creativity – Business in Rhyme

I don’t write. Can I still call myself a writer?

July 19, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!, Write, create, innovate!, Writer's creative bites

This is very interesting statement. A paradox in its literal translation, the negation in first sentence do implies a logical answer to question, but I still want to elaborate this and offer some additional thoughts.

Many of you know that Business in Rhyme has been established two years ago. With over 600 published posts, this spring it went into more professional realm, hence it coincided with injury of my right arm and deprived me of regular writing for many months. It forced me to somehow reinvent my routine and opened doors to additional possibilities and projects. The truth is also, that I at the moment enjoy other things besides writing (like my renewed interest for astrology, cosmology and nutrition) and I often ask myself: “Am I really a writer, can I call myself a writer since now I can go for days without writing – at least not in the form I am used to?” It’s not only that with my coaching and other projects I have less time for writing, but sincerely I don’t have that urging need to write. Being that poetry, for blog or journaling. However, I still do believe in all the benefits that writing can bring you. But what to do when you simply don’t feel like writing? And I don’t mean for a day or two, but it can go literally for months! Are you still a writer? One thing I’m certain in my case is that eventually I will go back to regular, full time writing. How will that look like? I don’t have answer to that question.

The truth is, that every action and experience you gain in your life is material for your writing. So you don’t feel like writing? That’s ok. Don’t hit your head against the wall. Don’t blame or push yourself if it doesn’t come naturally. But probably in your spare time you are reading, you are doing research (like I do at the moment). Real writer not only writes. He does everything in between that will enrich his story, poem, novel …He lives. When you consciously put yourself to be active participant in your life, not dwelling on the past or getting worried about the future, you are like an antenna receiving all valuable information that becomes raw material for anything you want to write. There is no wasted moment. It can’t be. You and your perception unfolds in the same manner as life which you are essential part of. And that becomes unique ingredient which moves your writing from ordinary to magnificent. No minute is wasted.

Many of you are also acquainted with my preference to quality over quantity. Instead of wrestling with words you don’t like and find unsatisfactory, simply stop. Listen. Bring yourself to present time and feel what you would like to do. Go for a walk. Talk to a friend. Take a break. Even if it takes you months to find words you like, adore, that are strong enough and convey what you want to say.

Friends often ask me did I get tired of writing or do I have a ‘writer’s block’. I don’t think so. But there we can create like gaps in our routines, activities and the way we spend our time that somehow (at least in my case) we have need for something different in order to be pulled back to what we love. So I’m using this my pause in regular writing as an opportunity to remind myself why I love and need writing, why I am writer.

I hope that this will help also anyone of you who are maybe struggling with writing and are indecisive about their writing goals and direction. Just listen to yourself, you have the answer within you. You are a writer if you decide to be one. No number of pages or published books will tell or prove you that. Only you can.

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Keep yourself accountable – find a writing buddy

June 25, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Writer's creative bites

Solace. I always emphasize how solitude is your great companion in writing. Stillness of environment allows the quietness of mind to take place and gives you opportunity to clear your thinking. You can easily access the deepest corners of your being and reconnect with your inner-self. Many writers take advantage and even pick remote and distant places when they are writing their books. I also believe it has to do with fact that in that kind of idle conditions we are able to tune in that inner conversation and it becomes clearer what is it that we want to convey.

For me, early morning hours are crucial for focused and productive writing. When mind is still in dream mode, silence and serenity that surrounds my home form almost ideal condition for writing. So, I always encourage writers to find those special moments during the day when their energy and creativity are high and use that in their advantage to write and brainstorm new ideas.

But of course every action must have a counter balance. Sometimes we need also a bit of encouragement, a cheer up, and a constructive criticism where honest feedback can help us to improve our writing. The fellowship with like-minded people can help you keep yourself accountable – on schedule with your writing goals.

Having your own writing buddy is a great opportunity to exchange experiences and is of great value in terms that it can:

give that needed wind in your back and motivate you in your writing
help you monitor your productivity and inspire you to foster better writing habits
help you clear your doubts and fears concerning writing
and even become your first beta-reader if you prepare a manuscript for publishing.

