What's the most creative thing you've done?

Well, going on with the whole "bipolar disorder can increase creativity" sort of link....

What are some of the rather creative things you've done while (hypo)manic that either were just utterly hilarious later... or that you are still super happy/proud about?

I wrote a 174 page My Chemical Romance fanfiction that even my mother thought was good. I had lots of fans on the music fansite. You can see it at amyf63 its called Ghost in The Background. I have other creative writing there too. It starts on September 12 in archives.

I went 7 days with not a drop of sleep . I repainted my house.. twice . I had my hair colored ... red, blue,teal and purple . i cooked and cleaned like a mad woman. tossed out stuff . I can't stand clutter or any kind , not a single bit of it.

I don't regret a damn thing

I planned out an entire world for D&D... that I was going to be the DM for... without ever really PLAYING D&D.

And it was EPIC. I have like 100 quests sorta planned out (some more detailed and others not that detailed at all) I had a map and the entire main part of the city population.. complete with what they looked liked and how old they were and what quests they were linked to and their alignments etc...

I had two very epic spreadsheets made up, which had codes to link into word documents where I could put anymore detail in about them.

Yep. Seriously, epic.

And I was playing it online with my friends on another forum...and a few weeks in I think I either got busy or a depression hit, and I haven't been able to get myself to go back to it.

I'm way old school .. My brother and I played that sitting around a table and it all on paper . LOL

I loved that stuff

I WOULD play it on paper... but I don't know anyone around who does. And never did - hence the majorly late start

Also - last November for NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) I wrote 50,000 words in 7 days.

LOL .. MY daughter is Nanowrimo again this .,. along with fullltime work and playing gigs 4-5 nites a week and working out plus her normal writing songs ... Shes a very busy Bipolar I person .. hahahaha

Well, senior year during what must have been a lovely undxd hypo, I designed all the dresses for the girls in my class for our Matric Ball / Senior Prom. A week of no sleeping, just drawing and pretending to study and we all looked spectacular in creations ala Lia!

Also at my old job in payroll I was having thee most inspired time, at just the right time. I was instructed to train new hires on our digital time stamp system, and I spent hours making new user friendly manuals, put up "How To" posters everywhere and worked 16 hrs for 11 days straight to accommodate everyone's shifts...

Even though that hypomania ended up in thee hugest panic attack ever, where a colleague took me to hospital where I had to use an oxygen mask for 4hrs, I am still proud of all I accomplished. Even got an award at work because my new manuals increased overall accuracy.

Also I was inspired by colour one day and had my hair dyed pink, blond and black. Gosh it was stunning and I'm toying with the idea of a shocking electric blue atm but I don't wanna "ruin" my friends wedding photos, so will have to wait a few weeks

Also my tattoos are some of my best work, I design them myself. I only have 2 inked, but there are 3 on paper just waiting for the bank account to approve them! Haha

I draw, nothing special, what are called Zentangles.

I, also, piece quilt tops when I'm manic. Some of my best stuff.

Y'know gayle - I keep resisting the urge to buy a sewing machine. I want to, but am waiting until I have a house and space.... but when I'm in an up I ALWAYS want to buy one.

One of the main hobbies I want to start when I'm like that? Quilting. I want a quilt. But I want it to be a quilt that I made.

I've made many baby quilts while manic.. I can usually cut, set the pieces, baste, and quilt all within 2 days max. I made my sister one in one day.

I made my boyfriend a sign for the living room. I took a scrap piece of wood, painted it, went to a bar and asked for their beer tops, got Gorilla Glue and wooden letters. I painted the letters. Then I glued the beer tops to the board. I didn't read the instructions and the glue bubbled up. I was freaking out but then I decided it looked like beer foam! I kept on until the whole board was covered by beer tops. Then I glued the letter on top of the board. He loved it! (The letters spelled out the nickname of his house.) We have it above the living room entryway.

I would have to say what I've written in my blog is pretty darned creative. That's what I did last time I was manic- write all about the angels that were givening me messages.

Horse browbands. One time (hypomanic) I decided to make a business and made a heap of beautiful show browbands. One night before a show I decided I didnt like any of my 50 or so to use for the show the following morning so I stayed up all night making a new one, then went to the show on no sleep - not the first time but never a good idea haha. I got plenty of compliments on the browband but only minor placings

I also have a lot of art and craft around the place, some are lame but all were so exciting to make.

Since being back on meds I find my creativity is down the toilet. I saw a doco the other day about how to test creativity. For example, he had a shoe, you had to name EVERY single thing you could possibly use this shoe for. I came up with about 3, where as the guy on tv had close to 40. Apparently there are activities you can do to boost creativity so I have been trying a few little things here and there.

I miss my creativity from when i was manic

Most of my best writing was from when I was manic. Poetry, philosophy, short stories & erotica. Some of it is ridiculous to me now but I know it meant something to me & so I keep it in hopes it one day will again.

