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How to Make Art Which is Truly Unique
She sits across from the music legend, black shirt hanging loosely around her shoulders, hair draped over her chest. It's been 3:22 seconds since either of them have spoken. …
The One Element Which Matters Most in Creative Work
Kate walks on the beach in front of me, her father to her right. I don’t know what, exactly, I am looking for. Something, anything, which shows they share a gene pool— a 6th toe maybe? A flair on the right pinky which had been passed down through …
Forget Going Viral and Do This Instead
After walking to the stage, pumping his fist, and yelling ecstatically, Chancelor Bennett gives a nervous chuckle when he gets behind the microphone. The crowd is on edge, waiting to see what this first-time Grammy winner will say. Every musical …
A Dirty Secret About Creative People
This is something it took me a long time to admit, even to myself. Are you ready? Here it is: All creative people are self-absorbed. We care about what goes on in our heads more than what goes on in “real life.” We would rather look at what …
The Reason You Feel Motivated at Night But Lose It By Morning
It was May in 1930. A man with a fabulous mustache sat upright in his favorite chair, seconds away from dozing off. Just as his head dipped into dream world, the ball bearings plummeted from his hand and onto a metal plate, where the clatter shook …
One Exercise Which Will Change the Way You Write Forever
Okay, first I’ll give you the very simple goal of this tip: REMOVE THE BRAIN FROM THE WRITING PROCESS. Let me explain. At a job — you think about stuff. A specific problem is presented and an objective decision is made based on cost and time and …
These 6 Words Helped Me Overcome My Fear of Failure
Blink-blink-blink. My cursor pulsed on the blank page. I wrote sentence and then deleted every word. I stood up 6 times for coffee in 2 hours. Surprisingly, my page would still be blank when I returned. I wanted to start a blog. I wanted to start …
Here’s One Thing You Can Do If You Have a Boring Job
My first week of corporate work, I was assigned 18 company policies to read. My second week of work, I was given 40 hours to complete a draft of ONE document. My third week of work, I was in a meeting about a project I might join one day. My forth …
What To Do When You Completely Blow It
Yesterday was bad, bad, bad... but on the plus side, you can actually SEE the Tennessee humidity in this video. …
8 Things to Consider Not Caring About Anymore
“Write it again,” she said. “And this time, I actually need to know what word you’re trying to put in this sentence.” I wish I’d known how the world was going to turn out in elementary school because if I had, my response might have been something …
How to Stay a Creative Genius
I think we can all agree kids pretty are stupid. They can’t draw worth a darn, they walk like drunks, and they definitely can’t talk right. No, I do not want “basgetti” for dinner. They fail at everything they try. They fall down. They hit their …
The Ultimate Survival Guide to Not Fitting In
Someone once told me to write about what I know, so here’s this: I’m good at not fitting in. I do it all the time. But humans need to belong, so I do these things to make people think I’m a normal human being. 1. Improve your small talk No …
Is it Worth it to Share your Creative Work?
In 2013 a man named Dong Nguyen probably leaned back in his chair and sighed with happiness. During his free time, Dong and his team had been using a character from a cancelled video game to make his own project - a simple mobile adventure in …
The Problem With Quitting Your Job
(This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: The Creative's Curse.) Most people, at some point, will try and convince you to take what you’ve learned and soar. They’ll say you should shove away from that awful job and TAKE OFF LITTLE BIRD! Today's …
Can Anyone Be Creative?
Yes. Okay, that was easy. Can I take the rest of the post off? No? Fine. Look, here's the deal, Creativity is nothing more or less than coming up with a new solution to an existing problem. Sometimes that problem is getting your drink out of a cup …
How to Be A Shapeshifter
Can we all agree the Internet is getting too complicated? I'm sure it's not really intentional. It's just that when someone is trying to complete with approximately 100 bajillion other articles on the Internet, writing a headline about 67 BRAND …
The Endless Cycle of Creative Procrastination
Phase 1: You come up with a new idea. You love ideas! They are sexy and pure. Out of the corner of your eye, it winks at you. You melt. Abandoning all else, you take the jump and fall hard. Phase 2: You pour your heart and soul into the idea. This …
My Dirty Little Secret
The other day I got asked one of my favorite questions: "Todd, you're writing online a lot about being successful and how to create better stuff. Don't you have any actual creative projects to work on like a novel?" Here's the short answer: Yes, I …
How to Tell Your Dad You Are An Artist
He'll react badly. I'm just telling you this up front because you need to be ready for it. It's not his fault, really. He wants what's good for you. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment - he helped bring you to this planet, kept you alive for …