Like thousands of others, I grew up playing with Star Wars toys and loving the original trilogy. I would go so far as to say that Star Wars in many ways was the definitive work of fiction in my youth, and as such continues to inspire and influence me today. And again, I am not alone.

At the Pacific Science Center (@PacSci) in Seattle, there is currently a show about Star Wars and modern science. It’s a traveling exhibition that has already been in several cities across the US, and I was thrilled to go see it. Science fiction has always influenced real-world scientific invention, yet this is a rare chance to see the two displayed side by side. It’s a wonderful example of how art spills over into both industry and education.

The exhibition also features work stations, where you can build your own droid, try a hover chair and more. The big draw is a trip in the Millennium Falcon, where you actually get to sit in a mock cockpit of the legendary space freighter and take a short trip into space while Anthony Daniels (C3P0) narrates the journey. It’s like a mini planetarium theater and worth the $3.

But let’s not kid ourselves. The real reason I wanted to go, was to get a first hand glimpse of some Holy Relics. I speak of course of actual movie props and costumes, like Luke Skywalker’s land speeder and Darth Vader himself. The folks at Pacific Science Center were kind enough to let me come take a few photos before the place filled up with visitors. John Williams’ iconic soundtrack was piping from hidden speakers, and I almost felt like I was in a temple of sorts.

When I came face to face with Yoda, I was literally breathless for a moment. It’s not that I believe in the Force or anything, but Yoda somehow embodies the essence of Star Wars and his backwards one-liners do offer wisdom. Do or do not, there is no try. That line has been a go-to motivator for me for as long as I can remember. Like the somewhat longer “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering” – a gentle encouragement to keep an open mind and not fear that with which we are unfamiliar.

As I was wrapping up, I saw the first guests arrive. Groups of kids and adults both with their eyes open wide and smiles on their faces. I was told this exhibit draws more adults than usual. I replied that surely many who brought their kids here, did so as an excuse to come see it themselves. For me, it was first and foremost a visit to what I can only describe as an early muse and it felt amazing to get in touch with such a basic source.

I recommend going if you’re one of the thousands like me who grew up on Han Solo’s roguish charm, Leia’s retorts and Luke’s whining. And if Star Wars isn’t your thing, consider seeking out whatever did influence you as a kid. It is a remarkably inspiring experience.

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It dawned on me the other day. I’m a lot like Wile E. Coyote. I actually strive to be like this unfortunate creature and take pride in it.

For years I watched him as he tried to catch the road runner. That annoying little twerp. I was always rooting for the hilariously unlucky coyote. I wanted him to catch that bird and get his just reward. Even though I knew that Wile E. Coyote could never win.

The clip shows how even the one time he actually succeeds in catching the road runner, he still ends up losing. It sucks to be Wile E. Coyote.

Are you confused yet? How could this mangy loser be a role model? It’s not pity. I don’t want him to win because I feel bad for him. Instead, consider this. Wile E. Coyote is not only creative in his attempts at catching the road runner, he’s an artist. He really takes it to the extreme and goes where no coyote has gone before – or since. More than creative, he is dedicated and productive. He never gives up; he tries harder to achieve his goal with every defeat. Even at the end of each cartoon, you know he’ll be back to take another shot later.

In spite of continuous failure, Wile E. Coyote keeps trying.

His methods are of course completely inefficient. The record speaks for itself. But I choose to blame that on bad luck and a misguided loyalty towards the Acme Corporation (perhaps a warning to us Apple fans?). I think he really needed an assistant or two.

The point is this: if you work in art or any creative profession, you will need the characteristics of Wile E. Coyote. The fearlessness, the willingness to go above and beyond and the strength to recover from defeat and plow on despite the odds. When I think of someone who is driven and tenacious, I think of Wile E. Coyote.

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When I was around 9 years old, my dad bought me a choose-your-own-adventure book. One of those where you read up to a certain point, then choose which way the story goes next, and every so often you may have to roll some dice and fight a monster. This book started a fascination that to this day is a recurring source of inspiration to me: the random element.

