BENJAMIN LAW //
SCREENWRITER, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR
Move your body. A lot of creative work requires your
body to be absolutely still while your mind races
non-stop. Exercise gives you the crucial opposite:
your body moves while your mind is allowed to
defrag. Trust me, you’ll come back to your work
with new perspective. Make realistic daily goals.
You might be writing a book or screenplay for a
feature film, but you’ve got to break that enormous
goal into monthly and weekly goals, then break
those into daily goals, then break those into hourly
goals. Make goals achievable and reward yourself
proportionately. Switch off the internet. It’s harder
than it sounds to disconnect, so use apps like
Freedom on your computer and Forest on your
phone.Treat emails like tooth-brushing. Check
them once in the morning, then again at the end of
the day. And get every last email out of the way- plaque has a habit of building up. Light a candle.
It sounds slightly witchy, but a writer mate once
told me she lights a candle when she starts writing
and blows it out once she’s completed the day’s
goal. There’s something ritualistically satisfying
about punctuating the work day like this. It weirdly
keeps you focused. Plus, who doesn’t like a candle?
LISA GORMAN //
FASHION DESIGNER
Break out of your usual format. Don't be
afraid to explore a new medium – go 3D if
you're usually 2D and get your hands into
some clay. If you don't have the skills to get
your ideas working the way you’d like, find
someone who knows the medium well and
share with them. You'll learn a lot. Be prolific.
Don't get stuck being stuck. Keep creating,
even when you don't know what you're really
doing, because creating anything, good, bad
or indifferent, makes for development of
ideas, and that's a good thing. Put it out there.
Getting your creative ideas out to your team,
mates, or anyone who will listen can help clear
up the concept in your own head. Say it out
loud and don't be afraid – no idea can ever be
too terrible, right? You'll soon find out if it is,
anyway, when you ask enough people about it.
Explore new frontiers. Best put by the
fabulous Salt-N-Pepa: “Ah, push it.” Extend
your work and ideas further and test that
creative space. You won't always work out what
could be achieved if you stick in the safe zone.
It's usually preferable to reverse engineer
an idea, if you must, than under-bake it in
the first place.WRITING + PODCASTS
FASHION
get involved