4 CreativeWheels™

Your weekly dose of insights on creativity & fuel for your creative journey — Get lessons, inspiring stories, & unique viewpoints for your creative growth ④

[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

The Most Popular Lie about Creativity (and The Alternative)

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

Brad Bird. That's the name.

The name of the director who made me wonder as a young child. And to this present moment, his work continues to do so.

Bird's work is among my top favorites in cinema. Frankly, there is not [yet] a director whose work has impacted me as much as his..

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

There is no shame in using your trash ideas. Yes, you heard that right.

There is no shame in using your trash ideas.

For all creatives and craftspeople out there, ideas are necessities. They are the fuel, the life that gives the work existence. . . .

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

What comes to mind when you hear the word "cuisine"?

Is it food? Is it a chef with sharp and stainless-steel knives?

Or is it a little meal whose price can wipe your average Joe’s bank account clean? . . .

[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

Discover all of it in this week's newsletter.

Subscribe to read the full issue from your inbox:
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[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

We’ve finally reached week 16!

And I’m excited to announce the start of the “Take it, Learn it” series.

In this series, we will learn from the actions of great fictional creatives.

We’ll look into their journeys or parts of them and see what we can apply to ours!

[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

This week's issue is the series' first episode and Part 1 of the first episode.

Yes, Episode 1 will have two parts! Stay tuned & discover Episode 1 (Part 2) next week!

In this week’s issue, our guests are Chef Auguste Gusteau and Remy.

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

What's your favorite movie scene?

We all have a favorite movie scene.

For anyone who has watched at least 2 movies in their lifetime, there is the scene of scenes. The scene that they cannot forget.

Such scenes hold a special place in your heart and mind...

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

My fifteen newsletter issue (the first issue in nights & weekends) will use one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.

I'm excited to share it.

Hint: The movie takes place in a private school.

See ya on Thursday! 😉

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

We crave connection as humans, and great creative works act as bridges.

They take us on a journey to the creative's world where we can experience things differently yet relate them to our lives.

We all want to have that human connection between us and our audience...

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

What are the things that make a creative work stick?

There are many of them and in this week's issue, we'll see one of them, what it is, and why it matters.

We'll explore the influence of human connection in making a creative work memorable...

[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

This was taken from my newsletter. Get it and more weekly creativity insights, lessons, & stories for free in your inbox here:
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[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

In this week's Inspiring Wheels

Here are two (or more) creative works that you’ll not regret checking out:

[4 CreativeWheels™ @4CreativeWheels]

“Bad writers wait too long to get into the good stuff.“ - David Perell

An interesting tweet about how to write better intros.

https://t.co/3QnBzqDn85

[David Perell @david_perell]

Bad writers wait too long to get into the good stuff.

You can think of your title, subtitle, and first few sentences as a sales funnel. Even after somebody's opened your piece, you need to persuade them to keep reading.

Here's how you can write better intros:

1) Surprise: Create Suspense

You don't need as many words as you think. Sometimes, it only takes one sentence to capture a reader's attention. These one-sentence hooks work particularly well for thrilling and suspenseful pieces.

• "On two separate occasions, I've woken up to an intruder breaking into my home after midnight (years apart and in different states)."

• "I wanted to strangle mother but I’d have to touch her to do it." — Loretta Hudson

• “Every time I see it, that number blows my mind."

2) Insight: Teach the Reader

Though these ones are a little bit longer, it doesn't take long for the reader to learn something, and that spark of insight launches them into the piece because they come to see the author as an authority. Both the examples below make the reader say: "Hmmmmm..."

• Everyone knows that to do great work you need both natural ability and determination. But there's a third ingredient that's not as well understood: an obsessive interest in a particular topic. — @paulg

• During a regular dive in the sea, Alexey Molchanov can go 131 meters deep (or about 43 stories) while holding a single breath for nearly five minutes. In that period, his body experiences more gravitational stress than an astronaut during a launch into space. — @polina_marinova

3) Set the Scene

A few sentences is all it takes to throw the reader into the story. You don't need many words to create a narrative arc, and the words you do choose set the frame for the rest of the piece.

• When Mike Posner asked the 911 dispatcher on the other end of the line if he was going to die, she did not sugarcoat her uncertainty: "All she said," Posner remembers, "was 'I don't know." — Grayson Haver Currin

• Steamboat Willie put Walt Disney on the map as an animator. Business success was another story. Disney’s first studio went bankrupt. Later cartoons were monstrously expensive to produce, and financed at onerous terms. By the mid-1930s Disney had produced more than 400 cartoons – most of them short, most of them liked, and most of them losing money. Disney and his studio were nearly broke. — @morganhousel

• On February 10, 2002, in a New York State prison cell, the bestselling author and twice-convicted killer Jack Abbott hanged himself with an improvised noose. That same day, the body of the man I murdered washed ashore on a Brooklyn beach in a nylon laundry bag. My reason for connecting these events is to account for my crime. — John J. Lennon

• While jogging on a familiar, overgrown, wooded trail near her home on a recent warm afternoon, Rachel Borch thought to herself, "what a beautiful day.” Little did she know she was about to be attacked by a rabid raccoon she would end up killing with her bare hands. — Rich Landers

• When I got my first apartment in Manhattan in the hot summer of 1976, there was no pooper-scooper law, and the streets were covered in dog crap. I signed the rental agreement, walked outside, and my car had been towed. I still thought, "This is the greatest place I've ever been in my life." — Jerry Seinfeld

To hone your knack for writing introductions, study stand-up comedians. Note how quickly they set the frame for their jokes. They rarely need more than 1-2 sentences to set the scene and make the audience laugh.

Your introductions don't need to be funny, but they should be captivating, and you don't need many words to do that.

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

“It’s time to work,” you tell yourself.

You bring out every tool you need to get started. Everything is set, but nothing feels right.

You try to move forward, but there is a heavy smoke blurring the view...

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

Most creatives have faced creator's block in their journey.

I've faced & might face it again in the future.

We often define it as a state where you can’t think of good ideas. A moment when you can't keep working on a project.

But, are we wrong about the whole experience?

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

Great tools can help, they definitely can.

More resources to access that software, buy that gear, or hire that freelancer wouldn’t hurt.

Yet, it’s never the defining factor in your ability to create and progress.

[Richard M. @RichardtheMutts]

Here I was. I decided to start a newsletter.

I had the idea in mind for months but doubted whether I could do it.

I came up with a name. The process was okay at that point. Until it came to making an identity for the newsletter.

That was the moment when everything stopped...