How to have a Weekend of Creativity

Though we all know the benefits of keeping creative, sometimes life is so busy that our artistic veins go untapped. I suggest a weekend away for your creative side where you can indulge in the feeling of being inspired and making something. This is a practical guide to creating your own weekend of creativity for any medium or skill level.  

Beforehand

Objectives. At some point before your creative weekend, set some goals for the weekend ahead. What is it that you want to create? Is there a project you’ve been putting on the back burner? A creative weekend is a perfect time to dedicate to something short term – a short story rather than a novel. for example. It’s also a great time to try out something new, switch mediums or experiment with different approaches. On a practical level, decide if you need any materials and make sure your diary is clear.

Saturday

Gathering. This is the time to go and get inspired. You might want to do something different like visit an art gallery, or museum you’ve never been to, or you can keep it simple and scour Pinterest for inspiration. If you’ve decided to bake something as your creative project, maybe you could visit a food market or food shop looking for flavour ideas and ingredients. If you are planning to write a poem you could attend a poetry reading. Or you might simply just go out and walk and let your mind roam freely. (If you are stuck for ideas read this post on finding inspiration.)

Reviewing. Having gathered together your pieces of inspiration, review what you’ve collated. This might be physically going through postcards, photographs, books and articles you’ve collected on your inspiration trip, but it could also be reflecting and making notes of a few ideas on what you’ve seen that day. Use these fragments as visual reminders of what you are hoping to produce.

Planning. Having spent the first day immersing yourself in your inspiration, take a moment to plan what you would like to do tomorrow. If it helps give yourself a timetable to work with.

Sunday

Dipping a toe. Start small as you begin your Sunday. Sketch out a few plans and ideas.

Creating. Now is the time to start. Allow yourself time to completely immerse yourself in whatever you’re making.

Deciding its future. This will depend upon the size of your project and the intentions you had for it. For example, you may have finished the first draft of a short story and will need more time to polish it. If your goal was to try out still life photography you may need time to edit. Make sure you reflect on how your weekend went, what aspects of it you enjoyed and start planning your next one.

Other Ideas

• Invite a friend to join you and check in with each other throughout the day, allowing ideas to generate between you.
• Set a theme for your creative weekend to hone your ideas.
• React to something. Choose another piece of art – a film, poem etc.- and create a piece of work that responds to it in some way.
• Immerse yourself in different surroundings. Holding your creative weekend somewhere physically different may bring up newer, fresher ideas.
  

Do you like the idea of a creative weekend? Let me know in the comment section below!