darren r hill

the creative minimalist

Category: Creativity

All posts relating to creativity in general. How to be creative rather than specific creative projects.

  • Magic — Weekly Creative Prompt

    Exploring magic in this weekly creative prompt

    Welcome to the new complete weekly creative prompt. We begin with a single creative prompt word and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

    I have always wished that I could get things done easier. This can be seen in my ongoing quest for the ultimate productivity tools, sorting out to-do lists and the best way to journal. At the same time, my wishing would like to extend to clicking my fingers to get things done. Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:

    Magic — the power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces

    this is just one definition, but I love the phrase apparently influencing

    Let the prompt ‘magic’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

    • writing fiction
    • journaling
    • art journaling
    • songwriting
    • photography
    • painting
    • composing
    • blog posts
    • art therapy
    • anything that could use a little nudge to begin

    Let’s expand the word a little further…

    Fiction Writing Prompt

    The Fiction Writing Prompt aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

    I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was amazing. This was real magic. - fiction writing prompt.

    I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was amazing. This was real magic.

    Writing Prompt Expanded

    Here is a chance to use superlatives, to go over the top, to explain something truly magical. Nothing is hyperbole when it comes to your writing for this prompt. The context is completely up to you. By leaving the context open, the prompt allows you to explore magic in either the supernatural sense or the magical feeling of awe.

    This prompt is all about describing the scene before you, but your language needs to convey the beyond the ordinary.

    • What do you see?
    • Are you on your own or are others experiencing the event?
    • Are your other senses involved in the scene?

    Again, the writing perspective is in the first person. This makes it easier to explore the scene and describe its magical nature to the individual. However, the setting and everything else is open to your imagination. Let your words weave a little magic on the page.

    Journal prompt

    Journaling is a place we can explore the mysterious and supernatural. It is a safe place where ideas can be developed and played with. And, if we have a private journal we know that no one else will see the magic we conjure.

    Questions, thoughts to explore or images about magic to create in your journal:

    • What is the most magical thing in your life?
    • If you could click your fingers and work some magic, what would the spell be?
    • What colours convey the feeling of magic in your art journaling?

    Theory of General Creativity

    I now have ‘magic’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. To all intents and purposes, the whole creative process is magic. The way ideas and thoughts develop in art is magical. There are basic rules to follow, which is evident as I make my music. However, it is the little steps that bend or break orthodoxy where I find the magic happens. And I can’t help thinking that many of the creative filters used to enhance our photography are like supernatural spells.

    Let ‘magic’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week. May your cauldron bubble and boil and bring forth something magical in your portfolio.

    Finally…

    As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose.

    As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me on any social platform.

    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

  • Myth — Weekly Creative Prompt

    Welcome to the new complete weekly creative prompt. I begin with a single creative prompt word and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

    Ever since the advent of the scientific method, there has been a move toward finding meaning through fact and reason. The age-old truths found in religions and superstition can’t apparently be substantiated through experiment or laboratory work. However, visit any book store or turn on any streaming TV service, and you’ll find endless content exploring the supernatural. Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:

    Myth — a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events

    this is a general definition, but I love the way it seems so innocent and straightforward until it gets to the supernatural element

    Let the prompt ‘myth’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

    • writing fiction
    • journaling
    • art journaling
    • songwriting
    • photography
    • painting
    • composing
    • blog posts
    • art therapy
    • anything that could use a little nudge to begin

    Let’s expand the word a little further…

    Fiction Writing Prompt

    The Fiction Writing Prompt aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

    My eyes were not lying. I knew what I saw was real. However, how could it be? What I saw was a myth.

    Writing Prompt Expanded

    Some of us suffer from motion sickness. It is a very unpleasant feeling and quite debilitating for some. As far as I understand, it is quite often caused by our senses getting confused. They send mixed messages to our brain suggesting, or not suggesting, movement.

    This prompt is all about comparing what we are seeing with what we knew, or thought we knew, to be real and possible; a mixed message.

    • What do you think you are seeing?
    • How do you describe something you know can’t be real?
    • Are your senses sending mixed messages?

