Do you ever struggle with creative block and use drugs, stimulants or food to try and un-block yourself and get something down on the paper, canvas or screen?

We received over a dozen letters from people who told us they were having problems with that very same situation. Here’s an extract from one of the letters and my advice on a few ways you can improve the situation…

(more…)

Illustration by Cathryn Weatherhead.

We receive submissions from people who would like us to use their work on a daily basis and I can’t help but get disappointed by how little effort the majority of people put into the task. This lack-luster approach isn’t limited to submissions for the magazine either, over the years I’ve had to review countless portfolios for people wanting an interview for different creative positions within various companies. The good news is, most people do it so badly, it’s really easy for YOU to do it well and stand out!

Here are the 3 most common mistakes I see people make;

(more…)

Sam emailed us to say he hopes to be touring with his band and making a living from his creativity soon.

Now, following your creative dreams certainly gets our applause, he’s half way to success already.

But the second paragraph of his email set off the money alarm. (In the last readers letter I pointed out how frequently we often hold conflicting beliefs about money that can really limit our success.)

Here’s what Sam said;

I know musicians are the new starving artist, but I don’t care. This is what I love and I would be more than happy to be playing music in bars for the rest of my life, rather than be rich and famous. But of course the riches would be nice to have, for a rainy day.

This will upset a few people

Now I’m going to tell you something that will upset some people and it will upset them because deep down they know it’s true.

(more…)

We get a lot of letters asking for advice from people who have been reading our ‘Creative Secrets’ and luckily many of them are similar, after all most of us are struggling with exactly the same problems, even if it doesn’t always feel like that. This is the first in a series of solutions to problems our readers have put to us. If you think that you don’t have the resources you need to get started on achieving your creative dreams you might find this useful.

(more…)