Well, it hasn’t really been away, but this week sees some big things going on over at the Nonsensical Encyclopedia. For the uninitiated, Illogicopedia is a wiki project, a website to which literally anyone can add their own stuff. This may be in the form of witty one liners or jokes, but the bulk of the site consists of creative splurges formatted just like those pages at Wikipedia. Pretty mint, eh? Well, I would say that.

On to these big things I started telling you about, then. January has seen an explosion (or at least a small increase) in activity at the site, prompting renewed fervour for article writing and just general mucking about without the admins consent. Nah, don’t worry, they ain’t gonna ban you or anything… as long as you don’t go all Gordon Ramsay on them and start questioning their legitimacy and such. See, I happen to know them personally and although they’re a little but insane they aren’t bad people looking to knock you down a peg or two.

This increased interest in the site has led me to take a hammer to the front page, instating a long-awaited modified landing pad for the Big Cheeses’ helicopters. Not really, on our wages they couldn’t afford a second hand bicycle from Hindley car boot. Hopefully this rejig will lead to even bigger ‘n’ better things, such as world domination or at the very least a slap on the back from some bloke in the pub. Which isn’t really likely, since I don’t think anybody in the Fox and Chicken would have even heard of the Internet.

Nevertheless, the Illogiblog has seen an upsurge in contributions and there’s actually the feeling that people care about the place again. Not that it was ever missing, but at least there’s a general collective community spirit beginning to appear once more.

Contribute to the Illogicopedia. Go on, you’ll like it.

As a bit of a follow up to my earlier piece on Wikia, I’ve gone to the trouble of outlining some specific things you ought to know when creating a Wikia wiki. Don’t see these articles as a personal attack on Wikia, who, on the whole provide a very good service. Consider them a rant against the general over-reliance on advertising at free content websites, something that’s becoming increasingly prevalent in this current economic climate, and something that cheeses me off slightly.

Look out for more posts on this subject in the future and perhaps some sort of archive bringing all my Wikia pieces together.

I’ve witnessed the downfall of Wikia due to its increased reliance on advertising first hand in the past year. Whilst I don’t want to dwell on the events of precisely one year ago, I decided to breifly revisit the subject with a general account of what happened from my point of view. It can be found here, and is the first piece I’ve published at HubPages.com, an online content hub (as it were) for writers and businesspeople to post articles.

It’s been somewhat painful, though I hope to have exorcised one or two demons. Hmm, I know that’s unlikely, but it was nice to vent my spleen again.

Chris Sharrock is the Dean of Arts at Camberwell University and earlier this year I had the opportunity to visit one of his lectures. In it, he spoke of his experiences as a Professor and how he has developed his own technique for being creative on demand.

Of course, this is never as easy as it sounds. The dreaded writers’ block is always around the corner and trying to force yourself to be productive can be a heavy burden to carry, especially when there are outside distractions.

Sharrock’s lecture has inspired me to post my own tips for being creative, the techniques that I use to cope with the creative demand.

• Forget about the task in hand. No, really – once you’ve thought about something for a long time, it can weigh on your mind. Forgetting about it by doing another activity helps you relax and often you’ll come up with the solution to the problem just like that.
• Just take a walk, or watch some television and you’ll be surprised how many times an idea will come to you when you least expect it.
• Keep a notepad by on your bedside table. During the time in between wake and sleep, our mind can often make spurious associations, some of which may be useful. Remember to write them down, though, as you’ll probably have forgotten it by the morning.
• Bounce ideas off people. Your family, work colleagues and other people in the same field as you – all may have something to contribute and bring in an outside factor you were initially blind to.

As a parting note, just remember that being creative is a process, and not always necessarily a product. And remember, it can take years to find a working technique that’s right for you. What are your personal methods?