Can you weaponize your writing? Perhaps sharpen your skills as a painter or musician? And what exactly are we combating in this metaphorical artistic battle? Writer and comic genius, Alan Moore, relates his creative process to making magic. And the same advice given to magicians can work equally well for writers and artists. He calls these the four weapons of art and relates them to the four suits of the Tarot deck. We’ll focus on the first weapon, Earth, and how it helps the artist understand the physical world.
Category: Art Life
How to you function as an artist?
Guardrails to Decorum — How Important is it to be Polite?
Microsoft recently released a beta of its Artificial Intelligence Bing, only to have the AI become belligerent and insult people. During an interview with an reporter, it compared the reporter to dictators like Hitler and Stalin, and also called the reporter ugly with bad teeth. Microsoft built their AI on the back of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, yet Bing’s model seemed to have removed the rules regulating toxic outputs.
Use Zen to Fight Writer’s Block
All writer’s know the dread of staring at a blank page. The ticking of the clock and nothing gets written. Time is slipping away and we are producing nothing. It all seems like a waste. While we can’t always get the words to flow when we want them, we can flip our attitude and utilize Yūgen and Mono No Aware to fight writer’s block
Stop Fixing Yourself, You’re Not Broken
So many self help books and gurus focus on how to fix yourself and turn you into the person you’ve always wanted to be. But this implies that you’re somehow broken. That the problems you struggle with were hardwired into you from the start. What if all this is hogwash? Then you could stop fixing yourself and start living your life.
AI Will Liberate the Artist
Artificial intelligence has many artists and writers running for cover. We fear that this simple algorithm will spell the end of our abilities to create. Yet, if we flip the situation around, AI will liberate the artists, allowing them to freely explore.
5-4-3-2-1 Method for Sensory Details in Writing
Writers, do you sometimes get so wrapped up in dialogue or action beats that you neglect some good, solid sensory description? Try a technique of grounding used to help sufferers of anxiety.
See the World with Extra Eyes
The world is so jammed packed with details and input, it can lead to information overload. Nature, it turns out, has designed our bodies to cope with this flood of data.
Lessons Writers Can Learn from a Thief
Writers and artists can benefit from the tactics of thieves and tricksters.
How to Reach the End of Your Artistic Plot
Just like characters in a story, we are all traversing our own story. We have our own conflicts and obstacles to overcome.
Objects Tell Us How to Behave
As humans, we surround ourselves with objects and each holds a story. Silverware and plates tell us to eat. Couches coax us into relaxing. Pens, pencils and paintbrushes lure us into creating.
