{"id":994,"date":"2020-10-26T09:11:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T09:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/?p=994"},"modified":"2020-10-26T09:47:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T09:47:08","slug":"creativity-style-and-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/26\/creativity-style-and-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity, Style and Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Featured image photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/ePkfwrVYoTc
instagram.com\/jannerboy62<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s blog post, I want to talk about creativity and the inner voice. When looking for a suitable featured image, I instantly loved the bike at the top of my post. Connecting two great loves of mine – cycling and creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing fiction is just one aspect of creativity. It\u2019s easy to imagine the impoverished author – sitting in a lonely Parisian garrett, with just their imagination and a typewriter with which to express their innermost thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That can be a popular image of the creative writer, but there are others, too. Picture a five year-old Apple MacBook laptop and a large Samsung monitor atop a cheap Argos desk. Yes, I\u2019m lucky enough to look out on trees and grass and ducks (especially the babies that always need feeding), but some of my most creative days were spent in a tiny spare bedroom (what we used to call a box room in the olden days) with nothing but a blank wall to stare at. All the creativity was happening inside my head, and I didn\u2019t need anything external to \u201cinspire\u201d me. The pictures in my head were the only inspiration I needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I spread my inspirational sources more widely, and I have a number of YouTube channels I follow regularly. By the way, do you follow mine? You should. Click here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClqANw2VPMRsWCtF3MNebig\/videos<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those I regularly follow is photographer and videographer Thomas Heaton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Thomas Heaton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s a landscape photographer and also produces videos about \u2026 photography. He\u2019s incredibly creative, and talks about \u2018telling a story\u2019 with his images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zhQoktcr8TQ<\/a>
If you don\u2019t watch the complete video (and it is entertaining, even if you\u2019re not into photography), skip forward to 19:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other video Tom references (Nick Carver) is here: https:\/\/youtu.be\/VzJS5aap_zM?t=1181<\/a> where, in reply to a specific question, Nick talks about personal ‘style’ in photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity isn\u2019t, or shouldn’t be, prescriptive. There is no right way or wrong way. Your creativity can take many forms, and can proceed in different directions. It\u2019s a good idea to experiment early in your writing career. During those times, you will read and hear about the \u201crules of writing\u201d. There are no rules in writing, just as there are no rules in painting or music or photography. Many creatives love to push the boundaries of their art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key takeaway here is that creativity takes many forms. As an author, you shouldn\u2019t write something because someone tells you to, or because you think you might be able to sell more books. Explore your creativity, read and write widely. Try different forms – long-form novels, short-form stories like flash fiction, poetry, screenplays \u2026 whatever you like. Eventually, you\u2019ll settle into a style or selection of styles in which suit you feel at home writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I year or so ago, I took a long, hard look at the work I\u2019d produced, and with some friends, we talked about the WHY<\/em><\/strong>. Why did I write the things I did? Why did I feel most passionate about thrillers and crime fiction? And, by digging deep, we found the inner, driving force which is my inspiration, and which drives my creativity. In me, it’s a sense of right and wrong, of fairness and equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity<\/em><\/strong> is the power and freedom to inspire your output.
Style<\/em><\/strong> is the way your product is perceived by the public – something by which you can be recognised..
Voice<\/em><\/strong> is the deeper-rooted heart of your writing, and it is what makes your writing unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOUR CREATIVE VOICE IS YOURS ALONE. <\/strong>
EXPLORE, EXPERIMENT, FIND THAT CREATIVE VOICE WHICH WILL INSPIRE YOU AND POWER YOUR WRITING.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplashhttps:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/ePkfwrVYoTcinstagram.com\/jannerboy62 In today\u2019s blog post, I want to talk about creativity and the inner voice. When looking for a suitable featured image, I instantly loved the bike at the top of my post. Connecting two great loves of mine – cycling and creativity. Writing fiction is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,15],"tags":[48,46,47,49],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-my-writing","category-thinking","tag-author-voice","tag-creativity","tag-inspiration","tag-theme"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/24Oct20-watermelon-bike.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5y3CH-g2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}