How should your writing buddy look like?

Preferably it should be someone who shares your reading taste and has similar writing interests. It should be someone with whom you can relate to, develop a reliable relationship of mutual trust and honesty.

So where to look for your writing buddy Your buddy might be a colleague, a friend, or even a stranger. You can join some of the online writing communities and forums where writers usually hang out, or book clubs and writing classes.

After you’ve found someone, you can exchange writing samples and see how it feels. Does that person find your work interesting and promising? Do you feel the same about their work? Discuss about your biggest challenges and see if person in question can be of any valuable help.

Most importantly, listen to your intuition. Your buddy must be someone you like, someone whose opinion you respect, and someone you feel comfortable sharing your writing with.

You want your buddy not only to keep you motivating and help you with editing, but also someone who is able to see the big picture and offer constructive ways for you to improve your writing, emphasize your qualities in writing and recognize your weaknesses.

You need someone who is in the same time going to be compassionate, but also keep you firmly focused on the goal – to finish your writing project! If you are more into searching for more professional relationship, than hiring a writing coach can be a perfect solution. Partnering with writing coach can help you move your writing to a next level and help you progress in your writing career. But it certainly needs to be someone you can trust and rely on.

Having someone along your side while working on your writing project will keep you accountable that you will actually finish your work and give you additional push in any of your hesitations to publish/submit your manuscript.

Further more, if you and your writing buddy share a similar writing style and interest, you can help each other in sharing marketing and promotional activities as well. You can exchange writer’s guidelines and often suggest potential markets for each other’s work.

Have you found your writing buddy yet? 🙂 Please share with us in the comments below.

How to keep your poetry blog alive when you don’t feel like writing at all

June 11, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!, Writer's creative bites

Oh, this is one of the questions I believe every blogger has encountered from time to time. And it happened to me this spring. It wasn’t a conscious choice, but rather physical condition that stopped from being able to write as much as I wanted do.

Anyway, it was a good opportunity to take break from blogging and contemplate about the future of Business in Rhyme: am I really able at the moment to fulfill goals I set for myself this year. This couple of months being more absent from the blog led me to learn few interesting things, not only about myself, but about writing as well.

In order for your blog to really prosper, you need to be clear what you want to achieve with your blog. Do you blog only for fun and occasionally share your poems? Or your blog is more ‘serious’ place where you publish your work as (a potential) an author and serves for showcasing your writing to publishers and agents?

That’s the first thing that will determine how often and what kind of content for you is recommended to publish.

The second thing is, (in order for your blog to grow) you need a firm, yet simple and applicable content plan to keep your blog on track. And by that I don’t mean loose ‘sketch’ in your head, but rather written in the form of editorial calendar or an excel spread sheet, which one you would place somewhere visible to you, as a reminder. You can get creative with this as much as you want – it’s important it works for you and motivate you to write.

How to create an effective content plan for your poetry blog? Think of your blog like a literary journal editor.

Maybe your blog could have some regular features. Something that you would publish on a constant basis. In moments when you lack ideas for writing, you could share what interesting poem you have read, or what you would like to read. Think of that one or two constant features that could go on weekly or monthly. You can also share a quote or video you find inspiring. Or even write about why you can’t write!

Write your feature ideas in one column and in the other be more specific of what you would like to share. For example you could introduce a feature ‘poem of the week’ and think of poem you lately read that you would like to share with your readers. Along the idea, assign a date you find suitable for publishing and slowly you are already building your editorial calendar and ensuring yourself to publish regularly.

Now, when you created a structure of your blog for next couple of months it’s easier to write in advance, even when your writing juices run dry.

Another thing you can do to motivate yourself to publish frequently is to keep yourself accountable by participating in challenges.

