It's not always easy to spark the creative flame

While studying public relations in college my writing improved, but in a straightforward and factual manner. While I was in college the last creative writing class I took was freshman year. The rest of the time was spent learning how to write press releases, fact sheets and other important public relations writing materials. As much as I needed to learn these skills and I feel there is an art to writing a good creative press release, I missed writing stories.

I used to write stories and never finish them, I have a whole folder of unfinished stories in a drawer in my desk from high school. Maybe one day I'll finish them. I always doubted that the stories will lead me anywhere. Now, I'm not so sure. Everyone has talents and I'm trying to find mine, I'm hoping writing is one of them. In the meantime, I'd love to work on my creative writing skills more, it will probably help me when I'm trying to writing interesting story introductions at work and I draw a blank.

Here are some tips I believe help increase your creativity.

1. It's pretty amazing what story ideas you can come up with at 3am. (I'm not saying stay up up til 3 am every night, but try it one night where you know you will be up later and just write what comes to your mind.)

2. The next tip is a bit similar to the first. If you happen to remember your dreams right them down. Any detail you can remember, you never know if these dream sequences could help launch an idea. Let me tell you, I've had some CRAZY dreams, like one time I dreamed I was a Velociraptor... I'm not going to get into it. Just trust me. Crazy.

3. If you get frustrated and feel writer's block emerging, stop what you are doing and go back to it later. Nothing hinders creativity more than frustration. The process should be fun and almost therapeutic.

4. People watch! There are stories all around you. Find one person to focus on (without being creepy) and imagine what they are thinking or what their life is like.

For anyone who reads this blog, you may have heard most of these tips before. If you have, I hope it was a reminder. If you haven't, I hope you try them out. I often forget that you can't force creativity to come out of you,even though some people are naturally gifted at what they do. I have to work a little bit harder at it and I can always use some inspiration. If nothing else, I think my press releases will start to have some more pizazz.