Creative portfolios are something with which I’ve struggled most of my young/adult life (?) So in these 101 series that I’m creating in this blog, I want to write about things I wish I’d known back in the day when I started in the creative business environment. Today we are checking off the list of Portfolio building for creatives.

As this post is going to be long I’ll leave the sections here:

1. What’s a portfolio?
2. Types of Portfolio
3. What you should include
4. Analog and digital portfolios
5. Final Tips & Thoughts.

What’s a portfolio?

A portfolio is basically a collection of your work in an area or different areas. They sometimes have a topic or maybe they could include just work throughout the years. Depending on the type of portfolio you are building, you will need different kinds of work.

Types of portfolios

According to your needs, your definition of a portfolio might change.

The Job Portfolio: In college, I was taught to create portfolios that would aim to get me a job in a Photography market: I worked in Fashion as a photographer and stylist for many years so my portfolio at the time had more fashion-oriented material.

On the side, I started building a Graphic design portfolio with some simple logos and minimalist pieces to show clients.

As an Illustrator, my portfolio revolves around personal workpieces and “niche” pieces (I’m interested in opportunities in Editorial Illustration so I opt to display the pieces I believe are more appealing to that branch).

The job portfolio is the one that displays your abilities and skills you master plus the touch of personality and character you can add to the design/photography/illustration/video/etc.

The Academic Portfolio: I recently had a portfolio review at the Folkwang Universität der Kunste. Nobody actually told me that I needed to show my portfolio in order to enter a university here, so I went literally crazy. I collected some of my old photography portfolio pieces to start the tour and show a bit of the style I developed as a photographer and designer. From there, decided to link it to my actual illustration work, however, they didn’t like the digital pieces or anything client-oriented as much as they admired my sketchbooks: I took 2 sketchbooks with me that captivated them, as they showed the most “real and pure” side of my art.

The academic portfolio is basically the one you show in order to enter an art-oriented career. Depending on the institution, they could ask for a themed portfolio (develop one concept) or just show some pieces of work you’ve done.

What should you include in your portfolio?

Be sure that your portfolio is a reflection of your skills and personality as an artist. This is a valid one for both portfolios.

The Job Portfolio: There’s not a golden number of pieces you should display, the whole idea is to show the minimum pieces, however, the ones you feel display the best quality of work. Always ask someone to give you a hand identifying these pieces, preferably someone who has a bit of field knowledge! If you want, my email is open to help you out!

The Academic Portfolio: This one is pretty relative and depends on the requirements the university sets. I’ve never experimented with a themed portfolio so I can’t really help there. On the other hand, if you are told to bring some samples of your work it could work to do what I did: give a glimpse of your background and focus on your recent pieces. Try not to overwhelm others with the number of work you display and make it diverse displaying different techniques, different types of work and imagery. Less content, more quality is always the key.

Analog and digital portfolios

Digital portfolios are really popular so I’d really advise having at least one place on the Internet where you display your work and is accessible to anyone at all times. If you can afford it, a website is indeed a great tool to show a prospective employer (I use WordPress. org and a cheap hosting service). If you’re looking for a free option, I’d recommend Behance, Dribble, and even Flickr or creating your own Tumblr blog. These are services that not only offer to display your work but also is easier for someone can stumble upon it on the site. In case something could go wrong, I’d tell you to have a backup plan and always bring a USB stick with a copy of the work you display on the site.

Analogue portfolios are slowly feeling outdated however you could opt for a copy of your digital pieces printed in case something goes wrong. If you work with analogue tools (e.g. pen, paper) I’d make sure to find a nice folder and keep them in order there.

Final Tips & Thoughts

-Keep your portfolio always up to date.

-Be sure to regularly check your files on platforms and your website

-Marikondo your portfolio: always before including a piece ask yourself “Does this spark joy?” and you know what to do.

-In Job portfolios, include pieces that reflect the work you want to do, so clients know they can ask more of what you love doing.

-In Academic Portfolios, be open at the time of the review. Remember those people are there to help you strengthen your portfolio by telling you what’s working and what’s not.

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on June 3, 2020.

We are certainly blessed (?) for living in an era in which communicating has never been easier, being our phones the tool that not only keeps us in touch with people but also offers us the possibility of doing pretty much everything: we buy things with our phones, we find our “prospective partners” in a matter of a swipe, we know what happens in the world minute by minute… let’s say they just keep us entertained.

We are so used to having our phones with us that many of us no longer remember how life was before having them around.

I had my first phone at the age of twelve when the latest technology was a color screen and if you wanted a cool ringtone, you had to pay for it. The whole idea of me getting a cellphone was a need for my mum to communicate with me in case I could get lost on my way to my new school (or at least that was what I was told), however the main use I would give it would be playing games and text my friends asking how they were.

I got my first smartphone at the age of 19 and it became part of my hand. I could reach anyone within the planet with an internet connection, I could take pictures and share them instantly with the world, I could search for places on my maps app, I could download apps for god’s sake! I no longer had a phone, I had a whole world in my hands.

I’m 26 now and I’ve been in a troubled relationship with my phone(s) for a long time: the constant belief of practical necessity is always there(“I need it with me in case anything happens”, “I need it because I work with it”, “social media is an essential part of my work now”). However, I got tired and ran out of excuses decided to give myself a break.

These are the things that happened this past week when I decided to delete most of the apps from my phone and only use it as an mp3 player for Spotify or to listen to my daily meditation.

