Thank you for taking the time to visit Creative TIPs.  Unless I miss my guess, you have a few questions about how I know what I'm talking about and how I came up with some of the things you'll find on this site.

About Me

I am a writer in south-central Oklahoma.  I have been called a creativity expert on many occasions, so I started using the title to refer to myself.  Finances willing, I will start classes soon to become a Certified Creativity Coach.

I have always had an interest in creativity, though for a while I didn't know what to actually call it.  I just knew I was interested in writing, art, arts & crafts, beading, cooking, etc.  Eventually, I figured out they all fit under the umbrella of creativity.

The Idea Pocket

In June 2007, I was at the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs for a month-long residency.  As part of the residency, I was to do a community outreach presentation.  I found out it was to be a presentation to a group of children.

What did I have that I could teach children?  Most of what I thought of was too advanced.  I went to Creativity Portal to browse around for ideas/inspiration.  From there, I decided a loose collage system could work to teach them about creativity, regardless of what they want to do, whether writing, drawing, etc.

For reasons I won't go into here, I was not able to complete the residency in June, so I went back in mid-September and stayed through mid-October.  The children had gone back to school, but the outreach coordinator wanted to know if I would be willing to talk to a group of senior citizens who were writing their memoires.  I agreed.  In this, I figured out The Idea Pocket could be adapted regardless of age and what the people wanted to do.

KNOWS

The KNOWS system for working is one that I adapted.  I had a notebook system in progress already that helped somewhat.  (It was Julie Hood's The Organized Writer.)  I needed something that was focused to one project at a time.

KNOWS (Keep a Notebook Organization Working System) came about after examining the setup of The Organized Writer.  I pared it down only to what I need to complete a project.  Before using this system, I had various incomplete manuscripts and projects on my computer.  Since beginning the system, I have completed three full manuscripts.  I have another one halfway done and yet another in planning stages.  My productivity has definitely increased by using KNOWS.

If there are any questions I haven't answered here, e-mail me.

~Jen Nipps