Writers, artists, photographers, marketeers, small business owners and a whole mash of creative people are coming together like never before in our connected world. In fact, there’s a bit of a maker revolution going on.

When I took my first Instagram course this year it felt like I’d come home in a thoroughly modern sense. I found a vibrant, global collective of storytellers and rediscovered my own creative spirit.

The maker community reminds us that writing skills are not so much tools, but craft. To be treasured and nurtured just for the hell of it. For the love of it.

Social media is a bubble and can be frustrating. It can also be an exciting place for creative escapism, community and collaboration. For many it’s the finely balanced blend of art and life, business and pleasure that keeps us coming back to our virtual tribes.

I’m lucky that work usually inspires me, but creativity can be easily lost. The maker community reminds us that writing skills are not so much tools, but craft. To be treasured and nurtured just for the hell of it. For the love of it.

Creative processes fascinate me, the rituals and the obsessions. The details. I love how my Dad, an artist, agonises over each brush stroke. How my journalist brother files his copy. When I can nail a narrative for a business. The tiny decisions which bring together something that works. Or more usually something that a maker chasing perfection can just about tolerate enough to share.

When you’re inspired by the world around you, the spark has a habit of catching. So this is me stretching my creative legs a little. I’m running with it. Giving it a go. For better or worse, I’m getting out there to join the makers.

What inspires you? Let me know in the comments below!