–I realized how uncomfortable it is to be around people who are just looking at their phones all the time. Literally! Just any moment of silence is a good excuse to pick up their phones and scroll.

-I enjoyed my time better IRL knowing that I didn’t have to share anything, talk to anyone through texts, or take an aesthetically pleasing photo to post. It’s not that I don’t enjoy doing that, it’s that the more you do it, the more it loses the magic and fun.

–It’s easier to focus on one thing. These past few days have been really productive work-wise and I have to believe that it is because I don’t have as many distractions as I do when there’s a whole world at reach of my hand; I just have a laptop in front of me and whatever is there, stays there until I open it up again.

-My creativity is on fire. I haven’t been exposed to the work from other colleagues or people I follow online in the form of “feed”. If I need inspiration, I search for it in a book, I go for a walk or simply don’t search for it at all. It’s weird how these things work, but last night I woke up so full of ideas I needed to actually write them down before I could go back to sleep. Could it be that I’m not consuming as much content as I used to, therefore I have a lot of time and space in my head for the ideas to develop themselves?

–I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t really care. It’s simply not essential. Most of the time I think that I have to be active in certain apps in order for people to remember that I exist when there are times I’m there without actually wanting to be there. Truth be told, I haven’t missed not knowing about people’s lives and I think there are times people are better off by not getting distracted from their lives with meaningless food stories I could share. The less I know, the better.

To conclude with this little yet meaningful post (inspired by my recent read “Notes on a Nervous Planet” by Matt Haig) I want to tell you that it’s not only productive but also fun to take digital breaks and come back with a different perspective of how we use our tools. I could find the mental space to start working on projects I had on stand by for ages, reduced my levels of anxiety (not 100% but notably), created longer and more slow content for platforms like my website and youtube channel, and even did nothing! Do you know how hard that doing nothing is nowadays?

___

Wan Raitelli is a UX/UI Designer, Freelance illustrator and Visual Designer who dictates creativity workshops and creates visual content for selected clients. Subscribe to her monthly online letters, check out her work on her website and follow her in social media @wanraitelli

How to go freelance? This might be the most requested post you guys been asking for and I really understand why everyone is so curious about freelancing: it is indeed so mysterious (and attractive, for many) the idea that you’re working for clients, for companies or you are earning a living by working “for yourself”, in pyjamas, from home, having contracts but making your own schedules…

Nobody really knows how it works, given the fact that there’s no only one path to get there, however, I thought it’d do no harm to share my story, some steps to start getting jobs and demystify the idea that you need to be #blessed to go freelance.

This is going to be a long one, so I decided to divide this post into sections:

1. A short recap on my freelance story
2. How to start
3. Getting Jobs
4. Money, taxes, and paperwork
5. Work-Life Balance
6. Final Thoughts

A short recap: my freelance story

I graduated from secondary school thinking that I knew what would come afterwards: 4 years in university, graduating, getting a job at a company and having a car and a boyfriend (okay the boyfriend was optional, the car not). But as many of us know, the path is not always how we expect it to be: I quit university and everything fell apart, leaving me knowing that the only thing I wanted to do was taking photos.

So 2012, I quit university and went on vacation to Brazil and started taking more photos, thinking that maybe I could do this for a living. Every time I pressed the shutter I thought about how wonderful it’d be to become a photographer. So I went back to Buenos Aires and did what I thought I should do in order to become a better photographer, a professional one: studying.

Meanwhile, in college, I already wanted to start working in my field so began by telling everyone that I was a photographer. And that got me to know people that actually needed photographers for their business: small shops who needed photos of their products, party organizers who needed pictures of their events and eventually landed my first part-time gig working as a stylist and personal assistant of an NYC fashion photographer who was based in Buenos Aires.

I thought all of these jobs were simply temporary, yet they kept coming. My mind kept hanging on the idea that a “real job” would come later, with an office, health insurance and a paycheck every month. I had never heard of the term “freelancer” (and didn’t til late 2016s) but I was being hired by people who needed my skills and liked the way I worked, having as a result (with 19 years old) a few gigs on me and some money to spare.

That’s only the beginning, as I’ve carried on working part and full time as a freelancer (be it photographer, translator, illustrator…) since then but I’ll go into more detail in a future post!

How to start freelancing

This is a set of steps that might be really useful in order to start putting together your resources and make a checklist of what you need. I’m writing what I wished somebody would have told me when I started.

• Define the set of skills you want to offer. Which set of skills do you want to commercialize? Are you a photographer? Do you have a talent for writing and want to start writing pieces for magazines? Maybe you’re already working as a designer and want to leave your office job to start freelancing? Make a list of the things you can offer expertise on and pick a few in order to start
• Create a portfolio. Or a brand, but to be honest a portfolio is already enough to let people see what you do and how you display your work. If you’re already starting, there are plenty of platforms online where you can show your work for free (Behance, Dribble, Vimeo, Instagram, blogs, you name it) or if you have an extra dollar you can create your own website and have your own domain. I think it’s worth it, however not crucial.
• Write your own Terms & Conditions document. This is crucial, at least for me. In the beginning, you probably won’t have much on it, but think of basic pieces of information you can provide to someone who doesn’t know you and wants to work with you: briefly describe who you are, what you do and explain what implies working with you. Can’t tell you how many headaches I’ve avoided by having a document saying basically how to work with me.
  THIS is an old terms and conditions document I used to send my clients. Download it for free and hopefully, I’ll be providing some inspiration for you to create your own. I think I shouldn’t clarify this, but don’t use it as your own, change it or sell it online for 1000 dollars. It’s only for academic purposes 🙂
• Put yourself out there! Tell everyone you know that you’re freelancing and ask if anyone needs the service you offer! Post it on your social media, send emails to friends and old co-workers. Make a banner and put it outside your house lol, just kidding, but do what you think it’s better to put yourself out there.

