John Cleese Talks About Creativity

John Cleese begins his talk by saying that "creativity simply cannot be explained" but goes on to give it a pretty clear outline. It is, he says, not a talent, it is a way of operating.

Creative people, he says, can get themselves into a particular mood, a playful mood, in which their creativity can function.

John Cleese advises us to stick with whatever problem we are facing and refuse to settle for the obvious answer or the easy way out. He admonishes us to be prepared to tolerate the slight anxiety caused by not solving the problem. It is tempting to take the easy decision because that would make us feel better, the anxiety of not having decided would be gone, but we need to give our minds as long as possible to come up with something original.

Confidence is important. Don't be afraid, he says, of making a mistake. Don't fret over what will happen if you do this, or if you do that. You can't be playful if you're frightened of experimenting. You have to risk saying things that are silly or illogical or wrong.

This reminds me of the advice Bill Murray gave in his Esquire interview: "You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die."

John Cleese's talk is about 30 minutes long but it goes quickly, he is a marvelous speaker. I highly recommend it.

How To Use Your iPad to Subscribe to a YouTube Channel

I love my iPad, and I love watching YouTube videos, so naturally I wanted to use my iPad to subscribe to channels I liked. It seemed as though it should be simple, but for months exactly HOW to do this eluded me. Finally I figured it out.

Imagine you're watching a YouTube video, perhaps one of John and Hank Green's Truth or Fail videos, and you decide you want to subscribe to the channel. How would you go about doing this?

1) Press the blue "Done" button in the top left-hand corner of the screen.

2) Press the "More From" menu button in the top right of the screen (it's beside "Related" and "Comments")

3) Just under the "More From" button you'll see "Move Videos from " and then a "Subscribe" button.

Thanks it!

Thanks for reading.

A cure for the blogging blues

Remember the food pyramid? Did you know that it can help a person not only have a healthy body but also a healthy blog? Suitably tweaked, of course.

I'll let Ariel Hyatt tell you about it.

It happens to me all of the time when I teach artists social media.The face goes blank, the frustration begins to settle in and then the artist says it:

“I just don’t have anything interesting to say.”

REALLY?

I’m shocked by this every time. You are an artist; you do things we mere mortals are totally enamored by: you PLAY MUSIC, you write songs, you perform them in public!

So PHLEEASE, do not tell me you have nothing interesting to say. I ain’t buying it.

All you are missing is a System for Social Media Success.

Luckily, unlike sheer god-given musical talent, social media is a learnable skill.

As I was teaching my system to a client in my kitchen a few weeks ago over coffee and bagels and it HIT me… and so I created:

THE MUSICIAN’S SOCIAL MEDIA FOOD PYRAMID!
Remember that chart they brought out when we were in 2nd grade to show us how to eat well-rounded meals? I have re-tooled it for you so you can now participate on Social Media healthily! And you won’t even have to think about it – just follow along…

You wouldn’t eat only bagels all of the time. They are a treat once in awhile, but they are not healthy to eat every day – and a diet of only bagels would be boring!

Most artists are only serving their audiences bagels all of the time. Plain bagels. Over an over again.

Uninteresting.

We want a burger, or a giant green healthy salad, we want some candy, give us protein!

But you keep serving bagels, bagels, bagels!

These are five things that when used in concert with one another can help you ratchet up your social media effectively and manage it easily.

To read the rest of Ariel Hyatt's awesome post, click here: The Musician's Social Media Food Pyramid

For those of you who don't feel like clicking, here's the gist:

1. Network
It isn't all about blogging, it's about making a personal connection.
Frequency: 3 or 4 out of 10 posts.
- Facebook: Leave a comment (or comments!) and become involved.
- Twitter: Chat up your network! Send messages to people & use their twitternames.
- Blogs: Read other blogs and LEAVE COMMENTS!
- YouTube: Find videos you like, subscribe to the channel and make your own video comments.

2. Promote others
Treat others as you would like them to treat you.
Frequency: 3 out of every 10 posts
- Share profiles, photos and links to interesting articles on your Facebook page and your blog.
- Tweet others as you would have them tweet you (sorry, couldn't resist!) Participate in #FF (Follow Friday) and retweet others tweets. Review books or albums and talk about what effect they've had on you and your work.

3. Curate Content
Frequency: 2 or 3 out of every 10 posts
- RSS feeds: This is my favorite! Every day I prowl through my RSS feeds using Google Reader and select the articles I think are the most interesting and share them.
- Food: You don't have to blog about the same thing all the time. Share recipes or talk about your favorite restaurants. Are you a secret addict of any food reality shows? (me --> Diners, Drive-ins and Dives)
- Media: write a review, whether of a book, a movie or some music.
- Talk about something your audience is interested in. Parenting, sports, technology (the iPad!)

4. Pictures!
Take photos and share them.
Frequency: 2 out of every 10 posts
- Twitter: Use twitpic and yfrog.
- YouTube: Dive in! Instead of posting video replies (see above) post your own video. If you're shy, you can post videos others have made.
- Blog: It makes your blog more visually interesting if you add a photo or two and the best photo is one taken by you that has some personal connection to you. It doesn't have to be OF you -- although it can. People are naturally curious about others. What does the view out your window look like? What does your writing desk look like? Your readers want to know!

5. Promote yourself!
Frequency: 1 out of every 10 posts
Do you have a book coming out? A short story? An album? Tell people about it!

That's it! Oh, but before I end this post, two very important things.
1. Most important blogging tip ever: Whenever you post on your blog or on Facebook, tweet a link to your post!
2. My thanks to the marvelously talented Deborah (www.thelandofdeborah.com) who sent me the link to Ariel's article. Her voice is completely amazing, check out her YouTube channel and her Facebook page. You can also find her on iTunes.

I hope you found something that will help inspire your blog posts. Cheers!

Your YouTube Video: Turn it into a video game!

I was watching a John Green Truth or Fail video yesterday, for the first time, and was amazed when I found I could interact with the video! "What strange new world is this," I thought. (Really! I sometimes think in Shakespeare quotes, it's strange, I know.)

If you have no idea what I'm rambling on about, play this video:



The wizardry behind this technological innovation are YouTube Annotations. What is a YouTube annotation, you ask. Good question! Let's let the talented folks over at YouTube explain it:

Video Annotations is a new way for you to add interactive commentary to your videos! Use it to:

- Add background information about the video
- Create stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to choose the next scene)
- Link to related YouTube videos, channels, or search results from within a video
- All of the above!

You control what the annotations say, where they appear on the video, and when they appear and disappear.
- Read More

You might be thinking: Okay, that's fine, but how do I DO all this cool stuff? How do I transform my crusty, boring, video into an interactive masterpiece? I'm glad you asked! If you click here, the Folks at YouTube will show you how to create or edit your annotations. And, I ask, what could be more fun than that? Can't you see yourself Saturday night, alone, at home, furiously editing annotation after annotation? Oh, wait, that's me. :p

Hope you have fun with your annotations!

Related Articles:
- Why YouTube Annotations Can Make the Difference Between Viral and Lame
- Penny C. Sansevieri: Six Simple Ways to Promote Your YouTube Channel!

Xtranormal: How to Write a Romance Novel

I discovered these videos a few months ago, so they're not new, but they are too good not to blog about. These videos are for anyone who has ever either a) wanted to write a romance novel or b) wants to know the basic structure of every romance novel ever written (or, okay, maybe just 99.98 percent of them ;).

Enjoy!

So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 1-3


So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 4 - 10


So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 11 - 15


So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 16 - 20