!maginality

Overcoming musical writer’s block

darren — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:36:54 +0000

A good start would be to try any of these 170+ ideas in an Oblique Strategies stylee from Synthgear.

Oblique Strategies for Electronic Music

Overcoming musical writer’s block is a post from: !maginality

Test

darren — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:44:35 +0000

Well everyone has at least one test post

Test is a post from: !maginality

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How do you capture your ideas?

darren — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:49:51 +0000

By far the best way to capture ideas is with a pencil and paper. The fewer things that can hinder the collection of an idea the better. A tablet may come a very close second these days and I live in the hope that they may take over; hey I love sci-fi and the future for me is always bright, shiny and wonderful.

One thing I saw that seemed quite interesting was The Musician’s Notebook: Manuscript Paper for Inspiration and Composition (Parchment Journals).This book, and several others, take the next step from just a piece of paper or notepad. They give you some templates for you to use.

By providing you with a set form to plunge your creative ideas these pages take some of the load from your brain, allowing the creativity that little bit extra grey matter to play with.

If we don’t need these particular books we can always make our creativity that little bit easier by creating our own forms or pages. Any resources that we can prepare for when creativity arrives is of use. Personally I have tried many different pre-made pages to help. Some have worked while others have limited my creativity. When that happens the pages get a reworking or end up in the bin.

What capture tools do you use? Or have you ever created your own?

How do you capture your ideas? is a post from: !maginality

How to find a colour / color and name it

darren — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:04:04 +0000

I have, running in the background of my pc, a wonderful little utility, AdesClrPicker. This is a simple utility to tell me what any colour (color) is on your screen. A simple ctrl + alt +a and a pipette icon hovers over the screen, magnifies the area where it is to pixel precision and tells ne what colour / color it is hovering over. It imparts this information in glorious html format for me to slip into any new web design or idea that I have. But the program isn’t limited to html, it offers a range of outputs. It also remembers recent colours / colors and a whole lot of other neat little attributes. You can download the latest version from here.

If you’re in a browser though, and that browser happens to be firefox, you could use colorzilla. A little plugin that sits neatly at the bottom of the browser screen ready to be called into action. The latest version is available from here.

Both programs are nice and simple but come in very handy, if you don’t want to open up an image editor and use the colour picker from there after waiting ages for it to load… you know who you are.

These are two little tools that can save a lot of time and effort. A little bit of preparation and you’ll no longer be running around trying to find the hex value of that wonderful tone used on the front page of your favourite site. And one day we may all agree on how to spell colour… I live in hope.

How to find a colour / color and name it is a post from: !maginality

Whatever you do, creativity is important

darren — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:12:31 +0000

There is a lovely and inspiring post from Sarah Prout about the importance of creativity. This is just what you need on a Monday morning to bring things into perspective and begin to plan the week ahead.

Make sure that you don’t get bogged down with the ‘doing’ creativity. Creativity is also about ‘being’. Be inspired, be creative and be yourself. Don’t get lost in the busyness of each day.

Stop. Breath. Be inspired. Be.

The Importance of Creactivity

Whatever you do, creativity is important is a post from: !maginality

Free online score editor

darren — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:23:10 +0000

Found a wonderful new online resource to while away the hours.

Noteflight is an online score editor. It is able to create wonderful musical scores, including lyrics, that can be printed or exported as .wav or midi files.

I certainly know how my weekend will be spent. I’ll let you know how I get on with it and do a more thorough review in the coming days.

Noteflight

Free online score editor is a post from: !maginality

Prepare and trust in the muse

darren — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:50:47 +0000

The premise of this site, well the thinking behind it, is that creativity is finding the balance between three things. Those three things are preparing, being inspired and a little bit of hard work; or preparation, inspiration and perspiration.

One problem that creatives face is demanding that the muse shows up on demand. There are ways to bring on the muse, and we’ll look at those elsewhere, but sometimes we need to accept that the muse is a way off. During these times we should use the space to do a little of our preparation work. And, quite often, this will hasten the arrival of the muse.

So what do I mean by preparation work? Preparation work ranges from sorting out your pencils to clearing the fog from your brain. It is anything to do with setting up your creative space. This is making sure you have the right tools, software and hardware. It is also making sure your brain is in the right place; you may need to shift stuff from your head onto lists, or deal with that pressing issue that is using up so much mental energy.

Get the preparation right and the inspiration will have space to do its thing. Anything you need to prepare?

Prepare and trust in the muse is a post from: !maginality

Be dictated to, then subvert

darren — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:08:05 +0000

It’s the beginning of a new week, or the start of a new day. Or perhaps you’re stumbling on this at some other time. Well it doesn’t matter when. It’s time to think about doing something creative.

What’s the weather like? Go on, look outside if you need to, I’ll wait. Is the sun blazing down? Is the rain hammering into the puddles it has already formed? Is the atmosphere as grey as the mood it has just put you in? Well that doesn’t matter either.

What does matter is that you can use the inspiration of the outside to engage your creative thoughts. What does the weather make you think of: warmth, heat, dryness, arid landscapes, global warming, rising sea levels, end of the world, drowning, depression, moods, angst. ? The list is endless.

Use the weather as a starting point to do something creative today. But don’t just see a shining sun and paint a shining vista. Turn things around, the weather is just the starting point. Let your imagination run and develop the theme. Go and create that subverted weather image, wordscape or aural texture.

Be dictated to, then subvert is a post from: !maginality

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Where to find good ideas by Seth Godin

darren — Mon, 10 May 2010 08:15:44 +0000

And also where not to find good ideas. What better way to start the week than with a little bit of inspiration.

Seth’s Blog: Where do you find good ideas?

Where to find good ideas by Seth Godin is a post from: !maginality

How Twitter can help you write

darren — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:26:24 +0000

Twitter is a distraction for writers. We use any excuse to keep away from that blank screen or piece of paper and Twitter is one such excuse. It is far too easy to spend time talking to others or following the latest from the greatest.

But twitter can also be a great help. Writing is a lonely process but this is where twitter is a great help. You can post about what you’re writing, see what others are writing. Discuss plots and plot holes. Ask for advice and even promote the words you’ve written.

And because twitter is a microblog format it can take less time away from the ‘real’ work than other social networks.

So where should you start? Fortunately for you, and me, there is a great introduction by Inkygirl, just follow the link below and you’ll discover all there is about how writers can use twitter.

Twitter Chats For Writers | Inkygirl: Daily Diversions For Writers

How Twitter can help you write is a post from: !maginality