Getting jobs as a freelancer

Okay as the millennial I am, I should tell you that most of the jobs & gigs I got in the past few years were through the internet, although a few made their way face-to-face. So let’s dive into the ways you can get jobs on and offline.

• Have a neat online presence. Be online as that’s one of the easiest ways for people to stumble upon your work. Use the platforms you think go best with your work: I have this website, however, anyone can find me on LinkedIn, Behance, Dribble and Medium for professional work. I ditched Twitter because I didn’t like it. My Instagram and Youtube are platforms where I display not only my work but I mix it with personal life aspects, which I think works great to create an audience.
  If you use your social media accounts for your personal life, you might consider creating a new account only for displaying your work if you find it necessary.
• Use platforms to get jobs. One of the first gigs I found online was on Craigslist. I later introduced myself to Upwork, a platform where I got jobs that actually paid better than an 8–5 office job. I know that there are other platforms like Fiverr, Freelancer.com and Workana however, I haven’t tried them! The key on these platforms is creating a good profile and being actively looking for jobs.
• Knock on doors. Reaching out to people whom you’d like to work with is actually the most underestimated idea but it works! Write an email to that magazine and tell them who you are and that you’d like to work with them. Go to your local craft shop and tell you are an illustrator and you’d like to sell your products there. You have a 50% chance to get a no and a 50% chance to get a yes. What do you bet on?
• Literally, go out there. Networking face to face is fun and reminds you that you’ll not only have to deal with work but also with people. Make connections and build relationships with people, even though you don’t expect to work with them because later on you can ask questions or be recommended by someone. It’s a great exercise to know how to introduce yourself as a professional and how to present your work to others. Many of these networking events can be found online, on websites like Meetup or Eventbrite and are usually free. There are many organized by Creative Mornings which can be found in many cities of the world (hint: I got one job out of one of these meetings and even got featured on their blog) and I’ve also found the “Ladies Wine and Design” events interesting.

Money, Taxes & Paperwork

I’ll go quickly through this one because it’s important yet really boring.

• Put a price tag on your work. You’re offering a service and your service costs money. Not only for the work you will be doing but also for all those years of studying, practising and working hard. Should you work for free? Although there might be exceptions the answer is usually no. Check out this website if you have doubts. Bear in mind the prices of your market, see if what works best for you is charging per hour or per project. There are a million factors that you need to have present, however, estimate how long you will be working on the project and what your current expenses are and…
• Ask for the client’s budget. This is a time-saving option. If someone approaches and asks you how much you charge for your X service, reply by asking what their available budget is and then you can start working things from there. I can’t tell you how many times I wasted time working on estimates that were rejected (or sometimes even not answered at all) until I realize I should have asked for their budget first.
• Invoicing and payments. According to the country you’re working on (or working for) the types of invoices and payment methods will vary, so I’d keep an eye on what are the regulations in your own country and then move on to design your invoice. Here’s a great guide to learn how to invoice and here’s the software I started using when I got sick of designing my own invoices in Photoshop.
• Keep track of your income and expenses. Basic spreadsheet, incomes, and expenses. Voilá! Trust me, this is relevant to know how much you’re making in a month and to keep track of the fixed expenses you need to cover.
• Save for the bread. Until you have a solid amount of clients and a more or less stable income, save money for the bread when there are no jobs in sight.
• Delegate when possible. As I’ve mentioned before, taxes, invoices and most of the money related stuff is important although it’s not an exciting part of the job, that’s why there are people who have studied years and years to do so. If you have the chance, leave all these tasks to professionals to focus on your work. Worth every penny for the mental clarity you’ll get.

Work-Life Balance

This is not a new one, but being a freelancer will probably mean you’ll spend more time indoors working and not everyone can manage their time that well when they don’t have a physical boss behind them.

• Set routines. There’s nothing I can say here that I haven’t mentioned in my How to work from home guide
• Coworking Spaces. If you feel you still need to go to an office, maybe coworking spaces are a good option for you: they’re like huge cool places where people who usually work from home go to. They offer coffee, a much-needed wi-fi connection and other facilities for different prices a month; they’re also great if you want to meet other people who are working like you.
• Rest time. If you’re living and working from the same space, you’ll feel like it’s hard to disconnect from your “working brain”, therefore I advise you to create your own set of rituals to let your mind know you’re not “on duty” anymore. Also, make time to have hobbies and pursue other things that are not work-related. Rest, please rest.

A final note on freelancing

I think I’ve shared with you most of the things I’ve learned on my journey of being a freelancer. I hope you find value in my words; this is the post I’d have liked to read as I was starting out.

If you’ve enjoyed this post and found it useful, please share it with someone you think might like to read it to!

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on April 22, 2020.

All you need to know to efficiently work from home

You’re taking the leap going freelance or going through a period where you have to #stayhome because a certain virus has everyone in quarantine and you can’t go to the office. No matter what situation you find yourself in, this guide will provide you with some knowledge from your homie: Hi! I’m Wan and I’ve been working from home for the past 4 years as a freelance… well, photographer, translator, illustrator, graphic designer, web designer, writer… and most of the work done from the commodities that my home offered.

