What do you mean creativity?

Have you ever created something and when you looked at it later, you were struck by an odd feeling of dissociation?

I don't mean you painted something and then when you looked at it, you hated every fibre and stroke.

I mean, you looked at something you created and honestly didn't feel like it was yours? Like it had been done by someone else? You remember creating it, you definitely didn't have any help. But for some reason, there is no connection. When you think about it, you still think it's a great piece of whatever, but it doesn't feel like your baby.

That may sound weird to some people. Most writers, artists, or other creators (even my coder friends!) will tell you that when they create something there is a piece of them that goes into making it. They feel that as the process is happening, then can almost feel the blood pouring from them to the piece like a transfusion of life. It doesn't always happen in huge amounts, but whenever they look back, they still feel like the work is tied to them. They feel the connection with the piece of them that was left behind with the finished fill-in-the-blank.

For some reason, I occasionally can't associate with my work after I'm finished. I can't go back and look at past content or achievement and feel something from it. If anything, it almost always feels oddly disconnected. Worse, the better the project is by objective standards, the harder it is to think of it as "mine". I recently wrote some new material and it got some really positive feedback, which is always great. But when I went back to reread, edit, etc. all I could think was "I didn't write this. It's good. It's funny and well-written but it wasn't 'me'. Maybe I'm possessed or something."

Jokes aside, I'm just curious if anyone else feels like this. Do you paint something and look back thinking, "It's too good I don't know what happened by that can't be my work" even when it is? Do you write a song and hear it a few months down the road and for a few bars you can't recognize that it's your song? Let me know in the comments.

Tentative Book Promotion Ideas

Kindle eBook

Everyone has told me that one of the best ways to get your writing out there is promotion. Whether it's giving your book away for free or newsletters or buying advertising, you really have to promote the hell out of your book.

There's only one problem with that. I'm terrible at asking people to buy things. I would much rather you decide on your own, independently, that you would like to purchase something I wrote, or read something I posted or what have you. I don't think I've mentioned the fact that I wrote a book since like the second day of this blog. I started this blog to tell people about my writing. And I did. I told them once, politely, at the beginning. Is it wrong that I feel like that should be enough?

Given that type of mentality, I've asked for suggestions and assistance. A few of my good friends on Twitter, Tumblr, etc. have agreed to help out. I think I'm going to try one of those newfangled promotional deals that KDP offers: the free book.

From what I understand it's essentially you giving away a copy of your book for roughly 24 hours. You make no money from it, but it's supposed to generate word of mouth buzz interest readership penetration. So, we're going to give that a shot. Probably some day this week, I'll make my book free for a day and we'll see how that goes. I will try to find a reason to be excited about it. Really, what I'm hoping will happen is reviews.

I still don't have any reviews as far as I know on my Amazon ebook. I don't know if that's because no one has purchased it... or because no one has read it... or what's going on there. But I'm pretty sure I said I wanted an email if I had a review posted and there have been no emails. So, I'll have to check that out. What about you, my blog reading friends... if I gave away my book for free would you rate it on Amazon and perhaps post a few kind words? Am I even allowed to ask that?


http://ow.ly/ThkbR

Garden of Ideaden

Well, my blog these past few days has been a little limp. I've been missing my normal sparky word choice and witty repartee. I'm going to share something with you here, it's a bit personal. But I feel that any good relationship includes sharing, so you deserve to know.

Damn phone knows who's boss now.

My phone deleted my idea pad.

I have this spot on my phone where I write down all these ideas that I get throughout the day, week, etc. Then when I have time, I sit down and craft eloquent blog posts. The problem is, when I sit down to write, I can never come up with ideas. I have to allow my brain to spark creatively in its natural habitat, away from the computer. This leads to notes, words, phrases that later become brilliant blog entries. It's a veritable Garden of Ideaden. And now it's gone.

I had entries dating back to last year of things I wanted to write fun short article-format, infographic-laden missives about. But now I'm starting from scratch, so my blogs may be a little spartan until I build back up that creative bulwark. Or if I can figure out a way to find it in a cloud it may have been saved in. I'm still searching. I might have emailed it to myself once... that's an area to explore.

Regardless! Thank you for your patience while I ferret out new brilliance from my daily life in a substantial pool of random thoughts tailored for blog-filling. It should not take long.