As we ease out of the first couple weeks of class and the ‘getting back into the groove’ mentality has eased, I looked back at the syllabuses and was shocked to see how many creative projects are expected of me this semester, which might be my fault as someone in an arts-based field. I came up with a list of ideas to circulate through and thought I would share a couple with everyone, in case anyone is looking at that assignment and freaking out.
- A Photo Series
Need something easy that you can do simply from your phone? A photo series is a good way to demonstrate a feeling or topic. Get some friends and go take some pictures! Come home and edit them either from an editing app on your phone or if you are able an editing service on your computer. Super easy and can be done in only a day if you plan well. You might just have to write a small blurb at the end about what the pictures represent and why you chose to capture it this way, a rationale some may say.
- Write From a New Perspective
Are you responding to a work? Put yourself in the piece, not a self-insert per se, but write as if you were an observer of the events or a smaller character in the piece. What makes this easy? You already have the events of the story, you just have to rewrite it and some thoughts from another character’s eyes. How would they feel about the conflict? How do things change for someone with a different life experience? If you’ve read or watched the piece, you should be fine, if you didn’t (which I don’t recommend), you might be in trouble.
- Children’s Book
When focusing on a specific topic, dumb it down! Using Canva, you can create a children’s book using their free elements! Create a presentation and on every slide create a new page. How would you explain a hard topic to a child? Plan it out and put it on paper. Not only does this method show you understand the concept, but you could explain it to someone who knows nothing. If you are more artsy, you could even make your own original artwork to go along with it, it just might take a bit more time to complete.
- Write a Narrative or Poetry
This is more self-interest and can be harder than you believe. Anyone can write a narrative or slap together some poetry, but use this to explore complicated emotions surrounding a piece. I suggest doing this one for more response-based work, because telling a story or writing a collection of meaningful poetry can help you simply state your feelings and your views. The issue will come if you struggle with expression, because it’s very easy to tell when someone is writing something they aren’t passionate about. In this case, faking it is not making it.
- Make a Video Essay
Are you more of an analytical writer at heart? If so, this is perfect for you! Simply write that analytical essay and record yourself writing it! Edit in some clips of the media you are discussing or referencing and suddenly you have a creative project. Your issue will come with one fact; it’s time-consuming. If you’ve never edited a short video, it takes a while, especially the first time as you learn your way around some editing software. Software can also be expensive! I recommend software like Davinci as it is free and helps you edit clips together to the millisecond. Don’t phone this one in though, because if you just throw some clips together and call it a day, it will just look messy. I recommend watching some examples before diving in.
School is hard and sometimes you just don’t have the mental capacity to do work, especially creative work. Hopefully, these ideas help you in your journey to reignite your creative fires.