If this is your first time working from home or doing home-office, the first thing I want to tell you is to be patient with yourself! It’s amazing to have the chance to work from your place yet it takes a long time to get used to it and find the routine that works for you.

I’ll share a few tips that have helped me stay organized during the years.

• Morning routine. I can’t stress enough how important it is to do something before you start working; the fact you’re at home and don’t need to commute to work doesn’t mean you have to jump from bed and straight to work. Wake up at the same hour every day, get some breakfast, stretch, take a shower, get dressed and know after you’ve done those basics you’re ready to start.
• The office corner: Pick a corner of your house and call it your office. I know how tempting it is to bring your laptop to your bed, but trust me, better have designated spaces for each activity and bed is for sleeping. Try to keep away any work from your bedroom, so your mind can automatically associate your bedroom with relaxation. I, for example, recently moved my workspace from the bedroom to the kitchen table, and find it to be more productive because my mind associates the same spot in the kitchen with working. If you don’t happen to have the physical space (whether you live in a shared place or a single room apartment) I encourage you to be a little creative and try to find a way to create the feeling you have “a new space”: maybe it’s work time when you light a candle and sit on your desk or you know it’s work time when you lay a tablecloth on the kitchen’s table. These might be little details however, super useful cues for the mind to know when it’s time to focus on work.
• Pants on! It’s work, so you better take a shower and change those PJs for comfortable clothes. You don’t really have to wear a suit or anything like that (although if you will, be my guest), the whole idea of this step is to (again) trick the mind to know that even if you’re home you are still taking your work seriously. Wear some jeans, a tee, maybe put on some makeup if you feel like it and get ready to go to your office corner.
• To-dolisting like a boss. See what I’ve done there? I turned “to-do list” into a verb haha. Having so much time on our hands, it’s easy to get tricked by thinking we can do it all when in reality we still have the same amount of time as when we are in a normal office. What has been working for me lately is to make a to-do list for the week and break it down to a maximum of 3 or 4 tasks per day. In this way, you can dedicate the needed amount of time to each task, have a much more high-quality result and be able to cross something out from your to-do list, which gives you this feeling of accomplishment and reward. Remember the goal here is not to get everything ready in a day so you can take the rest of the days off, it’s to organize the time wisely in order to have a reasonable work-life balance.
• Airplane mode on. Distractions could make your really productive routine, your beautiful working space and your to-dolisting skills be completely useless. I try to avoid having my phone in the same room (or at least at hand reach) when starting my day; it’s easy to start scrolling and getting lost in the illusion of productivity by refreshing your inbox. In fact, I deleted all the apps that could have anything related to the work I do; in that way, I can associate working with using my laptop only and avoid having to reach out for my phone and get distracted. If you’re working on your laptop only and your main distraction are some websites, I’d recommend getting a time blocker extension for your browser! And if you keep reaching out for your phone, I use this app called Forest to block my phone while I’m working.
• Respect your working hours. If you work at the office, you start at 9 and finish at 5 which reasonably means you unplug from your work activities at 5. The fact you’re at home doesn’t mean you have to overwork. Take lunch or coffee breaks, use a timer, create routines, and ultimately get an alarm clock to ring when you have to stop. Do it for your mental health: you don’t live to work, you work to live.

Last, but not least, enjoy it. Despite how tricky it might sound, working from home is a lovely and enjoyable experience when you have found your own routines, what works and what doesn’t! Although it is getting more and more common, I still see working from home as a privilege. So enjoy it and make the most of it!

Creative Anxiety is, unfortunately, a word that can be found on the internet more than often, however, what are we talking about when we talk about anxiety?

What is anxiety? The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. Basically, we call anxiety a natural response from our bodies to stress, a feeling of fear or angst about what’s to come, an event or activity that makes you nervous, worried or uneasy. Sometimes it can occur when there are no obvious stressors.

Yet anxiety is also our own system of alarm: “when an individual faces potentially harmful or worrying triggers, feelings of anxiety are not only normal but necessary for survival”, quoting this article from Medical News Today.

Now that we know what we are talking about, let’s jump into our concerns.

Disclaimer: I’m not a mental health professional nor a person who treats anxiety. I deal with anxiety myself and all written here are fully my opinions, experiences, and research on the topic in books or online; every source is linked below. If you feel anxiety is something that compromises many aspects of your life, please talk to a professional for advice.

Are creatives overall anxious people?

We all have this romanticized idea of the tormented artist: our strongest references from art and success come from stories dated hundreds of years ago, being our major influences people like us who struggled with their emotions and found a way to express themselves and release their ache through a painting, a song, a book or any other form art you believe possible. Or how would you categorize somehow Van Gogh, Edgar Allan Poe or even Yayoi Kusama? Yes, their minds were brilliant, even though their lives were disturbing and many of them suffered not only anxiety, yet other major mental issues, which led some scientists to wonder if creativity and mental illnesses were linked.

We artists tend to work with emotions more than, perhaps, other types of creators and this is the reason why we are prone to be anxious. Anxiety is necessary on a good dose to enrich our creative process, yet too much anxiety develops a state of inaction that “protect us” from failure.

Anxiety and creativity

In my experience, anxiety is a fair part of my creative journey, given the fact that when I am creating I am as well exposing myself to millions of options, possibilities, topics, media, influences, emotions…

“I want this to be done”, “I want this to be flawless”, “I want to make this right”, “I want it to work”

It might be a little too much and being overwhelmed usually leads me to feel anxious. Many questions I ask myself before I start an illustration, I shoot a picture, I write an article or take part in a creative activity are:

-Can I do this? -Will this be good enough? -Is this going to be original? -Will it be liked? -Am I such a good artist as I think I am?

