November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). In a nutshell, NaNoWriMo is about writing a 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time. More specifically, it’s writing a novel during the month of November.
If you’re not in the mood for writing just over 1660 words a day, every day, for 30 days straight, but you still want to be creative during the month of November, try this 30-Day Creativity Project. Here are the rules (don’t worry, they’re few and they’re flexible):
- Commit to completing a creative project every day of the month of November.
- It doesn’t matter how much time you set aside for each project: it could be five minutes, or it could be an hour. Just make something.
- You can use the ideas below—you can also edit or rearrange them–, or come up with your own.
Spend the month of November giving your creativity muscles a daily workout. Here are your daily assignments:
Day 1. Create a poster. You can get a poster board and fill it with your favorite quotes, draw an image on it, create a motivational poster, and so on. As an example, here’s a happiness poster I created (you can get it on Zazzle):
Day 2. Complete an A to Z project. It can be anything, such as the following: Pick a place and take photographs of objects that start with, or represent, each letter of the alphabet. For example, from where I’m sitting as I write this I could take photos of the following images:
- A – Abundance (table filled with food)
- B – Bird (or Breeze)
- C – Cup of Foamy Cappuccino (or Children laughing)
- D – Dad (I see a man playing with his son and daughter)
Here are four more examples:
- Write a list of ways to be more creative, from A to Z.
- Write a list of ways to be happy, from A to Z.
- Write a list of ways to simplify your life, from A to Z.
- Write a list of ways to be more productive, from A to Z.
Day 3. Create a Bento meal. Bento are Japanese packed lunches. They’re characterized by small portions of healthy, nutritious foods packed in special Bento boxes, or containers. There’s an emphasis on including different food groups, so that you end up with a balanced meal. An added characteristic of Bento is that the meals are decorated with different shapes–including animals, flowers, stars, and smiley faces–, so that they’re fun to look at.
This YouTube video will show you how to create a Bento meal:
Day 4. Go for a walk, choose a spot, and do something creative with anything that you find there. Leave it there for someone else to discover. (Be sure to take a picture of it for your records.)
Day 5. Do a short skit in public. It doesn’t have to be complicated. When we were little, my brother, my sister, and I had a joke book filled with silly jokes. One of the jokes went as follows:
Two people were on a plane, having the following conversation:
Person 1: “Those people down there look like ants”
Person 2: “They are ants; we haven’t taken off yet.”
We travelled a lot when we were young, and whenever we were on a plane waiting for takeoff, my brother Pedro and I would do a little skit involving the joke above as if we were having an actual conversation. Someone would always overhear us and have a good laugh.
Day 6. Create a life list—a list of things that you want to be, have, and do before you die–and turn it into a collage. You can include images of the Eiffel Tower or the Wall of China, images of family scenes—such as a happy family having Thanksgiving dinner together–, images of people scuba diving and rock climbing, and so on.
Day 7. Pick a top news story from today’s newspaper and write a Haiku about it. A haiku is a Japanese poetic form. Haikus don’t rhyme; instead, they follow a form. Here it is:
- Line 1: 5 syllables
- Line 2: 7 syllables
- Line 3: 5 syllables
Day 8. Take some index cards and create a stack of creativity cards. They can include quotes on how to be more creative, ideas from creativity books that you’ve read, creativity techniques, and so on. You can take a look at the creativity cards that I made if you want to get an idea of what yours could look like. Then, whenever you feel stuck and in need of ideas, pick one of your creativity cards at random and let it jumpstart your creativity.
Day 9. Write a one-minute autobiography. Set a timer for one minute and then just write whatever comes to mind about your life and what you’ve experienced so far. (Remember, you don’t have to start at the beginning.)
Day 10. The magazine 400 Words got started with a project to collect super-short autobiographies from as many people as possible. Now it’s a magazine in which each issue covers a different theme. Try the following theme: “Tell the whole story of your working life in 400 words or less.”
Day 11. Write a six word memoir. This video gives you six great tips for writing a six word memoir:
Day 12. Write a song. You could do just the lyrics, just the music, or both.
Day 13. Change up the look of a room in your house.
Day 14. Write flash fiction. Flash fiction is a complete story which contains 1000 words or less. It contains the classic story elements: a protagonist meeting an obstacle, conflict, or complication, and a resolution.
Day 15. Write a manifesto (a declaration of principles and intentions). It can be a true manifesto, such as my “Freedom Manifesto”, or it can be tongue-in-cheek (for example, “The Procrastinator’s Manifesto” or “The Lazy Person’s Manifesto”).