    The writing perspective is in the first person. This makes it easier to explore the feelings and subsequent confusion of the character. The setting and everything else is open to your imagination. Will you explore a ‘traditional’ story or let your creativity run wild and bring into being your very own myth?

    Journal prompt

    Journaling allows us to hold conversations on paper. From private diaries to creative art journals we pour out our deepest thoughts. A quick glance at the art journal hashtags online will deliver a multitude of mermaids, faeries, and other mythical creatures. Do we only find these myths on paper, or is there an inner yearning to believe in them and broaden reality?

    Questions to answer, thoughts to explore or images to create in your journal:

    • What mythical creature could you bring to life in your art journal?
    • What myths do I believe and why?
    • Are there myths you believe in that you haven’t told anyone else about?

    Theory of General Creativity

    I now have ‘myth’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Furthermore, I have several pieces of music that are directly inspired by myth, so I am hoping this creative focus will help me move them along. And while I currently live in the South West of England, there are plenty of local stories and places that provide photo opportunities with a mythical twist.

    Let ‘myth’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week.

    Finally…

    As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose or any creative project.

    As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me @darrenrhill or #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.

    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

  • Fire — Weekly Creative Prompt

    It’s time for another weekly creative prompt word. These weekly words, or prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

    The festival of Beltane marks the point between the spring equinox and mid-summer solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is observed at the beginning of May. Many of the ancient customs and rituals associated with Beltane involve burning and marking people and boundaries with ashes. Therefore…

    This week’s creative prompt word is:

    Fire — a process in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke; combustion or burning

    this isn’t the only definition of Fire, in fact, as you’ll see later, I quite like this… one of the four elements in ancient and medieval philosophy

    Let the prompt inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

    • writing fiction
    • art journaling
    • songwriting
    • journaling
    • photography
    • painting
    • composing
    • blog posts
    • art therapy
    • anything that could use a little nudge to begin

    I now have ‘fire’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Alchemists regarded fire as the change agent. Fire would change element to element. And the alchemists’ goal was to create gold. What creative gold will our alchemy refine this week?

    As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.

    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

  • A few thoughts on focus and my lack of it

    https://youtu.be/qlb_Y_JFR0Y

  • Silence — Weekly Creative Prompt

    It’s time for another weekly creative prompt word. These weekly words, or prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

    Last week’s creative prompt was sound. It was about capturing something among the chaos. This week I want to explore the complete opposite. I want space and emptiness. As an introvert who likes a little solitude and quiet, I am quite looking forward to this week. Therefore…

    This week’s creative prompt word is:

    Silence — complete absence of sound

    there are other meanings or ways to describe silence, but it is the word absence that is interesting to me

    Let the prompt inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

    • writing fiction
    • art journaling
    • songwriting
    • journaling
    • photography
    • painting
    • composing
    • blog posts
    • art therapy
    • anything that could use a little nudge to begin

    I now have ‘silence’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Furthermore, I have a habit of overcomplicating things, from my journal set-up to my creative projects. I am hopeful that exploring silence will help me create some space in my process and even in my music.

    As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.

    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

  • Sound — Weekly Creative Prompt

    It’s time for another weekly creative prompt word. These weekly words, or prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

    All of our senses play an important part in our lives. This is shown when we lose the use of one, either temporarily or permanently. However, the loss of one often augments another. Being a composer the sense of sound plays a deep and meaningful role in my life; from strikes to melodies, quiet to loud and everything in-between. Therefore…

    This week’s creative prompt word is:

    Sound — vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear

    there are other meanings for the word, but I wanted to give the broadest possible definition to begin

    Let the prompt inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

    • writing fiction
    • art journaling
    • songwriting
    • journaling
    • photography
    • painting
    • composing
    • blog posts
    • art therapy
    • anything that could use a little nudge to begin

    I now have ‘sound’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Furthermore, I want to think about sound as a whole as I create my music this week. I will also explore sound in other mediums. For instance, what does sound look like in my journal?

    As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me @darrenrhill or #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.

    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