One of the tips for enhancing your creativity was to exercise your imagination and think about how someone else would do your job:

How would your parents have done what you do? Or a fresh-faced kid right out of college? Someone with a different political/religious/philosophical background?

You can use this principle to help create a realistic and lifelike character for your story. Here is this week’s exercise:

Putting Yourself Into the Head of Your Character

• Jot down a short list of the things that you do as part of your job. These can be the tasks and activities that you do daily or weekly or whatever.
• Jot down how you feel when you do each of these things. Do they make you proud or do you dread them?
• What is one of your long-term goals?
• Now imagine that you are going to be turning your job over to someone else: Write down the answers to the following:
  • Who are they?
  • What kind of experience do you think they have?
  • What do you think that their goals will be?
• Write down how well you think this person will be able to perform each of the tasks you listed at the beginning. How will these duties make the new person feel?

Share the results of your character-creation exercise in the forum, or do it on your own and let us know what you think.

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins 12:00:01 November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at 11:59:59. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!

How does it work? Create an account at the NaNoWriMo site and:

On November 1, begin writing your novel. Your goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight, local time, on November 30th. You write on your own computer, using whatever software you prefer.

[...]

7) Starting November 1, you can update your word count in that box at the top of the site, and post excerpts of your work for others to read. Watch your word-count accumulate and story take shape. Feel a little giddy.

Write with other NaNoWriMo participants in your area. Write by yourself. Write. Write. Write.

9) If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you can upload your novel for official verification, and be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web badge.

Basic rules state that you can get started on an outline, character sketches and so on, but no writing until Nov 1st. If you are considering participating then head on over to the NaNoWriMo registration page and sign up. Then visit the NaNoWriMo post in the forum and share with the Community.

We can do it!

Personally, I am getting back into regular blogging after taking a year off to run a restaurant, and this is just the inspiration that I needed to focus my thoughts on “what should I write about now??”

This paragraph especially resonates with me (Matthews writes):

“My projects will follow the freemium model I will be creating a lot of content for free as blog posts, but I will also be creating a deeper coaching or information product to accompany the project for people that want to go deeper.

This way I can focus on building multiple streams of income on a variety of subjects and I am not limiting myself to one niche.

The creation of information products and coaching services cause me a lot of “stuckness” I’m a procrastinator (well I think I am, I must look up the meaning of that word one of these days) and I think the momentum of a project will get me through the research and out the other side to build a saleable information product.”

One of the things that I enjoy the most about being a freelancer is the “free” part, that is, the freedom to work on the things that I want to work on. My old job was incredibly stifling with absolutely no room for creativity. Now I am busting with ideas and getting a chance to really work on them and fill them out.

One of my ideas is for a book about food and my experience in the hospitality industry. I have been working on it quite a bit and I am surprised by the direction that it is taking. It started out as one thing but has transformed into another, a very positive and exciting change.

Where Inspiration Comes From

While I was reading Matthews’ account of his intention to create Freemium content on his blog (that would later become part of a larger and more detailed product that would be for sale) I realized that he was talking about the very thing I had done with my book. I was writing short drafts and posting these drafts on my personal blog to solicit feedback. This was a fantastic reminder (and a bit of a prod) that I needed to get going with creating some new information products that reflect the needs of people today.

The inspirational part is that you can do this with any kind of project that you may have in mind. Break it down into its component parts then, rather than making a list, turn the to-dos into questions that you can answer with a short essay. Really dig down into the heart of each task. Go as far as you can, until you get to a task where you can’t write an answer, or perhaps your answers will take you in an unexpected direction.

Not a distraction, but an improvement. My own work on the book has shown me that my idea, while creative and (I think) fun to read, was not exactly what I wanted to put out there. Each time I sat down to work on the outline and come up with interesting new anecdotes it seemed to get harder to find any that were appropriate to what I was trying to accomplish. This led to thinking about what was appropriate, and which stories worked better than others. Which has taken the book in a completely new direction and has made it a better product.

Discuss the October Topic of the Month in the forum.

GP x Intel: The Smart Lives of Smart Men from Gear Patrol on Vimeo.

Interesting take-aways:
I don’t use the email on my phone either. I do read them, but don’t reply. If I need to I will call or text.

I feel that Technology brings us closer together. If I didn’t have Twitter or Flickr there are so many things I couldn’t share with others, or learn from others.

I used to be “always on”, which was exhausting. I don’t do that any more.

Share your thoughts in the forum Creativity and Technology.

There are no hard and fast rules for photography. Like any art, it all depends on what the artist wants to communicate. But even artists need tips once in a while. Here are ten ways to make your photos pop.