Over the years, I have found that a certain amount of randomness and unpredictability is pure magic to my creative process. I love shooting portrait photography because I never know exactly what my subject will do in front of the camera, and what might come out of it.

In my writing, I have used random elements for years. Back in 2000, I attended a 6 month long creative writing class, and almost every day would start with some kind of writing prompt. When the class ended, I found myself missing these daily challenges and so I decided to solve this by creating a writing prompt generator. I taught myself enough programming that I could pull it off (working alongside actual programmers was a big help), and the utility WriteThis was born. I put it online, giving it away and it has since been downloaded thousands of times.

When I switched to Mac, WriteThis was no longer of any use to me (PC only), and ever since I have been wanting some kind of replacement. And now I have one – this time in the shape of an iPhone/iPod Touch app with the name WriMuse. With the touch of a button it gives me a writing prompt and if I like it, I can save it for later. Read more about it on its dedicated page or in the iTunes store.

The book my dad bought me also turned me into an avid gaming fan. One game I still enjoy today is Dungeons & Dragons. This is a game where players frequently need to think up things like character and location names and countless other details, much like a writer does. To help with this, I created a number of random gaming generators and put them online.

All these tools have been a huge help for me, and even though I made them, the results they produce continue to surprise.

The thing that gets me going about randomness is namely surprise, which forces me to think on my toes. By presenting me with keywords and outlines in sometimes strange combinations, my brain automatically begins to string it all together into something that makes sense. In other words, it triggers my imagination. Often I don’t even use the prompt I was given, just the inspiration gained from it.

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A year ago, when Another Passion was still brand new, I published a list of blogs to follow if you’re a creative person. Besides this one, of course. The time has come to once again share a list of recommended blogs. On the sites listed below, you will find hours of reading guaranteed to spark both inspiration and productivity.

There are ten blogs listed here but not in any particular order. I urge you to check them all out. If you don’t have time to do it now, bookmark this post or share it where you can come back to it later. Or better still, add the rss feeds of these blogs to your favorite reader and enjoy.

• Rowdy Kittens – Tammy Strobel blogs about simple living.
• Productive Flourishing – Charlie Gilkey’s blog about creativity, business and productivity.
• IttyBiz – Naomi Dunford writes tips for tiny businesses and solopreneurs.
• Steven Pressfield Online – Creative process guru. A must read blog.
• Creativity Unbound – Edward Boches shares tips on personal branding and more.
• The Art of Non-Conformity – Chris Guillebeau writes about achieving goals and more.
• Accidental Creative – Productivity and creativity blog and podcast.
• Zen Habits – Leo Babauta combines zen with success and productivity.
• Mildly Creative – Ken Robert wants you to lighten up and create.
• Art Biz Blog – Alyson Standfield blogs about making money as an artist.

I hope you like the list, and if you have recommendations of your own, I’d love to hear about it. Happy reading and creating!

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What do you do if you are a creative person, but you don’t know what your passion is? This question came to me from Jenipher. I replied briefly: keep looking and trying things, but I also got inspired to write something a little more detailed.

For me, the answer was to analyze and combine interests. Most creative people have more than one outlet – a combination of skills. I’m no scientist, but I’m not grabbing this out of thin air either. I look at myself and my wife both, and that’s pretty much the recipe for how we did it. In my own case, I took writing, photography, making music and playing with video and asked, what do my interests have in common? That question took a few years to answer, even if it now seems quite simple: they all are ways of telling a story.

But where do I go from there? This is the passion bit where everything magically comes together, the lightbulb goes off and there’s a little ding-sound.

Passion is a state of mind. The word itself can be interpreted in a number of ways but I choose Merriam-Webster’s 4.b description of it as an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.

Getting there is about creating an inspirational explosion, resulting in a state of passion. Telltale signs that this state has been reached include lots of ideas, heart palpitations, sweaty palms and giddy behavior. Combine the things you love doing in new ways, suck up fresh knowledge and weed out elements that don’t play well with others. Repeat until a pattern begins to form, then re-focus. Hard work and failure is part of this process. You might need many failed experiments to find the right combination.

