darren r hill

the creative minimalist

Inspiration is unpredictable, so we need a way to find and even prod the muse. Momentum keeps you creating when inspiration disappears
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Not all creative advice works for everyone. Learn how to filter guidance, avoid common pitfalls, and build confidence by recognising when to follow advice—and when to trust your own creative instincts.
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Why do most unfinished songs or art fail early in their creation? Most art fails early because decisions aren’t made. Too many options stall progress Decision fatigue can significantly hinder creativity. Each choice we make requires mental energy, and as that reserve diminishes, so does our ability to think creatively or approach problems with fresh…
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Waiting to feel ready to create just keeps you stuck. If you start, you’ll realise you were ready to learn, to grow and create.
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Some creative beliefs only make sense in hindsight. I believed in perfection; I needed faith in the imperfect. I believed my creations needed to be perfect. I was wrong. Learning that has enabled me to create, and enjoy creating.
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When I am in the creative zone, I always wish I had more time. When the muse turns up, I want to make the most of it. That’s where time-saving habits come in.
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The old journal – Friday Fiction Writing Prompt
A Fiction Writing Prompt to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

I discovered it at the bottom of the trunk. I opened the old, dusty journal and began to read. A life long gone breathed again…

Writing Prompt Expanded

You might have noticed but I like to journal. In fact, I am an avid journal user. I often find I am repeating myself in several places. If you picked up and read my journals, you’d get a pretty good idea of what my life is like. And that is exactly where we are going with this prompt

This prompt is all about recreating a world from the past. Your character is reading an old journal and as they do they discover the life of the person who wrote it.
- What year was the journal written?
- Is the journal written by a relative?
- If they had an occupation, what was it?
- Was their life difficult or easy?
- What things concerned them day by day?
This prompt will help you bring an old world to life. Creating a believable setting for your characters and stories is a vital skill. Using this journal style prompt is one way to do that. You describe someone’s life and therefore describe the world they inhabited. And even just several years in the past can make a huge difference to the way people lived. Smartphones and the Internet didn’t exist twenty or so years back.

As always these writing prompts are optional and entirely open to your own interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story or something a little more grandiose. If you do write something, please share it or a link, in the comments or tag me. I’d love to read what you create. Write and enjoy the learning process.

Original Journal Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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11 September 2020
Dartmoor – Wordless Wednesday

I went to Dartmoor, this is what I saw.

9 September 2020
abandoned

a short soundscape

7 September 2020
Actions speak louder than lists – Journal Update

A flip through of my junk journal and planner and a little thought about the sort of things I write on my to-do lists. Why do I add things that aren’t actions to my lists? They cause nothing but trouble.

Bandcamp
this temple eden
Shop: Planarchy and Stuff
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5 September 2020
I am helpless – Friday Fiction Writing Prompt
A Fiction Writing Prompt to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

There is nothing I can do. My fate is in the hands of the gods. I am helpless. Everything is out of my control.

Writing Prompt Expanded

Many things that make us anxious and worried are beyond our control. Our actions rarely affect events in the world around us. We can influence others and play our part and do our thing, but we can’t control events. For instance, the current pandemic is beyond our control. We can do our part in trying to ease transmission but how others and governments act is not down to us. Things beyond our control can make us anxious, and that is what this prompt explores.
- This prompt is all about feeling hopeless. It is about describing the feeling of not having any control.
- How does being helpless make you feel?
- Does being helpless have a physical response in your body?
- Does it make you act in a different way?
Remember this is not about you personally. This is a fiction writing prompt. It can relate to any situation and the character, even though it is written in the prompt in the first-person, it is not you. The setting of the scene can be for any situation, from something major like a pandemic to something more personal like waiting for a phone call. Characters can find themselves helpless in a variety of situations. However, I hope the prompt doesn’t leave you feeling hopeless as you try to write.

As always these writing prompts are optional and entirely open to your own interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story or something a little more grandiose. If you do write something, please share it or a link, in the comments or tag me. I’d love to read what you create. Write and enjoy the learning process.

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest
4 September 2020
Welcome to September and patience

And so we find ourselves in September. Well, I do, and I am assuming that you are too. Although this year has been full of the weird and out of the ordinary, so perhaps I am just here on my own. ‘Welcome to September’, I said as I looked at my junk journal and created the page above, and ‘welcome to a need for infinite patience’ a voice replied.

There are a few things I want to do. There are several reasons why those things can’t be done. All of the reasons are beyond my control. Welcome to my need for infinite patience.

The good thing about not being able to do certain things is that I can get on and do other things.

The challenge, as always, is to actually do them. I find it far too easy to let the issues I have no control over take up too much of my time. Worrying about something I can’t do anything about feels like my superpower at times. I like to think that it is down to my active imagination, which makes me a creative person. But when my imagination is engaged in worrying, I am anything but a creative machine. Anxiety can be a creative muse, especially for my songwriting, but it is also a creativity killer when it stops me in my tracks.

I need to be patient. And while I wait, I need to create and not let the worry and concern stop me. Watch this space.

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest

3 September 2020