Accountability is like setting an intention in your consciousness that you need (not should) to write, because pure knowing that your readers are expecting to read something from you can ingrain a motivation to write. That’s what happened to me in April during NaPoWriMo. I didn’t feel like writing at all. The work I produced certainly it’s not the best I wrote so far, but just the act of writing and fulfilling the challenge brought me joy.

In the end, I do believe that taking occasional sabbatical from writing and blogging can be beneficial to our creativity as it allows us to recharge and regroup our forces in terms in which direction we want to deliver our writing.

3 reasons why we should appreciate more art

May 27, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!

Art is like being able to project our most inner self, hidden parts of our mind and heart we might’ve forgotten that exist and they appear to remind us to feel again, to recognize our human and empathetic nature. Art doesn’t take sides – it’s a guidance to different perspectives and modalities of human existence and behavior.

When an interviewer asked Marina Abramovic: “How do you know you are artist?”, she said: “Art is like breathing, you simply have to do it, in order to feel and stay alive”. So, there is an ingrained need to create, to contribute to the world using your own tools, language and ways of expressions. That need is larger than the artist himself, larger than the need to get recognition or reward. That need translates an experience he’s propelled to share and as itself is sure enough reason for him to sustain his creating.

Artists take risks to be exposed, judged and even scrutinized by the public, but their inner force and drive transcending their emotions and perception of reality through art is a silent message – message that will someone understand. Someone will be touched. Someone will be inspired. Someone will take action. They are not forcing or imposing something on somebody. By being able to dive deep into human hearts and stir emotions, they are able in their own language to show where and why something is not right. And here are my additional three reasons why we should appreciate art even more:

You can’t force people to accept something. Law can regulate to some extent external conditions, but it can’t speak the language of universal human experience. Art can.
Material gains also can satisfy you on the surface. No matter how much money you have, you still can be miserable. It can’t give you meaning and purpose. Art can show you where to search for– in both ways: by appreciating and creating your own art – like writing and poetry.
Education can help you to understand what and how you might feel towards something, but it doesn’t always hold an answer why. You can’t intellectualize emotions and search for conclusions in chemical reactions and differential equations. Life is much more and art unmercifully shows us that.

When you are confronted to great, meaningful art, it’s hard to stay indifferent. It raises questions in you, provoke your thinking, make you feel uncomfortable – it can make turn your head or page, turn off the light or sound.

But, it will challenge you. It can shake you to your core and you start examining the world that surrounds you.

So in order to improve your creativity and sense different perspectives, expose yourself to art frequently as much as you can.

Create what is meaningful to you – your experience you want to share with the world. It doesn’t matter what medium you use – words, paintbrush or your body. Give your best to tell the world what it needs to know. That’s how change happens. It always starts with us. We are that initial spark, a snowflake that starts an avalanche.

And especially today, I want to encourage my fellow writers that when you write, be open, be bold and tell your untold story: turn even pain and suffering into celebration of life. Your life is your master-piece. Your most beautiful poem you are writing every day. There is nothing to be ashamed of – only to learn and grow.

5 simple ways to keep procrastination at bay

February 5, 2017February 5, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!

When we want to get things done, it’s amazing how human mind can get creative and tricks us into any number of reasons of why not doing something. Excuses simply pile up and convince us why we should wait for some perfect conditions in order to get things done.

So lets approach this problem from other perspective. We often blame our procrastination habits for not having things done, but we can ‘take the bull by the horns’ and resolving those mental barriers.

The first step in this process is to identify which type of procrastinator are you. In this article they suggest there are 5 types:

The Perfectionist
This procrastinator is trying to avoid being embarrassed by mistakes or judged. They may spend too much time on one component of a project, failing to manage their time properly, or avoid the project altogether, then rush to finish it at the last minute. Of course, this may increase the likelihood of making mistakes.

The Impostor
Afraid of being revealed as unqualified or inferior, this procrastinator puts off doing anything to avoid that risk.

The Dread-Filled
When work is boring or unpleasant, we may procrastinate just to avoid doing it. If you hate what you’re doing or you find it mind-numbing, it’s tough to get motivated to take action.