I ended up focusing mostly on a mix of writing and photography to create Another Passion. That doesn’t mean that I’ve lost all interest in video and music, or that I don’t have projects outside the realm of Another Passion, just that those take a back seat to the main attraction.

Finding a passion, as in something that lights the fire inside you, won’t necessarily make you rich or get you laid – but it will make your work focused, of higher quality and easier to finish.

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I almost never met Tomo Nakayama. When I was supposed to, his quiet demeanor fooled me into not recognizing the Japanese born singer and songwriter. He is the front man in Seattle based indie band, Grand Hallway, whose recent album “Promenade” has been getting some well-deserved attention and airplay. Luckily, he recognized my ugly mug, and we had a great conversation about inspiration and creativity.

Grand Hallway is an eight-man orchestra with an enormous landscape of sound. In the middle is Tomo, like a humble host who invites you along on a musical journey. The music is complex and honest at the same time, which is pretty much the feeling you get around Tomo. The band’s latest release is a DVD shot at The Triple Door, where Grand Hallway got to work with the Seattle Rock Orchestra and the Perkins School Children’s Choir, and their music is a perfect match for such a large production – close to 50 performers on stage at the same time.

Make sure you check out the music video to the track “Blessed Be, Honey Bee”, embedded in the sidebar of this post.

AP: As a song-writer, how much of the creative process do you do on your own, and how much is shared in the band? What does the creative process look like?

TN: The writing process is very much a dialogue between myself and the band. Often, I will bring in half-written melodies and lyrical ideas just to see what kind of response I get from the band. This results in an extended improvisation that sounds like a traffic jam, but someone usually comes up with two or three melodic or rhythmic ideas that pushes the song into a new direction. What often ends up happening is I will then scrap the initial idea and write something else entirely, beginning to end, and those are the songs that end up sticking. So looking at the end product from an outsider’s perspective, it would appear that I am writing alone, but without that initial spark of inspiration and collaboration from my bandmates, it would not be possible. Once the song is “written”, that is to say, structured so that it would stand on its own with a single guitar and voice, we begin the process of arranging. This is where everyone in the band contributes to write parts that fit together as a whole. That’s about as specific as I can get without overexplaining the process, because I don’t really understand it completely either.

AP: How do you overcome your inner critic? What is your internal process like?

TN: I recently read an interview with Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, who described feeling overcome with self-doubt and depression in a season in which he was hitting .342, because he felt he could do better. That’s an extraordinarily high average for any other hitter, but he was not satisfied until he reached his own personal standard of excellence. Though I’m nowhere near the level of Ichiro in my field, I can understand his mindset. That kind of pursuit of perfection can be maddening, because on one hand you do not want to be arrogant nor play down your past accomplishments, but in order to reach one’s own standard of excellence you must always strive for more. The only thing I know how to do, and the only way I know I am successful in what I do, is to stay absolutely true to who I am, and to remember that can be a struggle sometimes.

AP: Your latest release is a live performance DVD from Seattle’s Triple Door, where you worked with the Seattle Rock Orchestra and Perkins School Children’s Choir. How did that come about?

TN: That concert at the Triple Door and the prior concert at the Fremont Abbey were the product of sheer luck and synchronicity. We were lucky enough to meet the people in charge of both groups, right around the time of our record release, so that gave the show a lot of momentum. It took a lot of planning and orchestration, but it was worth the hard work. Just a complete dream come true for all of us, I think. There is nothing that compares with the sheer joy and energy of 50 people all working together to perform the same song.

AP: You are doing pretty well without the backing of a major label, both in terms of getting press, airplay and performing at some top venues. How do you handle promotion and marketing?

TN: This past year and half has been a huge learning experience, and I am grateful for the amount of success the record has achieved. It just requires a whole lot of hard work, patience, and diligence. I’ve been surprised to learn just how much of the music business a band is able to handle on their own these days, with the help of the internet and listeners who are much more tuned into the independent scene than, say, even 5 or 10 years ago. That being said, there are still advantages to having a respected record label vouching for and promoting your music, and we still hope to have that someday. But until we find the scenario which is right for us and right for our music, we will continue to do what we can, on our own.