Day 16. Look for a way of combining two things that you have never thought of combining before. One way you can do this is to create a random list of twenty things, and try to find ways to combine items on that list. Another thing you can do is to come up with a list of twenty things that you love, and look for ways to combine some of those.
As an interesting example, Andrew Fischer combined advertising with his forehead. He put his forehead for sale on eBay as advertising space. He received $37,375 from SnoreStop so that he would display their logo on his forehead for one month. (Source)
Day 17. Set yourself the following task: You have five dollars and two hours to make as much money as you can. This is an assignment which Tina Seelig–the Stanford Technology Ventures Program’s Executive Director–often gives to her students.
Day 18. Choose a photo at random and write ten funny captions for it. You can use the one below:
(Funny Pet Photos is courtesy of dr XeNo)
Day 19. In Raw Art Journaling
- Turn “You’re not creative” into “Everyone is an artist.”
- Turn “You don’t know how to draw” into “I’m learning to draw and I’m slowly but surely improving”.
- Turn “Why are you wasting your time on that so-called creative project” into “I enjoy being creative, and I’m not wasting my time if I’m enjoying myself.”
Then, when you’re done talking to your gremlin, turn the page with your drawing of the gremlin around, stick it in a drawer, or go put it in another room. Quinn explains that limiting the amount of time that the gremlin can talk to you limits your negative self-talk.
Go ahead and draw or find a picture of your gremlin.
Day 20. Get a stack of index cards, and create a set of permission slips for yourself. Here are some of the things you might want to give yourself permission for:
- I give myself permission to rest.
- I give myself permission to laugh.
- I give myself permission to play.
- I give myself permission to make mistakes.
For more ideas on what to include on your permission slips, read my blog post “I Give Myself Permission To . . .”
Day 21. Take a regular day in your life and turn it into a three minute comedy routine.
Day 22. Do something creative involving a skull. Noah Scalin, the author of 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!
Day 23. Create a Zentangle. This is one of the ideas that I mention in my post on 17 Resources to Awaken Your Right Brain.
Image courtesy of PatOHeart
Day 24. Choose a journal prompt from this list of 119 Journal Prompts and write about it.
Day 25. Read some of Shel Silverstein’s poems—lots of them are online–and then write your own poem in a similar style. Here are three of Silverstein’s poems (I just love his poems):
“If you have to dry the dishes
(Such an awful boring chore)
If you have to dry the dishes
(‘Stead of going to the store)
If you have to dry the dishes
And you drop one on the floor
Maybe they won’t let you
Dry the dishes anymore”Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic
“Early bird
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be an early bird—
But if you’re a worm, sleep late.”Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
Shel Silverstein
Day 26. Do something creative with fruits or vegetables. They’re not just for eating! Here’s a YouTube video of a watermelon being carved into a peacock:
If you don’t have much time for this project, just arrange fruit in a bowl creatively.
Day 27. Make your workspace more creative. You can find ideas in this post.
Day 28. Create a mask. I have a four-year old nephew who loves Spiderman. My sister got him a Spiderman mask a while back, and for about two-weeks he refused to take it off. What will your mask look like? Here’s a tutorial you can use to create your mask.
Day 29. Look at the following quote:
“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college— that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, ‘You mean they forget?’”
— Howard Ikemoto
Do you think you’ve forgotten how to draw? It’s time to remember. Draw a picture of your pet, or your favorite animal.
Day 30. Create a cartoon strip. Timothy Pychyl is a psychologist whose area of expertise is procrastination. He created a cartoon strip titled “Carpe Diem”(Seize the Day). You can see it here. Create a cartoon strip about something that interests you, whether it’s your work, a hobby, your family, and so on. You can use stick figures if it helps.
And there you have it: 30 creativity projects for the month of November! If you’ve come up with your own creativity projects, please share them in the comments section below.
For more ideas on how to be more creative, get my ebook: “How to Be More Creative: A HandBook for Alchemists“:
Related Posts
- How to Write a Novel in 30 Days: NaNoWriMo
- Need Fresh Ideas? Go Streetcombing
- Mind Maps: Everything You Need to Know
- Medley of Creativity
- 5 Imaginative Ways to Generate Ideas
I Recommend:
Imagine waking up each morning to a life that’s centered around your life goals, instead of trying to fit what’s most important to you into the nooks and crannies. “How To Live Your Best Life- The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List” will show you how.
“How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.
What important task or project have you been procrastinating on? Whether it’s starting a blog, writing a novel, going back to school, decluttering your home, or starting an exercise program, my ebook, “Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done”, will help you get started and see the task or project through to completion.
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