I normally get lost in a train of thought that leads most of the time to inaction (and sometimes to a life crisis, because I’m a big overthinker and can be a huge drama queen when I want to) which is normally followed by guilt and the question “Why didn’t I do anything?”

When I embark on a project, full of creative energy, curiosity, enthusiasm and hyperactivity, fear and anxiety always come along. Being for so long involved in creative activities and working on fields where creativity is a recurrent topic, you might think I’ve developed some sort of thick skin for these issues. Although it is true, all these questions might always be in the background yet, some days it’s easier to shut them and tell them to go away than others.

I think that happens to everyone.

***

I would define creative anxiety as the stress and insecurity you get at the time (or before) of taking part in an activity that requires your creative skills. Anxiety is itself a defence mechanism, like fear, and therefore it only wants to protect us from the consequences of the simple act of doing.

(for more on fear, check out my post: Creative Fears: Why are you scared to create?)

How do I cope with the moments I’m most vulnerable and let anxiety and fear take the lead?

Coping with creative anxiety

Anxiety can be a double-edged sword: it can either help you move forward or keep you stuck and paralyzed. Creativity and anxiety share a commonality: -” Keys to Creativity: Using anxiety to Create” Diana C. Pitaro, Psychcentral.com possibility. When we create, we push the boundaries of the norm of what’s acceptable, we experiment with ideas and dismantle the boxes imposed by family and society in order to reach the realm of possibility. Similarly, anxiety is the reaction some of us experience in the face of potentiality and possibility. We become anxious when we know little or nothing about something, as a way to defend ourselves in the face of the big unknown. Creativity is brought forth by embracing the unknown. This is the crucial point when you are presented with the opportunity to choose: remain “protected” by your anxiety and stay stuck, plunge into the unknown, or use anxiety as transportation to your creative place.

How to make anxiety something positive for our work as creatives? I share with you some of the things that have worked for me every time I feel anxiety appears.

-Accept it. You’re anxious, this is your situation right now. Think about what triggers these negative thoughts or emotions and talk them out or write them down. Journaling is one of my favourite techniques to unwind and take some distance to see things with a little more perspective.

-Recognize the cues. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about cues that trigger habits: has anxiety become a regular visitor? Take a look at when, where and what triggers your anxiety. Maybe you spend too much time on social media comparing your art to others, maybe you tell yourself it’s too difficult and you can do it, perhaps it’s a conversation you had with a certain person that put you off from creating. Recognize the triggers and make a plan to stop them from happening again.

What do you do when you feel anxious at the time of creating? Do you have any tips for us?

-Give yourself some credit. You’re not only a wonderful human being but also a really creative person; it’s only this time, it’s only this moment. You’ve achieved so much and have so much potential. Give yourself some credit for everything you’ve already done and repeat with me “I can make this sh*t happen and everyone just go fly a f*cking kite”

- Create because it’s fun. Pursue projects, do things like nobody’s watching. Create because it’s fun because it’s for you and it’s what makes you happy and will make you feel better. There are no rights or wrongs in creativity or art (and who tells you so, eff him/her)* so go make art as you please, be my guest and let’s enjoy our time here.

Sources that helped me write this article:

The American Psychological Association
Medical News Today
Healthline
How to cope with anxiety?
The dark side of creativity
Creativity and schizotypy from the neuroscience perspective
The real link between creativity and mental illness
Creativity can cause anxiety
Keys to creativity: Using anxiety to create

*Someone’s feeling sassy today, lol!

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on March 11, 2020.

So far I think you might have realized that I love writing. I’ve always been the kind of person who keeps a dear diary, who journals quite a lot and who enjoys going to a coffee shop just to document the experience. It’s pretty much like reading: ever since I learned how to I could not stop.

I’ve never really thought about writing as something I would like to do for a living yet I’ve always flirted with the idea of writing a book one day ( psst: it’s cooking, good looking!). Anyways, with time I could come to the conclusion that writing is a major part of my life and an essential tool for my projects. Without writing, I’d have never been able to put together anything in my life.

Today I want to talk about this love for writing and encourage you to write more.

Why should you write?

I’ve already mentioned some benefits of writing here in my Journaling post, however, let me refresh your memory:

-Mind exercise: writing does to the mind what exercising does to the body: according to this study, we could say that writing “ can enhance the brain’s intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information… It promotes the brain’s attentive focus … boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition. “ Word friend.

-Improve your communication skills: writing is about getting your thoughts together, organizing them and communicating them in a way that makes sense. You’ll find more words to use in each sentence, describe feelings, situations or thoughts in a clearer way and improve your speech!

-Makes you happier: Writing means time to reflect, a form of meditation, time off to review what’s been going on in your life, with your body, with your thoughts, with your surroundings. Writing your story, telling it to yourself actually makes you (according to this article) shift your perspective. Find a new meaning to every situation you’ve experienced by writing! Using it as a form of expressing thoughts, emotions of craft stories will, indeed, make you happier.

Writing advice for creatives

Now let’s touch on my advice for you to start writing more.

-Create a ritual to prime you to write. Big old fan of rituals here, they set the mood and create an environment and enthusiasm for the actual writing act.

-Write something, anything, every day. Anything will work in order to get you started and build the habit; with time it’ll get easier.

