learn from other people

your creativity is like a muscle - it gets stronger the more you use it. so you keep using it. that isn't the only way you improve. you improve by lerning. sure you can read all the textbooks that tell you the right way to do things, sometimes they will tell you the mistakes to avoid. they will give you strategies on how to improve. the thing to remember about rules - is that often they are there to be broken. one of the best ways to learn is to learn from others. creativity and culture doesn't happen in a vacuum - everything feeds off of everything else. this has never been more true than now in the age of instant gratification and instant access. so when you are watching, listening, reading, viewing someone else's work - look at it and see what you can learn from it and then think about how you can apply that to your own work. that next movie, song, book, gallery is researh for your next piece of work. learn the lessons well and apply them.