AP: You’ve toured in vans, slept on people’s floors and seem to enjoy every minute of it. What is it about touring and playing live that makes it worth all the hard work?

TN: As much fun as writing and recording music is, I feel like the process of creation is not complete until the song is delivered to the listener, in flesh and blood. The most gratifying feeling is playing our songs for people, looking them in the eyes and knowing that they’ve chosen to spend a couple hours of their lives to come listen to us. That connection is something that you can’t get from a video or an mp3, or a blog or even a direct message on Twitter. And that connection also extends to my bandmates. Playing in our basement is fun, but to live and breathe music with the same 8 people for weeks at a time, you get to a whole different level of communication and that in turn is reflected in the music, I think. I also really enjoy seeing different parts of the country. I don’t think I can say that it makes me want to live anywhere other than Seattle, but it’s a nice way to see the world outside one’s immediate neighborhood. It reminds you that there are good people wherever you go.

AP: You’ve said elsewhere, that you hope people walk away from your concerts feeling inspired to pursue some artistic endeavor of their own. Of all the things you could hope for, why this?

TN: I have friends who are chefs, carpenters, teachers, computer engineers, film makers, ghost hunters, parents… Whatever walks of life, and however obscure their interests, I am constantly inspired whenever I hear them talk about the things they are passionate about. There is a certain way a person’s eyes light up when they talk about something they genuinely love. Their voice becomes clearer, more certain and animated. It is real and it is undeniable. And seeing their passion makes me want to work harder on my own art, which just happens to be music. I think that is the purpose of art, isn’t it? To share with others our existence, to revel in our wonderment and awe and love and loneliness and hope and despair and all the things that make life worth living. And I hope my music can convey that to our listeners.

For more about Grand Hallway and Tomo Nakayama, visit the band’s website. They are also on Facebook and MySpace.

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Steven Pressfield wanted to write a book for people suffering from writer’s block but ended up with a guide to being a happy creative in the more general sense. In short, Pressfield begins by identifying the enemy of getting your creative work done as ‘Resistance’. Then he goes on to talk about battling this enemy and finally, he talks about muses and adds some fluff to his otherwise pragmatic approach.

Pressfield’s view is unique. He has a military background and a couple of bestseller novels under his belt (The Legend of Bagger Vance; Gates of Fire). His approach is that of the soldier going to war. For many artists, this will definitely be a new way of looking at creative productivity. It comes off as very matter of fact and practical. I like that a lot.

Resistance is identified as the force within that gives us excuses for not doing what we want to do. It’s what makes us reconsider our choices, when someone tells us to get a real job. It makes us spend all day reading blogs like this one, instead of getting the work done. It’s procrastination and self doubt personified. The way to overcome this, according to Pressfield, is to become a Professional.

He compares the amateur to the pro using easy to understand examples. The athlete might be in pain, but he finishes the race anyway. The soldier might be scared, but she goes into battle anyway. You get the idea. Of course, Pressfield goes into more detail and offers suggestions on how to approach and overcome Resistance. The writing flows nicely, the chapters are short and sweet, and the book is at times hard to put down.

Reading the first two parts of the book was a rush to me. Much like what I imagine sportsfans experience when watching their favorite team play. My team is Creativity and the arch-rival is Resistance. At times, I almost found myself cheering at the book. Death to Resistance! From this moment on, I will never let that bastard win again.

Then, in the final third of the book, Pressfield almost completely lost me. This is where he gets esoteric and tries to go deeper into the nature of inspiration. This is where he gets religious. I literally had to put the book away for a couple of days at a time every few chapters. I wanted to finish it so badly, because the first two parts were so good. Luckily, Pressfield mixes in just enough references to other mythology that I was able to see past my own resistance, and not feel like I was reading religious propaganda. The first two parts took me two days to read, pacing myself so as not to read it all in one go. The last part took a week.

I have to settle on a rating of 8/10. Begrudgingly. I wanted to love it unconditionally, but unfortunately that did not happen. Don’t get me wrong though, it really is a very good and highly motivational read no matter what your personal philosophy might be. The approach of thinking like a professional is very effective and there are some nuggets of pure gold to be found in “The War of Art”.