-Incorporate writing into your projects. Whenever you include writing in a project you’re working on, you can have a clear, tangible idea of what you want to do.

-Get pen and paper. Writing by hand has a calming effect on your mind and body, among many, many other things. Particularly, I’ve been using this specific brand of notebooks and have been writing with this pen.

-Read more than you write, live more than you read. That’s Junot Diaz’s advice, I just borrowed it for this post.

Closing this post with a quote of one of my favourite writers to encourage you to start:

[…] That thing you had to force yourself to do- the actual act of writing- turns out to be the best part. […] The act of writing turns out to be its own reward. Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on March 4, 2020.

Inspiration: a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation.

You have the drive, the motivation, the enthusiasm yet you don’t know what to draw, what to write, what creative task you can perform because all of a sudden you are faced with a lack of inspiration.

Let me tell you, I personally think inspiration is overrated. There are some words constantly being used within creative environments and that gave them a status they don’t really deserve, making them seem like a luxury item. Inspiration: you either have it or you don’t.

For years people have believed that inspiration was a divine thing that could only be received by those with a certain gift to make something with it. Yet today, 2020 let me tell you that inspiration is not something that strikes directly to those creatives, inspiration is everywhere and let me tell you a bit about how to make it knock on your door.

Inspiration comes and goes

In her book “Big Magic”, Elizabeth Gilbert doesn’t talk much about inspiration as we’ve previously defined it but more as ideas. She believes that out in the world there are millions of ideas floating around us, waiting to pick people who’d like to work with them. If we take this approach, inspiration or ideas are nothing we can catch or control, they rely on their free will to pick people.

As much I agree with Mrs Gilbert, I am sure that she doesn’t sit all day waiting for ideas to ask her to work with her (although I bet she might have a few ideas cueing to do it), yet she keeps working on things as long as a new idea comes. That’s when we start with the practical side of this article.

So how do I find inspiration?

Being lazy and not working on things is not the best practice to let an idea know you’re available. I’m pretty sure if I were an idea, I would pick people who’re constantly polishing their skills and using their time to become better at their craft. Two top tips to make an idea notice you would be:

1. Show up: you’ve heard it many, many times yet is true. If you’re a writer, set aside time to write every day. If you’re a painter or a musician, set aside time of your day to practice. You can read more about creative time management in this article I wrote.

2. Start from what you have: I know, I know, you have no idea what to do when you show up, then I suggest starting from where you are: write about what’s in front of you, draw what’s on your desk, paint something you’ve already sketched. Play a song you already know on an instrument, making some changes to it. Starting from something that has been already done it’s a great way to prime yourself for inspiration.

From there, it will just get easier. Believe me, “the showing up” is the worst part but once you find your own tools to start and the determination to create a routine and pursue a project, all you can expect is ideas to knock on your door.

Last but not least, I want to close this article with one of my favourite quotes from a book I read ages ago, called Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris.

Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. Chuck Close.

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on February 26, 2020.

As far as I know, this is one of the most common problems we creatives face every once in a while. I’ve read a lot about this topic and came to the conclusion that we are not really blocked by the lack of ideas but we feel blocked by the number of ideas we actually have, therefore we can’t decide where to start.

Why does this happen? If we actually have the ideas, the time, the tools… why can’t we just start? In my post about fears, we discussed what could be holding you back from embarking on your creative project.

All in all, I’d say I have some tips that personally work wonders for me when I’m feeling creatively blocked.

1. Get some rest. I always preach about how important rests are for nurturing our body and mind, and in consequence our creativity. Take some time off and take a nap, sleep a few more hours or just do nothing (meditating is also a good one to keep into count). I’m usually more prone to start or keep going with a project when I had some good rest the day before.

2. Read. Reading itself it’s a creative activity that stimulates the brain and puts your imagination to work! So when you’re feeling blocked, you could approach your creativity from a different angle by reading a book.

3. Go for a walk. This is the tool I use the most: I think going for a walk is the solution for most of my problems. Leave yourself breathe some fresh air, go to a café or a park; try to see things you still haven’t seen in your hometown or around your block. The whole idea is to change your environment and once you’re back, you’ll probably feel lighter and with more ideas.

4. Journal. I’ve already talked about journaling and the benefits of doing it regularly, (even made a video about it). However, this time I propose you to take journaling as a tool to write down all the thoughts that are stopping you from keep going, how you’re feeling, your frustration, your fears… Let it all out and you’ll feel cleaner and with a clearer perspective (plus, you might get some ideas to start creating)

5. Don’t force it. If all the rest is not working, or just not for you, don’t force it. I know today’s your day off and the only opportunity of the week to keep writing that book, painting that picture or keep on going with that collage you started last week, yet you don’t know what else to add. The best thing you can do is let it go for today, accept that maybe you need to rest in order to let your creativity flow and give it a try tomorrow.

Another idea I’ve borrowed from Austin Kleon and Christoph Niemann is playing with blocks! Recently got myself a set of Legos and every now and then I sit down on the floor and start playing around for no reason. Sometimes even my boyfriend joins me! It really works as a therapeutic and relaxing activity, yet I come out refreshed and with some ideas in mind.

Further readings:

-I found this article on Good Therapy to be really interesting if you want to go deeper on the psychological causes of Creative Block and this one from 99U about the different types of Creative Block and what to do about them.

Do you have any recommendations for the Creatively blocked people? Let us know in the comments below!

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on February 19, 2020.

