The Best Way to Improve Your Creativity

About a year ago, a coworker posted online about how to find “community” in our city. The posting was a complaint about our city and a cry for help. This was at the tail end of the pandemic lock down and he hadn’t found his footing after starting this new job and moving to Lansing.

I felt his pain. My early years after college were unmoored as my jobs bounced me around. I rented apartments here and there but never felt to be a part of anything.

My first reaction, though, was dismay, as I’ve grown to love our medium-sized, D-level city. It has a little bit of everything and is pretty chill and welcoming in most corners and blind alleys you might find yourself.

This past week was a case study for me in why I like Lansing.

I bought a ukulele (‘an ukulele’ if you pronounce ukulele as if it were spelled ookulele) from Elderly Instruments, which happens to be one of the best music stores in the country for guitars, ukuleles, banjos and mandolins. All the staff have mad picking skills, based on my experience of hearing them jam behind the counter every time I visit. They have a massive selection, offer lessons, and welcome all levels with equal glee.

While working at my office downtown, I walked to one of the bookstores where I chatted with the staff about books and got a solid recommendation.

After work, I visited the grand opening of a woodworking studio where I hope to take classes and build a candleholder or something. While there, I bumped into my son’s former soccer coach who co-founded a film festival here (Capitol City Film Festival) which reminded me I need to sign up to volunteer, and block out time to watch some films there.

This weekend I was invited to a dinner party at a brew-pub where an amazing band was playing covers of cool tunes while we imbibed on various beers, ciders and wine.

It’s taken my wife and me decades to get to this level of enjoyment of our city, hindered at first by raising our kids which, inevitably, burns up a lot of time with school, activities, and doing family stuff.

The point of all these local events is that I was something of an authority to respond to my coworker’s post. But this is a newsletter about creativity, so bear with me.

You may have noticed a lot of those activities are creativity-related. Music, books, woodworking and film. They’re all firsthand, human-centric stuff, and they’re fun.

Creativity is how we get music, books, films, and woodworking. You can toss in brewing and cooking, which are often overlooked if you don’t go to a brew pub where you see the apparatus and get to meet the brew master.

If I wasn’t a writer, I’d be a brew master, as that was one of my interests forty years ago. Writing novels and humor has won my heart and all of my attention, though.

You might not be in a place where you can bounce between books, music, film, and woodworking as I did this week. (Hell, this was a busy week for me and I don’t think I could survive doing that much over and over again.) But you can probably find one of those things to try.

Local bookstores are where you’ll find book clubs and workshops on writing, so take some time to find one and visit.

Check out your local music shops. Even if you don’t want to play, they’ll have a bulletin board with posters for bands playing at bars. Try a couple on for size.

But what if you can’t even make time for that?

Look around online. I also took a three-hour class on Saturday about alternative narratives in fiction from one of several groups I follow who offer classes. In fact, if you’re curious about writing, here are those groups and I’ll list them as best I can in the order of beginner to expert offerings:

Pandemic University

WritingWorkshops

Writing Co-Lab

Creative Writing Now

If you don’t think you have the time for online classes, you can probably get a book and take it at you’re own pace. If so, the best recommendation for this is:

What It Is, by Lynda Barry

I mentioned that book in one of my daily creative essays last week, and it’s about cartooning but also storytelling, combining drawing with writing.

I responded to my coworker’s post with something like this:

Join some stuff that interests you and you’ll find like-minded people. Try the Capitol City Film Festival, or the Might Uke Day ukulele festival, or the Lansing Art Gallery. Also, go visit the local bookstores [I listed my favorites] and talk to the owners. See if they have book clubs that interest you. Drag a coworker to [various bars I mentioned] and listen to bands, or maybe to one of the several coffee shops and see what’s posted on the bulletin boards.

The basic message was that by making yourself available while pursuing what you care about, and possibly share your vulnerabilities, you’ll make some honest connections.

To find community, you have to look a little bit. It won’t come for you.

That’s how it is with our creativity. We have to get out there a bit, chasing what we like, asking for help, and trying our best. We learn a lot along the way.

That’s how we grow as artists and humans. Also, it’s fun.

Thanks for reading. All the best,

Mickey from Renewable Creativity

P.S. That coworker, one year later, is now more involved in the Lansing community than I am. I've bumped into him at an exhibit reception at the Lansing Art Gallery and seen numerous posts online in which he's at local bars for bands, and also events at the bookstores. I'm not saying he took my advice, but I'm saying he's busy with music, books, and art.