Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

I just uploaded version 0.3.6 of StoryBox, with a new “Preveiw” mode so you can see how any portion of your story will look when all it’s parts are combined. It also fixes some scrollbar issues, and a couple other things.

Also, after a year and ten months of off and on reading, I finally finished Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, and it was worth the effort in the end. But man, those first couple hundred pages are hard to get into. Too many disparate things going on for my simple mind. I always have problems with novels that start out with a large number of POV characters. Keep me with one for a few chapters, give me some background on the world, then switch. At the very least, do that in the first book.

I’ve had this link among my browser bookmarks for quite awhile, and I just reread it. I think you should read it, too, even if you’ve no desire to be creative. It’s a “manifesto” on how to be creative.

It sort of dovetails in with my introspection on why I make the career choices I make, why I will likely never be a teacher, or much of a salesman or banker or stock broker.

I like making things. I like taking things that aren’t and making them into things that are. I suspect that being a maker, whether your an artist, a construction worker, or a cabinet builder, is just as high of a calling as being a teacher or a scientist. Without the makers of the world, the world we live in wouldn’t exist the way it does today. We are born to make things, as much as we are born to do anything else.

If you haven’t tried making something lately, give it a go. Ultimately, making is so much more satisfying than using.

Oh, and here’s the video game shelf I made last weekend.