1. Balance –Yin and Yang, good and evil, black and white. Find your balance. It might be color, it might be shape, it might be texture. Whatever it is, make sure your photo is balanced. Try taking the photo with the subject off centered and balanced with something in the background (or foreground).
   
2. Lead – No pointless pictures here. The human eye is great for choosing what is important, even in a cluttered atmosphere, but the camera is not so great. Make sure you lead your views where you want them to go, without being distracted. It might mean you need to crop the photo, make it black and white, or just frame it.
   
3. View – There are many, many ways to look at a scene. Don’t just take photos head-on. Try coming from above or below, sideways or diagonal. Seeing things from a new perspective can really open your eyes.
   
4. Background – Your background can add to your picture or detract from it. If your subject is the only thing you want people to focus on, choose a plain background. If you want more depth to your photos, try for an overlapping background. Whatever you choose, make sure the subject remains the subject.
   
5. Frame–Having a hard time really focusing in on the subject? Try framing. There are lots of things that provide natural frames for a photo. A wall, a window frame, a tree, a mountain. Play around and see what works for you.
   
6. Focus–Ultra important, especially with close-ups or extreme distances. You may want to use a tripod, just so the camera stays focused and steady. The interest in a picture is dramatically reduced if it’s fuzzy and out of focus.
   
7. Breathe – Let your subject breathe a bit. Keep some negative space in your photo so that people do not get overwhelmed. The eyes will naturally focus on the subject, even if 90% of the photo is negative space.
   
8. Try – Try, try, try again. The great thing about digital cameras is the lack of film. So take lots of photos. If you’ve got the subject set up it is much easier to take ten shots now rather than taking one and having to redo it later.
   
9. Light – Play with lighting. I know the ‘Golden Hour’ is when you typically set up your pictures, but try different times of the day for different effects. Or, if you are shooting indoors, try lighting from different, dramatic angles. Shadows add great depth to an otherwise flat photo.
   
10. Play – Have fun! That’s what you are doing this for, right? Play around. See what works for you. And remember, no one sees things exactly the same. Take a second look and see what you can discover.
    

There you go: ten simple tips on making the most of your photos. Now quit reading and get shooting. Remember to have fun and experiment, and don’t be afraid to get dirty. We are always surrounded by beauty; you just have to look for it.

Author Bio:

Kate Croston is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing cheap internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to:  katecroston.croston09 @ gmail.com.

I receive a weekly newsletter email about innovation and this week’s had an article that sparked my imagination (not least because SOBCon Northwest starts today and I can’t be there): Enterprise innovation articles

By: Jack Hipple

“The history of medical innovation is one of inspiration, unexpected insights, and the sharing of ideas across disciplines” - Methodist/DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center ad, back cover of Continental Airlines magazine, Nov 2010.

It’s amazing what you find in airline magazines. During a recent trip to present a workshop at the Mexican TRIZ Association meeting in Puebla, I flew Continental Airlines through Houston and took the time to read their airline magazine, Continental. It was November 30th and the last day this issue was in the seat pocket. Now I enjoy the interesting articles in many of these magazines and of course the crossword puzzles and Sudoku. Seldom do I pay attention to the ad on the back cover. But this time I did and saw an ad for the joint R&D program (The Cardiovascular Energy Collaborative) between Exxon Mobil, the University of Houston, and the DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, which has been in existence only since 2007. This consortium is holding its first international meeting in April of 2012.

Here are some quotes from last year’s meeting:

“Much like moving oil through a pipeline, the heart must pump blood through the body. Both systems need clean, well-functioning pipes (or blood vessels), free of blockages or corrosion, to function efficiently”

“It’s amazing the ideas that flow when energy and medicine experts get together. The interaction sparks ideas that would never have materialized if we stayed in the medical center and they stayed in the oil field.”

Pumps & Pipes III: Better Together will have speakers in the morning sessions from medicine, energy, and academia discussing use of advanced nanotechnology, robotics and distant monitoring in common issues like pipeline corrosion and blood vessel integrity. The afternoon sessions will feature new discussions on pipes and fluids, a concept that spawned joint oil and medicine ideas in the past when Methodist researchers looking at preventing aneurysms gained a new perspective of blood flow dynamics from pipeline engineers who used fluid dynamics to predict pipeline ruptures. Talks will focus on managing imperfect pipes, next-generation intelligent conduits, and advanced materials for energy and medicine. The presentations are designed to offer common language and terminology to all parties, as well as provide a platform to discuss the hurdles facing each discipline.

Does that seem like a no-brainer to you? Another “D’oh!” moment that makes all sorts of things clear in hindsight. Parallel Universes indeed. It suddenly occurred to me why my SOBCon experiences have been so valuable- because I get to interact and pick the brains of people who, while they are likely involved in a business that is vastly different from mine, are using similar tools and processes to achieve their goals.

