I was catching up on my online literature and I happened on a blog post on creativity. As writers, bloggers, painters, sculturists, web designers, and so on, we need to have a certain amount of creativity to keep us at the top of our game or to keep climbing.

So then I started to think. What is creativity exactly? How do you know when you’re being creative? Sounds very philosophical, no? Well, Creativity Portal actually defined the traits of a creative person, some of which include: sensitive, able to fantasize, severely critical, and tolerant of ambiguity. There are thirty two of them. Now you might be saying, “Hold on. How can an artist be severely critical? Isn’t the internal editor supposed to shut off while we write, paint, etc?

Not necessarily. Although you’ll want to keep an open mind to any ideas, it’s imperative that you censor those ideas and make the most reasonable choice.

Many writers, myself included, tilted my head at the “tolerant of ambiguity” also. As writers, especially, we’ve been taught to get rid of the ambiguity, rip the curtain away, and set the reader on the right path. I had to go hunting on the meaning of this one, and then it just came to me. Though we’re supposed to clear the fog, we’re supposed to be open-ended and let the reader come to their own conclusion. In fiction, especially, we can’t always hold the reader’s hand and tell them what’s happening and why. We have to let them find their own meaning in the work. After that, it just made sense.

Now what does all this have to do with creativity and how can you be more creative? If you’d like to be more creative, try adding these 32 tips in your day. They really help getting the creative juices flowing.

Good luck and be creative! :)