It all started when I was 13 & perhaps going through my first episodes. I started getting into poetry. And then non-stop through my classes for 2 days I wrote a piece that was 6 pages long about a girl weaving in & out of a nightmarish parallel universe that looked exactly as the normal reality. And then a few days later I wrote a 11 page one about this same girl waging an internal war with a faceless man inside a cathdral within her dreams.

I wish I still had those two pieces... I had them confiscated by a guidance counsellor when I was called to her office for cutting myself during class & spitting on the teacher.

Thanks for the thread Red!! I enjoyed reading everyones replies, cool to see what others here create.

Um the best part was...without ever really playing dnd. Haha pretty funny.

Hmm my most creative maybe ..most weird... no judging....

Made a house decoration out of a piglette fetus. Manic probably, sanitary well maybe. Obtained without cruilty... not sure. I did get it from a college science program. I was not a student at the college.. just had connections like that. Haha oh sounds so gros now. But I have always had a thing for anatomy. I made a painting with moths once too along with some hair of one of my friends, it was a bit gross upon decomposition.

Last halloween I made a costume entirely from animals including the dreadlocks. Don't worry it was ALL from the thrift store. I am more aware now than earlier years.

I also have a photo collection of dead birds I have found, now this one actually has many meanings to me. I have had a serious phobia of birds as long as I can remember and this was probably the closest I got to them ever. There is something unusal about seeing a dead body, we tend to clean up and move ours as soon as possible out of view. I have wondered about the effect on humans from the practice of doing so since the first funeral I attended when I was 5. Lastly these dead birds, many of these were caused by human behaviour, and that isn't something to look away from.

I have wanted to publish these but my bf and family and one friend who know about them seems very off put and almost disgusted or disbelief that anyone other than me would like to view them Sadly I did let that influence me.

Um I realize these all revolve around animals or once living things, no idea what that says about me but I just feel connected to them . Dunno what that is about.

I sew, knit, paint a bit, remake furniture.. mostly tho I love making things out of stuff that I can find in the trash. It's cheap too..or free. cannot do quilting but would love to learn how sometime.

I like how everything points to a serial killer type person then you add the sweet part at the end which threw me off lol

I also knit and I wish I could make quilts.

On the morbid side I wrote a horror fiction story and I got a person to make me a cover for it. A good friend of mine is a published author and she is giving me tips on getting it publish

Making art out of dead animals doesn't indicate any sort of negative intent. If anything, it's honouring the previous existence of the creatures that once inhabited the bodies.

I think that's beautiful, Anika. I often try to save the bodies of animals & preserve them if I can. Either by just getting the skeleton or wet preserving them in ethyl alcohol... It's not disturbing or gross. People just can't handle death or dead things & there's an imbedded stigma about it.

An unnecessary one.

To each their own

I think it only points to serial killer if you actually killed them, and enjoyed it. I killed the moths.. some of them, some were already dead. And that is on my karma, I know.

It's kinda funny but I am a pretty peaceful person. I realize that sounds quite opposite of what I said but context is everything. It sounds bad, but was not a dark thing I was doing. Hmm it didn't seem dark to me, just curiosity I guess.

I am sweet .... really ..I am

I never said you were a bad person, everyone has quirks. As long as you didn't kill them that's fine and I like to collect animal things too, just not bodies. Have you ever been to a hobby store before? They have bones, feathers, etc and people make cool things with them. My friend makes necklaces with seashells and animal bones she bought from there and sells them. She makes a good profit from etsy too.

This is where she buys her stuff from

http:// hobbylobby.com

So idk how to make the link work so you can just copy and paste the link. There is probably one in a mall near you and it's a pretty cool store.

I thought you were kidding, hoped haha. I don't want to be seen as a serial killer yikes.

I think for me part of the enjoyment is in the hunt. I spent two months hunting for antlers last year for my head peice. And when I found them OMGzzzz I was so thrilled....like I had won the lottery. Maybe that comes from being poor and relying on that kind of thrift hunting all my life. I am not adverse to climbing in a dumpster if something catches my eye. My grandpa used to take us to the dump when we were kids and we would find the neatest things. Fond memeories of that.

Thats cool about your friend, I browse etsy often. Sometimes think I should attempt to sell and then chicken out with my lame self talk. But it's good to hear that your friend is having success there, encouraging. I'll take a look at that link...thanks MedFox.

Hmm I would love to see pics or excerpts of your guys's creations...

It was a joke

I feel like that with seashells at the beach. I collect every unbroken one and bring so many home with me. I use them as decoration and my highest prize is the lion paw seashell I found years ago. Also if you ever found intact moose antlers they sell for hundreds so that could be something to keep in mind if you ever needed extra cash.

You should totally sell stuff! People will literally buy anything if the price is right.