A year ago I was in Colorado at the SOBCon event and I made a point of sitting with three people that I didn’t know and only one that I did. The five of us were able to look outside the boxes of our own business experiences and apply those concepts to each others’ plans and tactics. Amazing.

I can hear you now, “That’s obvious, Stephen, what’s your point?“

My point is, among the thousand-plus people that read this blog there may be a few that are in a similar situation as you are. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could spitball some ideas around with them? Maybe knock loose a couple of possibilities for enhancing your own business? I know that I would love to be ale to have a couple of conversations with people about what they are doing, if only for the possibility of inspiration for my own business.

There is a place for that, it’s called Work.Life.Creativity

I know, if you click over [Work.Life.Creativity Forum] there isn’t too much going on right now because I was forced to neglect it to fulfill my obligations as restaurant manager. But it gets a lot of traffic from search and there is a lot of good information there. It’s a place where you can ask questions, provide answers, share and develop ideas and so much more.

Please consider joining the forum [WLC Registration link] and getting involved. It doesn’t cost anything. I believe it could be worth a lot. I believe it so much that part of the reason I quit my job was because I didn’t want it to die.

So join us, let’s work on something together.

I am passionately committed to the idea of the Work.Life.Creativity community and would like to ask you to help me in making it grow into the lively and engaged community that it can be.

You can register for the forum here: [ Register ]

To that end I am putting together a new editorial calendar and a new feature on the blog: Interviews with people that are passionate about applying capital-C “Creativity” to their work and their lives.

I am looking to create a series of posts that can later become an ebook (free to current WLC members and available to new members upon registration) on maintaining balance, injecting more Creativity into work- and life-styles, and creating opportunities for growth and enrichment.

If you would like to take part in the survey/interview, click here [ Survey Link ]. Thank you in advance for your participation in this project.

Earlier this year I created a Topic of the Month calendar, which held up pretty well until May. Then in June the wheels came off at my day job and I basically spent every waking moment there. So much for work-life balance.

I truly regret that this platform and community suffered the neglect of the past three months. In a concerted effort to make my life better and more balanced I have quit my day job. It is time to get truly Creative about my work, focus on writing and on building this Community.

Join us in the forum for a discussion of the direction that you would like to see this publication take: WLC 2011 2.0

For those who say “money doesn’t grow on trees” – they have apparently never raised a bonsai.

Meet Heihachi the Bonsai —> He helped me earn $3,000 a week. When he died, so did my income – and I’m beginning to think it’s high time I get another one.

Unlike most other container plants, I’m thoroughly convinced that bonsai have an energy all their own. They impose their will upon you – not the other way around. The bonsai itself becomes the master; you, the student – and if you truly listen, the lessons are limitless and extremely broadly applicable.

The Magic of Bonsai

“Planting in a tray” captivated my undying love shortly after I developed an obsession with all things Asian. No, I’m not some silly otaku – it actually developed from digging into my heritage. I discovered the half of me that is Hawaiian actually originated a little further west. Unfortunately, I think my green thumb is from my Irish quarter, but I digress.

There’s just something about these tiny trees that draws the eye. It’s so small and yet so full-grown – almost as if you could fit the world in a bottle and all the world’s wisdom on a single branch. A sense of overwhelming peace directs your thoughts to what must be truly valiant pursuits – if only you could remember precisely what crossed your mind, for it was certainly important, but oh that tree is so beautiful!

That pause in the viewer is just one half of Bonsai’s magic – the rest is all in the doing. Bonsai uses cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, ridiculously restrictive potting, defoliation, wire-wrapping and grafting to create a living labor of love – a work of art that is as much a reflection of its creator as its creator is a reflection of the art.

Raising a bonsai changes you. Little by little, you start becoming your own perfect self as you shape your perfect tree. For the sake of your precious little tree, you dare to learn everything, try anything, and become fixated on the tiniest detail with compulsive obsession.

Bonsai is not a practice you can do without practicing – any amount of procrastination will show – so you are driven to get out of that chair and actually do something several times a day. You’re also in it for the long haul – my Heihachi was 6 years old in that photo, just a sapling in the Bonsai world – and accepting that ridiculously long commitment develops long-term discipline and vision.

Although – there’s something else that shares this distinct set of traits and habits…

En”tree”preneurship

Bonsai lends directly to successful entrepreneurship. While you may think a plant which requires so much time and devotion would take away from your productivity, it actually teaches you to be more efficient with limited resources. Bonsai also provides ample doses of determination, persistence, patience, and most of all – discipline.

The very same traits which nurture a bonsai also nurture any professional endeavor, and the very physical and deliberate act of caring for a bonsai gets you going on your goals. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a bonsai demands much motion.

