Inaya Manifest

5 Ways to Make Creativity a Friendly Process

Photo: Express

As a writer, I find myself challenged with integrating a regular creative routine into my daily life. School, work, bills and other preoccupations oftentimes bully my creative whims out of the arena of my consciousness. More often than not, I overwhelm myself by setting writing goals that are ultimately self-defeating from jump. (For example: “I promise to commit two hours per day to drafting or revising my poems or stories”, only to drop off after one week.) I would make my creative life easier to maintain by committing to drafting or revising one page of my poems or stories per day. That said, I turned to Blacksburg Belle (www.blacksburgbelle.com/2014/01/101-creative-habits-to-explore) for advice applicable to my process. None of the advice is set in stone; creative habits are as unique as each person’s fingerprint. I call it creative maintenance!

1. Write in a journal for ten minutes in the morning while sipping tea or coffee.

I can’t always commit to writing in the morning, but I still manage to get some writing done before 11:59 p.m.!

2. Write one page of a novel per day for a year.

I’m one of those people compelled to make something simple complicated. This “rule” is so easy I just want to break it for the sake of making the writing life hard!

3. Read one new book each week.

I’m also one of those fiends who buys more books than finishes them. (Am I the only one?) I would start with this gem:

Photo: Pinterest

4. Bind your own journals.

Even the elegant rice paper I find at my local art supply store can’t tempt me away from buying inexpensive journals with tricked-0ut covers that would’ve dazzled me as a kid into writer wannabe heaven.

5. Learn a new language by practicing fifteen minutes per day.

Photo: islamiccalligraphy.bullgallery.com

This is another pearl of wisdom I leave exposed to the elements of my personal chaos. I took two years of Arabic in college. Why I still believe I have to spend three hours a day or not one minute at all to maintain some semblance of proficiency is another excuse for me take the scenic route around practical. I must have something against anything practical!

In what ways do you make creativity a part of your daily life? Do you find yourself on the perpetual verge of jumping into a creative project? Have you been able to finish any creative project with minimal self-resistance?

Paradigm of Civil Disobedience — Bree Newsome

CREDIT: Twitter

I learned about activists Bree Newsome and James Tyson dismantling the Confederate Flag from the pole outside the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina after Newsome and Tyson had been already arrested on June 27th, 2015. Her daring feat left a deep impression on me. I almost believed civil disobedience of this caliber in America had been consigned to the elders or to the history books, but I am delighted to be wrong.

I am encouraged by the bravery of Newsome and Tyson. Major sociopolitical changes in American history have seldom been realized without courageous acts of civil disobedience. Newsome and Tyson didn’t inflict violence against anyone to get the point across of removing a blatant symbol of racism from outside the state capitol of South Carolina. On Friday, July 10th, the flag was permanently lowered from the pole outside of the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina. In the wake of this development, I will always remember the bravery of Newsome and Tyson, among others, who dared to challenge the status quo that has long been complicit of violence inflicted against people of color within state borders (and beyond).
I am in perpetual awe of women who risk complacency and, sometimes, their very lives for the sake of social justice regardless of their skin color and/or economic status. Weren’t it for the power of social media, there would be too many inspiring women from every walk of life I would never hear about at all.