Thursday 14 March 2013

Week 11 - A Creative Vision

Let me begin with a quick thank you for all the wonderful feedback I received this week.  It would seem that my 'creative beginnings' book tour brought up a host of childhood memories for a number of readers.  I shall have to start a petition for an adult only 'dress as your favourite book character' day; why should the kids have all the fun?  After eating all my Mother's Day chocolates I can definitely pass as Moonface from The Folk of the Faraway Tree!


One of the workshops I run at Body & Soul Holistics is a Vision Board course.  This two hour workshop helps my clients to create a vision of what they want in their lives from career, love, family or health matters.

When I was thinking about characters and scene setting for my creative writing class it dawned on me
that Vision Boards could help in creating stories too.

I went through a pile of magazines and cut out any photographs and pictures I felt a connection with, in other words, pictures that made me smile. 

If you have been following my blog and feel motivated then please give this exercise a go, it really is addictive and you could end up with a long list of story, poem or article ideas - no more writer's block!  If you don't want to write a bestseller then use the instructions below to create a vision of what you want in your life, collect pictures of sports cars, happy people, piles of money, people exercising, pictures that represent the job you want or ideal man (I have a whole board dedicated to Johnny Depp!)

All you need to get started is:-
  1. A cork board or other suitable base (a scrapbook works just as well)
  2. Large assortment of magazines (choose magazines that you wouldn't normally pick up)
  3. Glue and scissors
That's it; you are ready to go, so how do you begin?

  1. Flick through the magazines and tear out ALL the photographs, wording, pictures and sayings you see which draw your eye or make you smile.  Don't question why you like these things just cut them out and start to make a pile.
  2. Once you have a good selection spread them out in front of you and begin to lay your favourites on the board.  Some of your original choices may not feel right anymore, just put these to one side for now.
  3. As you lay your pictures out you may start to feel the story coming together, it's helpful to have a notepad handy so you can make notes.
  4. When your board is covered take a good look at what you have created, is there a bestselling novel planned out before you?  If you can't feel it yet then put it away for a couple of days.
This is the board I made this week; yes I am a fantasy, myth and legend fan!
Pictures collected from Spirit & Destiny, Prediction
and Soul and Spirit magazines.
You can use any magazine for your own creations.


Easy isn't it.  You can create vision boards for anything; the life you desire, job you dream about, health, creative stories or you can make one as a gift for a wedding or special birthday.

Being creative is so much fun and vision boards are a wonderful past time, kids love to make them too, its how I came up with my 12 resolutions on New Year's Eve.


5 comments:

  1. Has anyone had a go at Vision Boards? Come on, don't be shy - let me know what you've been up to.

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  2. I haven't but I've started collected some cut-outs from magazines with a view to getting started this weekend. I'm actually really excited as my work can be very methodical, being a PA & organiser & I need a creative outlet & love this idea for setting professional & personal objectives

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  3. That's great Nikki, it's a good idea to shake things up when life needs to be so organised, it gets the brain dancing and the creative juices flowing! Have fun x

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  4. I will when I start my next big project - currently rewriting, so I've got a good idea of what I'm aiming for! Your blog is inspiring :-) I've decided to make BIG changes this year too, so it's great to read about someone doing something similar. So far, several of my resolutions are a work in progress and I've completed one, which was to finish Ulysses after 3/4 years of meaning to get around to it!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Hayley and congratulations on your completed resolution, that's a fantastic achievement! Good luck with the re-writing and keep me updated with your next projects!

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