Do you use music for creative work? Do you get distracted by noise?

In one of my interviews with psychologist and author Susan Perry, PhD, she commented that a writer she knew chose a fresh CD for each novel she wrote.

“A few people told me things like that,” Perry remarked.

“They’ll choose particular music for a particular project, and by putting that music on, they put themselves into — it’s not hypnotic exactly, but into where their brain gets used to moving from hearing that music, to working on that particular project.

“That’s the purpose of many of the rituals that creative people use. They’re not just superstitious fetishes: ‘I have to this particular pen.’ They serve a very real purpose in both loosening and focusing.”

A number of blind or visually impaired artists have created sculptures and music, but what about visual art and design?

Here are two examples of blind artists who have persevered to follow their creative talents, and are working in fashion design and photography.

Mason Ewing was blinded at 15 from years of horrific abuse at the hands of relatives.

An article about him reports that he is now successful as a fashion designer, and is developing a teen comedy and a drama series for television.

The image is a drawing, made by another artist, for one of his designs, a “Marie Antoinette” gown.

“Graduates from creative writing programs do not include insecurity, rejection and disappointment in their plans.” Dani Shapiro

“The feeling of frustration is an essential part of the creative process… Before we can find the answer — before we probably even know the question — we must be immersed in disappointment.” Johan Lehrer

We may get all enthused about a creative idea – a section of a novel or play, a dance routine, a concept for a photograph – but then we have to face the often frustrating challenges of making that idea real – while facing inner and outer hurdles.

The photo is Nicolas Cage as screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in ‘Adaptation’ (2002).

You can see a brief video clip from the movie in the article Why We Don’t Create, by coach and writer Cynthia Morris, who notes, “The original impulse of an idea is fun, energizing, exciting. The actual path to executing and completing that idea is fraught with our very human fears.”

Creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD warns this is one of our challenges. He says, “Only a small percentage of creative people work as often or as deeply as, by all rights, they might be expected to work.

“What stops them? Anxiety or some face of anxiety like doubt, worry, or fear. Anxiety is the great silencer of the creative person.”

With the upcoming movie The Hunger Games generating so much media attention, I was interested in learning more about the author Suzanne Collins, who also co-wrote the screenplay.

First, though, if you don’t know the plot of her trilogy, a Parade magazine article summarizes:

“The story’s unlikely heroine is 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in Panem, a country that’s risen from the ashes of North America after natural disasters and warfare took their toll.

“Once a year, boy and girl ‘tributes’ are chosen by lottery from each district and forced to compete in the Hunger Games, an event televised throughout the land and manipulated for maximum ratings. The last one left alive is the winner.”

The article notes that despite the violent content, “educators have been among the series’ most ardent proponents. Nicole Mailloux, a seventh-grade teacher in Clark, N.J… persuaded her school to buy enough copies for 60 students so she could base an entire semester on the trilogy, even staging a mock version of the Games.

As noted in his HuffingtonPost profile, Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD is “a cognitive psychologist specializing in the development of intelligence, creativity, and personality in education, business, and society.”

The British magazine Psychologies has an interview with him in a section titled TWITTER CHAT: Creativity about “kick-starting your creativity including how to cultivate a creative mind-set, dealing with a creative block and how to stretch your imagination.”

Here are some excerpts – with Twitter-submitted questions from a number of people, and Dr. Kaufman’s responses:

[How do I maintain confidence and self-belief in the face of rejections from fairs/festivals/exhibitions?]

Scott Barry Kaufman: Reconceptualise what rejection means. Everyone faces obstacles! Learn what you can from it and move on. Self-belief comes from within.

[See Part One if you haven't read it already.]

Motherhood and creative work

“I’d be in the middle of a sentence and someone needed to go to mall for new shoes, so the sentence would be lost.”

That is a quote by Amy Bloom, who has worked as a psychotherapist, taught at Yale University, and is Wesleyan University’s Writer-in-Residence.

In an interview about being a mother and writer, she commented, “When I started, I wrote late at night, after they were in bed.

“I could do that and get away with it because I’m not much of a housekeeper and I didn’t need much sleep.

“I liked my kids and didn’t care much about my house, so it worked.”

Novelist Taylor Stevens was born and raised in an infamous cult.

A New York Times article says, “Growing up, she bounced from city to city, often living in cramped and impoverished conditions, rarely spending more than a few months at a stretch at one of the cult’s dozens of communes around the world.”

The article notes her first novel The Informationist has “already secured gushy blurbs from brand-name thriller writers like Tess Gerritsen and Vince Flynn and the inevitable comparisons to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, which also features an offbeat, spunky heroine…”

[From An Unorthodox Life Yields a Novelist of Promise, By Christopher Kelly.]

[Also see a guest article on my High Ability site: 3 Things To Learn From The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – A Gifted Trauma Survivor, By Lisa Erickson, MS, LMHC.]

In another article, Stevens comments, “We never called it a cult when I was growing up. We were told that we were chosen by God to be special.”

“It was just a story I wanted to tell. Writing it was an expression of my own coming out. Getting it out there was willpower, feeling this is a universal story about identity and it has to be told.”

Writer and director Dee Rees is referring to her movie “Pariah” – about a lesbian teenager struggling to keep her sexuality a secret from her family.

A review article explains that the lead character Alike (pronounced Ah-LEE-kah) “lives comfortably with both parents and a younger sister… gets great grades in school and is an avid writer.

“And though there are hints that Alike’s burgeoning sexuality might make her the target of derision or violence from men in her neighborhood, this isn’t a movie about a girl being punished for her sexuality, but about self-discovery even within a difficult context.”

“Patience is a somewhat devalued commodity. Particularly among those who ought to know better – writers themselves.” Dennis Palumbo

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter, Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in creative issues.

In one of his HOLLYWOOD ON THE COUCH column posts, he refers to the early 60′s movie The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner:

“I think of this film sometimes when trying to help my writer patients working on long-form projects—novels, plays, screenplays, etc. The running analogy is a good one, because long-form writing is like running a marathon: it requires endurance, patience, a deep reserve of will power and commitment, and an almost Herculean ability to delay gratification.

There is no GPS for the creative life; the pathways we may follow are too winding and the influences and inspirations come from so many places and times.

Divergent thinking can even come into play when promoting creative projects.

The photo is writer Sherrilyn Kenyon, who has some interesting comments below about influences on her work.

What made me aware of her was a recent newspaper article about how book publishers (including hers) are using professionally produced 30-second commercial spots or book trailers to promote titles. (On Location: book publishers borrowing a page from Hollywood by Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 8, 2011.)

Maybe you could create your own videos as creative projects on their own, or to promote your music, play, visual art or book.