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Top 10 places to inspire creativity

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I’ve got to say that these days, I’m feeling very creative. Well, quite creative. Make that moderately creative. Better adjust that to a smidgeon creative. Tell you what, put it this way: I’d be feeling exceptionally creative were it not for the endless building work going on in my home. It’s been like that since March, and frankly, I’m a bit sick of it.

So let’s just leave it as I’m feeling more creative than I did, say, two years ago. And for a copywriter – nay, for anybody who reads this Creativepool Magazine – feeling creative is a pretty important thing. I think a fairly large part is down to our house move 18 months ago. For no longer do I trudge the streets of London. In fact, if you’d care to look at the newly launched website for my copywriting consultancy, We Write Copy, you’ll notice this on the Contact Us page:

We’re based in a lovely 19th-century former cattle shed on the rural borders of Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. So unless you fancy pitching up in your wellies for a chat, you might prefer to send us a message via the web form below instead.

Do I work in an office? Yes. If you call a converted cattle shed in a quarter of an acre of conservation area an “office”. I’m not bragging, mind. I’m getting to a point here (trust me).

London may well be the creative capital of the country. And, truth be told, when I do venture down to the mean streets from leafy Northwest Essex, I do still get a slight pang of “did I make the right choice to leave?” But (1) I don’t suit skinny jeans, (2) I don’t really suit those massive hipster beards either and (3) I do not miss commuting across London to get to work one little bit. That bloke eating fried chicken on the bus doesn’t exist in Saffron Walden. No, he’s much more likely to be annoying me in some other way, like saying “mmmm!” too loudly when he nibbles daintily on a cream cake.

In short, waking up every morning to the sound of squirrels gnawing away at their nuts is far preferable to waking up every morning to the great unwashed getting in each other’s way and annoying me with their blank iPodded eyes tunnelling into nothingness opposite me on the tube.

Yes, for me, being out here in what is a relative wilderness has made me feel more creative – and I’m just dying for my [actually very nice and obliging] builders to go away and leave me in peace. That way, I can fling open my bifold doors of a morning, sit down with my freshly brewed coffee and get writing, writing, writing.

It doesn’t matter if it’s not my novel (which is just as well, because it so isn’t my novel). It also doesn’t matter if I’m not reviewing my poems and songs, either. Even when I’ve got my corporate hat on and I’m copywriting for my list of loyal clients or a brand-new one, there’s usually a chance to be creative in some form. For me, there’s nothing like being more or less in the middle of nowhere and having nobody around to set my creative juices flowing.

So all this got me thinking. It led me to explore what some of the most remote creativity-enhancing places in the world might be. Below are the fruits of my research. My top 10 places to do pretty much nothing but go and gape and stare and absorb – ultimately, to be inspired. Even just looking at these pictures makes me feel awestruck; imagine actually going there…

And if you do happen to go and explore one of them and then come back and win some prize or other for the gems you consequently create, please be kind enough to credit me on the acknowledgements page. Thanks.

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10. Abandoned mill from 1866 in Sorrento Italy

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9. Abandoned city of Keelung Taiwan

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8.) Cooling tower of an abandoned power plant

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7. Fishing hut on a lake in Germany

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6. House of the Bulgarian Communist Party

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5. Lawndale Theater in Chicago

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4. Nara Dreamland in Japan

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3. The Tunnel of Love in Ukraine

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2. The Kerry Way walking path between Sneem and Kenmare in Ireland

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1.) The Maunsell Sea Forts in England

What's your favourite inspiring location? Link it to us below. 

 

by Ashley Morrison

Ashley is a copywriter, editor and blogger

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