You were in the shower, or maybe doing the dishes; perhaps daydreaming at the office or taking a walk back home from the café and without permission, an idea came up out of nowhere. “Oh my God! Yes! This is it! I have to do this!”

As a result, you run upstairs to your apartment, throw everything on the floor and look for a pen to write down and doodle everything you can about the idea you just had: you squeeze the hell out of it and just when you have everything you need to translate it from your mind to the material world… you start doubting. Is it good enough? No, this is not me, this is something absolutely unrelated to who I am or what I do. No, I can’t do this. I’m not creative, I’m not qualified.

That is the moment you know fear kicked in.

The role that fear plays in our creative lives

We call fear an unpleasant emotion or thought that appears to prevent us from doing something dangerous, embarrassing or painful. However, is it always positive that fear stops us from something it thinks it’s dangerous for us? Don’t misunderstand me, I’m pretty sure Mr. & Mrs Fear have good intentions, but they don’t really know in which situations they should act and in which they should just hold themselves back. The Fears are not particularly the smartest family in the room.

The question comes when fears show up to our Creative Party: how are we supposed to receive them? In her book “Big Magic”, Elizabeth Gilbert makes a bold statement when saying that fear and creativity are basically conjoined twins- as evidenced by the fact that creativity cannot take a single step forward without fear marching alongside it.

That is to say if fear is intrinsically connected to our creativity, why does it always seem like it is constantly sabotaging it?!

For instance, in the example I gave you in the first paragraphs, fear is the antagonist of the story: it suffocates us with doubt until we decide to stop, yet does fear always paralyze us? I’ll get to it in the next paragraphs.

Identifying our Fears

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” Seneca

Around 2014, I read a book called “The 4-hour-workweek” where the author (Tim Ferriss) proposed a practical exercise to identify our fears by taking them out of our box and putting them under a microscope. The exercise consists of getting to know your fears, prevent the situation you fear from happening, have an actionable and tangible method in the case that a feared situation happened and what will be the benefits of an attempt or the cost of inaction.

Let me break it down for you using this book club example:

Once you’re done with the exercise, we follow up on my favourite part: the two questions.

The whole exercise gives you a clear idea of which are your fears and by looking for solutions before anything happens, you’ll get a deeper sense of control, kind of like jumping to the unknown knowing you already have a safety net. Might sound counterintuitive when it comes to creating, but the whole idea here is getting to know yourself, know what’s stopping you and call it by its name so we can move to the next step.

Here are some complementary sources to check out if you need more info about the exercise: Fear Setting Ted Talk, this worksheet on Coda, “The 4-hour-work-week” book

You’re not alone: discussing your fears

When the idea of writing about fears popped up in my head, I thought that I needed something more than just my ideas and my research papers, therefore I asked my Instagram community to tell me some of their fears in order to have a wider perspective and cover some topics in a more specific way.

My question was: “What’s stopping you from starting your creative projects?” and I offered 4 different common reasons (or what I thought were common) to choose, plus let open my DMs for any other options anyone would like to share.

For these reasons, I can add some other popular that were mentioned:

I am a perfectionist, if it doesn’t come out good at the first attempt (and I know it won’t) why would I waste time trying?

I feel it’s never the right moment to start. I’m always searching for the things I lack as an excuse to not do it.

I’m scared of making mistakes. I feel like if I start and then don’t keep up, I’ll be a failure, so I don’t risk trying.

First of all, let me give you a round of applause if you’ve made it this far. You know your fears, you can detect what’s stopping you from taking the next step and I would love to give you a solution to that, yet I don’t have it. The only thing I can tell you right now is the truth you’ve been denying.

you will regret not doing it.

No matter what you think, you are constantly sabotaging yourself, creating excuses and saying “but” in each and every sentence. If you are here, reading me, I am assuming you are a fully functioning human being and let me remind you of your privileges: you have a healthy body, a healthy mind, you are intelligent, sensitive and you are creative. You already have more than many others and you still give yourself the luxury of hiding behind fears.

How to take action

I might not have solutions but what I do have are powerful practices and practical exercises you can choose to do in order to take care of your fears and don’t let them spoil the fun.

- Recognize you are a creative person. As I’ve mentioned before, you don’t have to paint a picture or play an instrument to be creative: the canvas to develop our creativity are our everyday life situations and the way we solve problems. We are all creative, start by giving yourself credit.

- There’s no such thing as “good ideas”. To be honest, everything has been already done or remixed, so take the pressure off your shoulders. There are no good or bad ideas, there are just ideas that have been made or not. The best thing is that nothing actually has been done by you, with the twist you can add. Don’t judge your ideas or doubt yourself, not even once.

- Done is better than perfect. Perfect moments and perfect materials are not something that exists until you create them for yourself. We’ve talked about rituals, about making time to start something, so let’s stop procrastinating. Start with what you know, with what you have, with the time you already have the rest will follow. Suck at something and be a beginner, from there the only way is up. Also, perfection is boring*. If you want to do perfect things, then I’d recommend not to follow a creative path (or any path at all); everyone who’s here just wants to have fun and tell stories!

*True story: I’ve been a perfectionist all my life, I’d even say it proudly. The bad part was when I really wanted to start something, I’d just make up excuses not to do it. Two years ago, my therapist diagnosed me as a “perfectionist” and I started a cognitive-behavioural therapy treatment. If you feel your perfectionism is bigger than your drive to pursue your projects, I’d recommend seeing a specialist.