The Overwhelmed
Sometimes, there’s just too much to do, and it’s hard to figure out where to start.

The Lucky One
Some people believe they do their best work under pressure, so they procrastinate until their back is up against the wall. If they have a history of doing this without consequence, they’ve essentially been rewarded for procrastinating.

Do you recognize yourself in any of these types? Identify your three root causes for postponing your work. Be mercilessly honest with yourself and write them down.

For example I have noticed that number two often surfaces in my case. Since I have so many interests and I’m always curios, want to learn and share my findings – the environment might not always agree with me. It sometimes impacts my work that I end up not doing something at all. But on the other hand, this blog is also a great medium for me to beat this habit and things are getting better. You don’t always have to be qualified or master in the field in order for your opinion to count or that you are any less creative, artful, ext.

And number 4…if I have too much to do, it really makes me nervous and impacts the quality I deliver. So, I’m aware of my priorities, what and when I need to do. This wasn’t always the case but experience (and my health) taught me to ease down, make a choice between two or three important things and stick to it.

So, once you identified your type, the next step is for you to find interesting, motivating ways to replace your procrastination triggers.

1.First imagine how does look like your perfect productive and creative day.

What elements do you need to accomplish that? Write that down – every detail you think might play a crucial role. How much more do you think you would be able to achieve? How would that make you feel at the end of the day?

Now look at your average day and see where is the biggest mismatch.

Are you spending too much time on social media, watching TV? Do you sleep enough? Are you eating enough nutritious food? That everything adds up to you creative power and energy.

2. Do you spend too much time on one component of your work?

If I ever fall into this trap, I simply distance myself and move on to the other part of work. Time brings other perspective and the ability to find satisfying solution. Once you come back to it, probably you will resolve what’s been bugging you.

3. Is your schedule overcrowded?

Lighten up your schedule – not everything needs to be done today, by you. Find ways to delegate some tasks and free your time.

4.Your work load is to big for you to swallow?

Brake your tasks in small, bite-size chunks – it will help you beat that feeling of overwhelm and it will be easier for you to track the progress.

5.What is that one small thing you can do today to get you closer to delivering your project?

It can be something simple like organizing your stuff – it will give you the impression of progress and it will become easier to tackle ‘heavier’ parts of project.

Try these tactics, it will certainly improve the quality of you work.

How do you battle procrastination? Any tips? Please share in the comments below.

Poetic inspiration: Every creation has a life of its own, so does written word

January 26, 2017January 26, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme

Poetic inspiration: Every writing and every reading is always relevant

January 19, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Poetic inspiration

Any written poem –

just like language is ever-evolving,

changing, as each time

we can perceive it, experience it

differently.

Maja S. Todorovic

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4 creativity lessons we can learn from David Bowie’s rich artistic career

January 8, 2017January 8, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme

Today we celebrate David Bowie’s 70th birthday and mark a year of his passing. Let us remember how great artist he was:

Ever since I was a little kid, as a great fan of gothic and mythological stories, my first recollection of David Bowie has to do with his role in the movie Hunger. Along with that came an interest in his music and artistic work, which later translated in true admiration.

With his passing about a month ago I also felt propelled like many before me, to say few words about his inevitable influence, not only in the world of music, but also in my personal view on the creative process in general.

These are 4 creativity lessons we can learn from his rich and long career:

Be brave to question and challenge what is already there

One thing that accompany of all Bowie’s creative endeavors is challenging the ‘status quo’ of every artistic expression and just experimenting in his constant search for fresh and new ideas. Flirting with fantasy and experiential performance lead Bowie to pretty much shake up the established view of rock n roll in the sixties and early seventies and made him one of the biggest icons of glam rock movement.

Embrace all facets of your personality

As a multi-talented artist, Bowie never shied from collaborating with musicians, dancers, fashion designers, movie makers – which only accentuated his innate creativity on so many different levels. I’m not going to list all of his movies, performances and albums he recorded but his almost 5 decade long career has proved so many times that when you are an artist, you are artist with all of your mind and body; you use everything you’ve got and that’s when creative miracles happen.

