Creativity Boost: Try New Things

Hi Reader,

My biggest obsession is Mahjong. I started playing in February with a group of friends, and now we meet every week. What's the connection between Mahjong and creativity? A lot!

Learning new skills rewires your brain. You’re forming new neural pathways, making your brain stronger and sharper. Think of it like working out at the gym—except instead of biceps, you’re flexing that beautiful brain of yours. A brain that’s in tip-top shape helps you think outside the box, make wild connections between unrelated ideas, and come up with creative solutions that’ll make you go, “Whoa! I didn’t see that coming!”

Beware of the Rut

If you’re doing the same things day in and day out, your brain will start to get bored. You know that feeling when you’re stuck in a rut? That’s your brain telling you it needs something new to chew on. When you introduce fresh experiences, your mind starts lighting up with excitement. The more novel things you try, the more creative you become. It’s like feeding your brain a steady diet of new material to work with.

If you’re doing the same old thing day after day, week after week, you’re not giving your brain the workout it craves. The more new things you experience, the easier it is to spark fresh ideas. I live for my weekly Mahjong games. The excitement I feel for something as simple as a game lights up my creative energy like a firecracker. It's like giving your creativity a turbo boost.

Confidence Feeds Creativity

There’s something really powerful about learning something new and slowly getting better at it. When I first started playing Mahjong, it felt like trying to read hieroglyphics. I couldn’t keep track of the tiles, the rules seemed endless, and I had no idea what I was doing. But I stuck with it. And guess what? Now, I play confidently.

That confidence is like a secret weapon for creativity. The more you succeed at something new, the more you start to believe in your ability to tackle challenges, even the ones that feel impossible at first. Confidence seeps into everything you do. Suddenly, you’re more willing to take creative risks. You’ve proven to yourself that you can learn, you can improve, and you can succeed. And that belief makes you bolder.

The Take Away

So what’s the big take away here? Simple: try new things, go new places, build new skills. Each time you step outside of your comfort zone you’re building confidence, sparking new ideas, and boosting your brainpower. It doesn’t have to be something grand or life-changing—it can be as simple as learning Mahjong!

You might even discover a hidden superpower along the way. Sometimes, the hobbies we pick up for fun can turn into something much bigger. They can unlock doors to new passions, help you break through creative blocks, or even lead to new career opportunities. Imagine discovering that your quirky new skill is the key to solving that tricky problem at work or coming up with the plot twist that’s been eluding you. The possibilities are endless!

And you know what? The weirder the hobby, the better. The more out-there, the more unconventional, the more likely it is to shake up your thinking and lead to new ideas.

Two Writing Contests:

Black List Fiction

Big news for self-published and unpublished authors: The Black List, an online platform that connects screenwriters to Hollywood studios and producers, is expanding into fiction.

As part of their fiction initiative, they have the Unpublished Novel Award, offering a $10,000 grant to the top manuscript in each of seven genres: Children’s & Young Adult, Crime & Mystery, Horror, Literary Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Thriller & Suspense.

The deadline for submissions is June 27, 2025. Recipients will be announced in December 2025.

Two Decades After Shaking Up Hollywood, the Black List Sets Its Sights on Fiction (Publishers Weekly)

The Black List Website Expands Into Fiction, Including Awards for Unpublished Novels (Variety)

Historical Fiction Short Story Contest

Submissions are now being accepted for the very first short story contest sponsored by The Historical Novel Society North America Conference.

Fire up your imagination and send an original short story up to 4,000 words that is set in Las Vegas or the surrounding area any time before 1975.

Finalists receive a small honorarium and will be published in HNSNA’s first short story anthology, and the winning story receives a Grand Prize of $250 plus in-person conference registration (approx. $550 value)!

Click here to submit your Las Vegas-themed historical short story any time between September 1 and December 1, 2024.