“The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, 192 pages, Grand Central Publishing (Amazon affiliate link)

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Storytelling is power. When you tell a good story the world stops, magic happens and those who listen are enthralled. We use stories to build brands, find potential mates, friends and partners. We use them to convey feelings, morals and values that might otherwise be difficult to address. Anything can be sold through storytelling, from religion to mini-ovens.

Telling stories makes you powerful, because they give you an opportunity to control others. Stories can change lives and telling them well makes you extraordinary in the mind of your audience. I’ve narrowed storytelling down to four points. If you practice these, you will become better at it. If you master them, the sky is the limit.

1. Know the Ending

If you’re telling a joke, you have to remember the punchline. Other stories are no different. You have to know where you want to end up – whether it’s “and they lived happily ever after” or “this is why my art is worth your money”. If you don’t have an ending, you’re just rambling. Whether your goal is to make the audience laugh, cry or sign the dotted line, you have to know ahead of time. Every element in your story should help you get closer to that ending.

2. Timing Keeps People Interested

Timing is the vehicle that gets you to the ending. It drives the story and keeps the audience interested. Just as you are ready to put the book down, a cliffhanger ending makes you think “okay, I’ll read one more chapter tonight”. Before you know it, it’s three in the morning. Just when you’re sure you know who the killer is, the movie throws a twist at you and keeps you guessing. When the offer on TV couldn’t get any better, they throw in two for the price of one.

Timing is knowing when to work in the boring details without losing your audience’s interest. Timing is knowing when to surprise, pause or even stroke your audience’s ego. Timing is a skill that anyone can learn.

3. Talk Directly To Your Audience

Who are you telling your story to? Who is actually listening? Are they the same?

Don’t try to tell a story that appeals to everyone. At best, you will end up with a mediocre result that is only tolerable, not remarkable. Tell the same story differently to different audiences, or seek out an audience that likes your particular voice or style. The memorable quotes and funny comments that appeal to a group of bankers will not necessarily work for the medical marijuana proponents.

My grandmother would never appreciate how the movie “Memento” is told backwards, whereas I love it for that very reason. The gruff, twisted style of Tom Waits makes him one of my favorite musicians, but I’ve met many people who can’t stand him because of those same qualities.

Realize that the story is only yours until you tell it. From that moment on, it belongs to those who were paying attention to it. Don’t let those people down.

No matter how trivial your story, you can make it interesting if you know how it ends, how to pace it right and who you are telling it to. Research is good. Practice is good. Being willing to risk making a fool of yourself is crucial.

4. Make a Fool of Yourself

You may make fun of Vince the ShamWow guy (I do), but his manic movements and silly headset work for him. He knows his audience likes it because they buy his product. Whether they like the product, they won’t even know until they get it. But they liked Vince enough to take that chance. Does he look like a fool to a bunch of people? Absolutely. Does he make money on it? Absolutely.

When a musician misses a chord change mid-song they don’t stop and start over. They suck it up and move along. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham once said that when he made a mistake, he would immediately try to replicate it. That way it would sound planned, like part of the music.

Remember the best story someone ever told you. How did they do it? Did they change their voice for different characters? Did they use body language? How did they mix fact and fluff? Humor and suspense?

Making a fool of yourself is not the same as failure. It simply means standing up for what you believe in, in spite of what others think. It’s taking a chance and sticking your neck out. It’s overcoming the fear of failure and owning your mistakes.

Stories are at the core of everything we love and hate. They are the basis of our culture, of civilization, maybe even humanity itself. From the caveman painting images of his life on the wall to the endless streams of twitter updates, the world is full of stories. It’s all about how you tell them.

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How much time have you spent researching, downloading and trying out different applications meant to boost your productivity? To help speed things up and organize your ideas? How much of that time was a waste?

I saw this on a Glenlivet label – “Unhurried since 1824″. I have collected (and enjoyed) many single malts but this is the only label that stuck with me. Unhurried implies care and attention. Unhurried implies quality. Unhurrying is an underestimated activity.