I used to wake up near the crack of dawn just to move Heihachi from his evening spot on my desk to an open window and give him the first misting of the day. Half an hour later, I was back watering him again and making sure the tray beneath him was well-stocked with water for the day.

A few hours later, another double-dose of misting and watering 30 minutes apart. Wash, rinse, repeat about 3 to 5 times a day, and you have the perfect recipe for developing a good habit and markable milestones throughout the work day.

Of course the environmental benefits of a bonsai are not to be ignored. Only one half of Bonsai’s magic is in the doing – the other half is in the observation. Just like your parents used to say “when you have kids of your own…” – when you have a bonsai, you’ll understand.

I still intimately remember the first plant I ever purchased for myself, even though It was 3 years ago when I brought home my baby pine. It was barely one whole foot tall, but the label said it could grow to 15 feet in as little as a couple years.

“Preston the Pine” got a slightly shady home just off to the side of my window, and I went about watering and feeding it just as prescribed. Then, it seemed, nothing could quench its thirst.

I think it survived about 3 months before all the green started getting brittle and brown. It probably wasn’t even that long, but one thing was for sure – I was completely heartbroken. I did everything “right” – how could it die?

I just recently moved to a new, massive apartment – perhaps it was the move. Maybe I didn’t give it enough sunlight, or maybe I should have fed it. It was all just speculation though. I still don’t know everything about gardening to this day, and so I still haven’t entirely unraveled the mystery of purchased plants – but I do know if you plant it, they will sprout.

Grow From the Ground Up

Give me a bulb or seed and I can make a hardy plant of it every single time. Even the “tough” ones to grow sprouted every single time.

Take for instance my “Seven Dwarves” – 7 caladiums I grew from 7 bulbs. Most people have difficulty getting caladiums to sprout – so much so I figured maybe one would come up – but all of mine grew with almost zero additional effort, and one of them was even albino. I made the mistake of naming them when they sprouted though. Four feet of growth later, my Seven Dwarves weren’t so dwarfish anymore.

Every plant has their preference, and growing from the ground up means you have plenty of time to figure out what your little sproutling needs and loves. Even if it does eventually die, you know exactly what happened in that chain of events and what you should do better next time.

Lesson learned – grow from the ground up and you’re more likely to have a lasting and lush garden.

Orphaned Plants

You don’t have the opportunity and advantage of growing from the seed with a purchased plant though. Despite everything I know about growing and cultivating plants, Preston was only the first in a long line of purchased plants to fail simply because I didn’t fully know what to expect.

There were Palmela and Frond, two palm trees that used to greet visitors to my sun room but soon suffered a slow root-rotted death. Fern the fern didn’t make it 3 months. Heihachi the bonsai lasted about a year, and Moses, my Wandering Jew, lasted the longest of all my purchased plants but it too would eventually suffer a brittle end once I moved again.

Of course there were also several dozen more which I never got the chance to name because they died so quickly. Most of them Mother’s Day gifts – but I kept trying, and I’ve finally had success keeping a purchased plant alive. Here’s what I’ve learned:

The nursery doesn’t matter. Whether it was bought at the grocery store or Jacque’s Fancy Ferns, the originating growers are often the same and these retailers will try to get away with selling near-dead plants that are not ideal for your intended situation. Farm stands are much better as the plant was often grown by the person selling it to you, but it’s still no guarantee.

The context doesn’t matter. Even though you’re standing indoors when you picked the plant off the shelf, that doesn’t mean it’s an indoor plant.

A sunny room is actually “partially shaded”. Plants that need full sun will not survive indoors. The glass in your windows block some of the critical UV rays these plants need, and so even the sunniest room is still partially shaded to the leaves of a plant. You can solve this, of course, by opening the window – and while that’s not a good solution in the winter, plants do hibernate so a little less sun for one season won’t harm an otherwise healthy plant.

Do your own research. That little tag in the pot is most likely wrong, plus you have all sorts of catching up to do. You’ve already missed this plant’s entire childhood. It will test your boundaries, it will rebel, and it will declare in angst that you are not its parent – so you need to be ahead of the knowledge game to figure out what every tiniest change does to your little orphan.

Always have re-potting supplies on-hand. Next to that, always re-pot your orphans as soon as humanly possible. Generally speaking, if it’s up for sale, it’s already too big for its britches and needs a new home. Don’t be afraid to tear off a good chunk of those old roots too, and unless there’s root rot it’s a good idea to mix in some of the old soil.

There is no spoon. Schedules are no good. The tag is a liar. All those instructions you read online are not the end-all be-all. In all honesty, it’s your connection with the plant that will make it thrive or die. If you take the time to know it intimately, it will grow. If you just follow the rules, it will die.

That said – know anything about violas or Savannah reds? I just got a pot of ‘em for Mother’s Day…