that a brilliant scientist has so much to say to those who create children's books. For me, the divide between artist and scientist is almost invisible in terms of creative work.
Dr. Salk said, "An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's. "
Your work must be your own. There is a time to listen to other voices, but there is also time to move away from all the noise and shoot for the illusive perfection that only you have eyes to see.
Another thought from Dr. Salk, Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
Think about this. Those dreams rolling around in your head in the morning, those daydreams that you slip into while staring out the window, that's the cauldron that brings our imaginations to life; that's the birth place of hope in our soul. Open up to your dreams today. Open up to your to the full brunt of your imagination.
Here's another thought from Dr. Salk, I have had dreams, and I've had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.
All those voices in your head that try to convince you that you'll never finish this, it's a freaking waste of time. All the nightmares that haunt you, you will rise above them all because of your dreams. Dream on, Golden Coffee Cuppers. Dream on.
Here's one more Dr. Salk quote:
I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense what it would be like.
You have to do the same thing to write a book, how weird is that? You must slip inside your characters and sense what they are like, what their world is like. Take some time today and get inside your characters. Picture you in the center of the story, become the wombat, princess, foundling, baby, alien, kid, dinosaur, owl etc. This is will help you steer a clear course through the creation process.
I could go on, but again sleep is sounding like a fab idea. Turn your dreams into reality, folks. Let me know how it goes. SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
Last, you've marked your calendars for a meet-and-greet, here's the info:
Seattle Kid-Lit Drink Night--Did you do Molly Blaisdell’s Golden Coffee Cup Challenge? NANOWRIMO? Did you make any kind of writing and/or illustrating goal in November?
If you hit the jackpot…if you plodded along…even if you didn’t take a single step…come to celebrate and hang out with your peers at our own Kidlit Drink Night! November 30th at Broadway Grill in Seattle (on Broadway in Capitol Hill, across from the QFC – 328-7000) at 5:30pm. Cash bar. Molly will be giving out the Golden Coffee Cup awards (Don't worry if you're from out of town, you don't have to be present to win.
Street parking is available, or you can park at QFC for a small parking fee (or get your ticket validated by making a purchase).
Questions? Go to Holly Cupala's blog or ask me. :) Hope to see you!
By: Rebecca,
on 8/6/2007
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In light of the breaking news last week that a 38-year-old man regained speech after brain stimulation, we asked Craig Panner, our in-house expert on all things science and a senior-editor at OUP, what his thoughts were. He immediately thought of Plum and Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma 4th edition because Nicholas Schiff, one of the co-authors, was deeply involved in the study that led to brain stimulation. Below is Panner’s first OUPblog post. (more…)
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Wonderful reflection and great demonstration of the power of dreams…..
I was just thinking of you the other day as colors are intensifying in my dreams, particularly red, so this could not have come at a better time. It is always such a joy to cross-pollinate with you Fran, I am so glad to know you here.