: Re: How to invoke my creative side without investing too much time? I suck at writing. There, I admitted it. More often than not, I find my self staring at a blank moleskine page, or the

@Jessie137

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I think you're just worrying too much about the act of writing itself. Just have confidence in what you're doing, and sit down and enjoy yourself. Of course, you need strong fundamentals for that (sizable vocabulary, good grammar, and a knowledge of what you are writing about).

If you're having trouble developing your creative skills, then I'd recommend you read 'Daily Rituals: How Artists Work' by Mason Currey. It's a good read, if nothing else, and provides valuable insights into how the greats used to unleash their creativity (one writer filled his drawer with writing apples so that he could write, and another actually made a round of the block before sitting down to write and after). The point of this book is that different people work in different ways, and most of them have one thing in common: Consistency. They wrote a lot, and formed strong associations with their triggers for creativity. That, in a sense, was their shortcut.

You said you've tried everything already, but have you tried just doing nothing? Turn off your television (from Stephen King), chuck away your iPhone and iPad. You will find that your creative output will increase greatly. I'm an Engineering student, and I find that when I have too much work, I have a lot of dreams that are worth writing about (I'm desperately bored at times).

Creativity isn't just about discipline: It's also about being able and willing to form new associations. Do an exercise with me: Take an apple, a pencil, or any object you can think of, then sit down and try to write as many words you can associate with it in one minute. The obvious would be red, juicy, fragrant, lunch. The not-so-obvious would be death (think of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. I know, the exact species wasn't specified in the Good Book), roast (roasted pig with an apple in its mouth), throat (Adam's apple), paper bag (the thing we usually place apples in), and destruction (an apple is capable of causing destruction to an anthill).

At the end of the day, the only real solution is to love writing. Love it, and be captivated by it.

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