Be humble.

On many occasions, artists that collaborated with Bowie, being that long-term associates or single-project cooperation, rarely would negatively comment about his approach to work. Brian Eno, Eggy Pop, Brian Molko.. describe him as a patient colleague, open-minded to other’s people opinions, which always delivered productive, creative outlet.

Always try to reinvent yourself

Bowie is very well known for unexpected career maneuver when at the top of popularity, he just ‘retired’ Ziggy Stardust, (his alter ego as it is referred to) and many speculated if Bowie is going to play live again. But what really happened is that Bowie managed to detach from that momentary success and allow himself to dive into something new, risky – simply to reinvent himself. That type of approach to work gave him the opportunity to enjoy his creative process in all its strength, managing to subside identity crisis into which many stars inevitably fall. As he did assume many fictional personalities he was very comfortable in ‘his own skin’, letting his true self to just explore and enjoy creative journey.

As a final thought, I would emphasize here that we all have that creative force within us; in order to let it flourish we need to allow ourselves to be more open-minded and willing to step-back from the outcome – what ever it might be. Once we accept that, creativity becomes simply a way of life.

The Man Who Sold The World

We passed upon the stair,
We spoke of was and when,
Although I wasn’t there,
He said I was his friend,
Which came as some surprise.
I spoke into his eyes,
“I thought you died alone
A long long time ago.”

“Oh no, not me,
I never lost control
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world.”

I laughed and shook his hand
And made my way back home,
I searched for form and land,
For years and years I roamed.
I gazed a gazley stare
At all the millions here:
“We must have died alone,
A long long time ago.”

“Who knows? Not me,
We never lost control.
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world.”

“Who knows? Not me,
We never lost control.
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world.

David Bowie

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Is there a recipe for leading a creative life?

January 7, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!, Write, create, innovate!

If we consider creativity as a purely mental process, its simplest definition would be coming up with new, applicable and valuable ideas. But does that make us creative persons? Or it requires more than that, like maintaining fertile conditions where these ideas can naturally flourish and are easily implemented? Now things are getting a bit complex and interesting.

How does it look like when we apply the aforementioned principle in our daily lives? What constitutes a creative life? Is there a recipe or formula we can follow in order to live more creatively?

If you ask an artist or scientist how their creativity looks like and what do they except, probably we will get different answers. An artist might wish for painting more attractive or expressive pieces and scientist would like to recognize new ways of finding solutions to a problem. As their approaches and work differ a lot, there is one common denominator: going beyond yourself, exploring your own boundaries and capabilities.

In our everyday lives that would mean giving our best in almost any activity we do, in any situation, but also being open to trying new things, experimenting – detached from desired outcome.

In other words, taking risks – being that in crucial moments or in simple decisions we make every day. Being able to take risks develops our ability to deal with uncertainty, ambiguous situations we find ourselves in and learn from them.

Of course, by taking risks I don’t mean being reckless in our decision making, but being open to different approaches, solutions and not being afraid of change – as change in one way or another governs life.

So how you can bring more creativity to your every day life?

Experiment. Try new things – being that food, hobby or just your hairstyle. Move your body – as you move, everything else is moving in you and you are stirring up those creative juices. You are learning about yourself and there is so much more for you to discover. In this post I suggest how being proactively creative you are training your creativity – which is your goal: to easier and faster come up with valuable ideas.

I’m very loud prominent of reading and writing poetry for fostering creativity, as through that process you are getting accustomed to new perspectives, previously unknown connections or unfamiliar realities.

So my recipe for today’s creativity? I’ll just grab a poem for lunch. 🙂

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense

Rumi

10 ways to break through writer’s block instantly

December 26, 2016December 26, 2016 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!, Writer's creative bites

Writer’s block: a detrimental feeling that many of us encounter at least once in our writing life when you simply can’t pull yourself together and produce some satisfying work – at least in your own eyes. You feel lack of inspiration, like you have nothing to say and your imagination simply doesn’t exist.