Fears and Creative Living

“Fear is boring” says Elizabeth Gilbert “because it’s always the same thing every day”. “Fear is an integral part of the creative process “ writes Lisa Congdon in her “Find your creative voice” book.

We should stop trying to eradicate fear from our lives and accept that it will always be part of us, of our experiences, of our creative endeavors. Let’s come to terms with our fears and use them as an impulse to work harder: fear is not always a negative feeling if we embrace it as a tool.

Final Thoughts

Creativity is about going to unknown places, unlearning things you’ve learned. In a creative mind, there are no good or bad ideas, there’s no judgment that’s valid. Creative people don’t aim for perfection, perfection is boring and who doesn’t make mistakes is because they have decided to stand still and watch life go by in front of themselves. In fact, there are no mistakes in our creative life, there are only experiments. Nobody’s born knowing and skills are things that anyone can master with patience and practice. There are no perfect moments or the best tools to acquire in order to start.

We are all creatives and once we stop bringing ourselves down and making up excuses, we’ll finally embrace our creative power and be able to live a bigger, happier and way more fun life.

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on February 12, 2020.

Journaling is nothing more than the simple act of writing your thoughts in a notebook (or a journal). Particularly, I’ve been doing this forever: I had an old “dear diary” when I was a child and would fill the pages with things that happened during the day, at school, at home, just to keep them accountable and be able to go back and read them. My memory has always been fragile, therefore journaling has become my tool to remember.

The years passed by and I changed my strategies to journal, going from having one dear diary to fill A4 university notebooks with stories and collages, to finally decide to share my thoughts online and keep journals IRL on the side.

The three journals

Nowadays, you can call me crazy yet I have a total of 7 or 8 notebooks that I use regularly and two of them are my journals. One is the famous “thoughts journal” and the other an “artsy journal”

On one hand, my “ Thought Journal”, the one I’d treat as basically a “dear diary”: it’s mostly filled up with words describing thoughts, situations, reflections and everything that comes to mind at the moment. Sometimes I’d doodle something or write lists, but it’s primarily a Pensive (Potterheads will get it): a place where I deposit my thoughts to free space from my mind and can pick them up later if I need them. Journaling in this way has helped me a lot during the years to understand better what’s going on in my life and have a different perspective to approach my reality; it’s definitely therapeutic and a great tool of mindfulness, if you want to call it that way.

On the other hand, I recently adopted the “Artsy journal”, on which I started with a rule: there are no rules on how to fill it. It’s actually a space where I allow myself to play and experiment with different techniques, materials and ideas, being the whole point to recreate from everyday life and create a place to ignore creative limits. I find this way of journaling could be more appealing when you’re not really in the mood for writing and reflecting on things (I admit sometimes you just don’t want to go there).

As a bonus, this year I went back to my “Gratitude Journal”, which is basically a 5-minute journal you can complete easily in the mornings by writing three things you’re grateful for and some goals for the day. It really helps to start the day with a good vibe and be more aware of the things you already have in your life.

The benefits of journaling

In this section, I just want to quickly highlight some of the best things that come with a regular journaling practice. And this is not just me, it’s also backed up by some articles I’ve found online.

- It makes you write more. I firmly believe that writing does to the mind what exercising does to the body: according to this study, we could say that writing “ can enhance the brain’s intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information… it promotes the brain’s attentive focus … boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.” Word friend.

- It organizes your thoughts. In your mind, things tend to get a little bit messy. On paper, you have the chance to reorganize them to give them the structure they need in order to make sense; once it’s all down on paper, you can see it clearly. Your perspective towards the situations you’ve narrated, the stories you’ve described, your approach to the different ideas in your head is completely changed by the simple act by writing them down.

- It makes you happier. Journaling does indeed make me happier and it could make you happier too. You see, journaling means time to reflect, a form of meditation, time off to review what’s been going on in your life, with your body, with your thoughts, with your surroundings. Writing your story, telling it to yourself actually makes you (according to this article) shift your perspective and find a new meaning to every situation you’ve experienced.

A little guide to starting journaling

Grab pen & paper. Writing thoughts by hand has a calming effect on your mind and body, among many, many other things. Particularly, I’ve been keeping my thoughts on this specific brand of notebooks and write with this pen.

Create a ritual to make it a habit. I am an all-time fan of rituals and think there’s no better way to make something stick to your life than giving it the importance it deserves. Figure out a time during the day, perhaps early morning or late night before bed to start. Maybe you need an object that makes you stick to it, like a totem to keep with yourself at all times to remind you that you have to write. Or simply making yourself a cup of tea and lighting a candle can be inspiring enough to start journaling.

Start. We all have different approaches to get inspired, but ultimately sitting down and write is what we want to do. So now that we are here, let me give you some ideas to fill your journal.

Some journaling ideas

-Ask yourself some personal questions. Write a paragraph about who you are, what interests you, dreams, fears, favourite foods…

-Tell your journal about your day. Write about situations that happened throughout your day and describe how they made you feel and what you think can be improved.

-Make a collage. This is my type of artsy journal practice, yet making a collage from things like magazines, stickers, colourful papers and photos can relieve your stress and keep your mind focused on it. Plus, it’s fun and great if you don’t feel like writing.

-Search for prompts. I’m a big fan of Keri Smith’s 100 ideas. Escribirme has good prompts too if you speak Spanish. I’m pretty sure you can find many on the Internet these days by simply googling “ journaling prompts “

So I encourage you to give it a chance to journaling because it can surely change your life.

One page at a time.

Originally published at https://wanraitelli.de on February 5, 2020.