Many of us want to improve our creative skills. There's tons of advice out there to help us - a never-ending avalanche of books, magazine, websites and TV programmes. This book, in the '52 Brilliant Little Ideas' series, cuts straight to the heart of the issue. The authors provide practical and inspiring advice.
While we can’t always legislate against unplanned interruptions, we can do more to capture those fleeting thoughts, insights and ideas before they evaporate. What, for instance, do you keep by the side of your bed? It’s a well-observed phenomenon that the resting mind regularly throws up solutions to problems or questions that have been exercising us during the day. And have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a moment of inspiration, turned over and gone back to sleep, only to find that the thought or idea has irretrievably disappeared when you wake in the morning? OK, so keeping a notebook and pencil by your bedside is not exactly rocket science, but very few of us do it. The gap between common sense and common practice is as wide as ever.
And what about when you’re out? Bruce Chatwin, the travel writer, was renowned for regularly buying stocks of Moleskine notebooks from a Parisian stationery shop so that he could take a supply with him everywhere he went. Van Gogh and Matisse used Moleskines for making sketches.