When it comes to software applications designed to help develop ideas, brainstorm, mind map and make you productive, they all claim to speed up workflow and make life easier. But I find them limiting or clumsy to use. When working with loose thoughts, raw concepts and ideas, I don’t want to worry about what the software can and can’t do. So, I use a different tool.

I’m talking about pen and paper.

All my projects and ideas begin on a blank sheet somewhere. Typically a journal, but if something needs to come out, I will grab whatever is close by; index cards, napkins or backs of receipts. The handwriting process stimulates my brain in ways that a computer just can’t do. It comes down to speed, or rather lack thereof. It’s unhurrying in action.

The brain has time to think through a sentence from several angles before my hand catches up. By the time the words get down on paper, I have already developed the idea a little further in my head. The handwritten notes come out more precise than anything written on a keyboard. Instead of walking away with just a thought jotted down, I come away with a clearer idea of what I want to do with it.

And I like physically touching the paper it’s written on. It makes the idea feel real. Tangible. Doable. As opposed to forgettable, fleeting and unimportant.

Maybe with multi-touch and more intuitive technology, some day there might be a serious competitor to the pen and paper method. But for now, it’s just not worth the time and frustration trying out app after app (though I did recently purchase Streaks – I’m such a hypocrite, right?).

Nothing beats a scribble and a doodle – I dare anyone to prove me wrong.

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Inspiration is a strange and wonderful thing. As creatives, we need a constant stream of it to come up with fresh material. Whether it comes easily or not, the work still has to get done. Simply sitting around and waiting for inspiration to strike is not the way to go about it. Random inspiration is amazing, but is much too unreliable if you need it to make a living off of it.

The standard answer from most creative types when asked about inspiration, is to say that it ‘comes from everyday life’. True as that may be, it also sounds kind of vague. So to be more specific, here are 5 things I do, to help everyday life in its efforts to inspire me.

Walking

My number one inspirational tool is going on walks. As simple as it sounds, I highly recommend it. Plug in your iPod, pack a camera, a notebook and put on your most comfortable shoes. Walking gets the blood pumping in a non-strenuous way, just enough to get the body working, including the brain. I often don’t use the camera or stop to write anything down, but I like having the tools just in case. Other than that, I just let the music mix with the ambient sounds of the world and let it all play out around me. Sooner or later, thoughts start flowing together into ideas.

See Other People

I don’t mean romantically. I mean people whose lives are different from yours. If you work in an office all day, and all your friends work in other offices (or even worse: the same as you), your world will slowly shrink down to fit in a cubicle. If you work in a garage all day, and all your friends do too, the problem is the same. One of the things I am most grateful for in life is that I know or have known all sorts of people, from hardcore junkies to posh millionaires. It adds perspective to the world and teaches you about the things we all have in common.

Be a Dabbler

Working in one medium all the time is limiting, in much same way as only hanging out with people like yourself. You risk burning out, getting jaded or both. I’ve found that dabbling in areas where I am not necessarily very good, can be a way to reset my way of thinking. I often return to my main work (photography and writing) with a fresh approach. The overlap between different creative disciplines becomes clearer and something you can tap into later.

Read Fiction

Ever heard this one? “I only read work related books, because I don’t have time for fiction.” Often followed up by a wish for more ‘free time’. Like with everything else taking longer than half an hour, you have to prioritize reading. Textbooks, magazines and e-mails just can’t compete with a good novel. When reading, your imagination is constantly working to fill in the gaps, conjuring up images, sounds and even emotion to go with the words. And it carries you away to a place removed from your daily stress. In other words, you are relaxing and exercising your imagination at the same time.

Scare Yourself

Do one thing which scares you every day. Even if only in some small way. We all have a million little worries and fears, and by confronting just one of those consciously and with effort, you move forward as a person. It can be as trivial as trying a new hairstyle or giving a presentation — whatever makes you a little nervous. Jumping out of airplanes, climbing mountains and white water rafting are all cool, but we can’t all do those things every single day. So think small. I have found that if I push myself to confront one scary thing, I get a rush of energy that drives me to keep going.