But let’s think about it for a second – who is actually ‘blocking’ us in writing? Is there a concrete block standing on your keyboard, preventing you to type? Who is making us feel that our ideas are not worthy, that we are not creative? We are. We are the only ones standing as an obstacle to our creating.

And though this term is very popular, a modern notion coined in 1947 by Dr Edmund Bergler, a famous Austrian psychiatrist, I don’t truly believe in writer’s block.

I believe that we often fall in monotony, where we are caught by inertia – just like in a river stream. We might find ourselves in yellow, muddy waters and if we long for fresh, clear flow of ideas – we need to swim, move, get out of or change the conditions that clog our thinking.

One thing that years of writing taught me is that you can’t force it. It’s like pedaling upstream – you soon get tired, out of breath and strength, but you haven’t actually made any progress.

Better way than forcing your writing is provoking your writing. This is where your power and control lies. There are many ways you can stir up your imagination and here I will share some of the practices I use to find my way to writing:

1.When you struggle with writing, do something completely the opposite.

I have noticed when I’m not completely in my ‘writing mode’, leaving that aside and doing other activities that are on my TO DO list can be enough to jumpstart my inspiration. This maybe due to subconscious feeling of worry are we going to do everything planed for that day: simply giving us time again for writing when you have the feeling you’ve accomplished your objectives for the day, can be enough for a productive writing session.

2.Free write for 10 minutes to get rid of monotony

Just write without thinking. How you progress, new and exciting ideas will start to appear. Give yourself a chance to play with words and enjoy – you will much more appreciate your writing and the creative process. Here on the blog are many creative exercises you use can as a prompts and inspiration pointers to instantly break any writing barrier.

3.Research

This might be more applicable to non-fiction writing, but anytime I’m not focused or I have maybe to many ideas, I perform a research on the similar subject. I find this to be very beneficial in terms that similar work I encounter can serve as a guidance on which topic to write or not – or give my own opinion on something that is stereotyped and could use a new input. Getting insight on what other people are doing on similar topic is always helpful.

4.Indulge in some art

Listen to some music or visit art exhibition – I have found this to be one of the most helpful ways for me. By listening to my favorite bands or just looking at some of the De Chirico paintings as an instant recentering for me. On Pinterest I have even a board ‘Surrealism’ which I often use as my favorite muse.

5.Limit yourself

Set some rules: Start with what if clause or focus on using specific words. It has been shown that limited creative freedom can have a positive impact on generating new ideas as it provokes you to think differently.

6.Leave unfinished sentence

This is fun and clever thing to do. You just leave out there a word to linger and next time you have to deal with it – it will hang on the tip of your tongue, tickle until you figure out what to write!

7.Return to your favorite authors, phrases, quotes that you like

Lately I have been writing, by hand in separate notebook poems and quotes that I like. It helps me with that feeling of insecurity sometimes I have about my writing. A simple encouragement that you can give yourself and easily destroys doubts is reading and believing in words of your favorite authors.

8.Go on a date with yourself

As said in the beginning, we are the only ones blocking ourselves in doing what we love. And why does it happen? Maybe it’s a message, a sign that we need rest, that we need more attention and time to be kind towards ourselves, destress and restore creative energy. So make room in your schedule to spend time with yourself, doing what makes you feel good -pamper yourself. Your creativity will come rushing back to your arms, making you eager to write again.

9.Do some squats or go for a walk

Physical exercise makes your heart beat faster, supplying your brain with oxygen. It helps with brain fog we sometimes experiences and your thinking becomes clearer. Going for a walk helps with your senses where change of scenery offers insights to new possibilities and opportunities.

10.If nothing else works – eat some chocolate!

But not any chocolate – with at least of 75% of cocoa, as some researches have found that consumption of cocoa flavanols results in an acute improvement in visual and cognitive function, giving your brain more power to deal with difficult tasks. So eat your way through writer’s block 😉