Volume 1, Number 5 | September 2007
You can wait a long time to be inspired. Especially if the time is accompanied by adverse conditions--too much work, too much heat, too much stress,
too much monotony. Sometimes an hour of yoga or even a brisk walk is hard to manage (or inadequate to the task.)
While I'm a big advocate of keeping
lists
and scrap files* against just such an idea drought, I know from personal experience that this is not always practical. (Hey--I'm the nimrod who suffered three hard drive crashes before I finally got a solid backup system going.)
The good news is, it's possible to infuse yourself with fresh ideas using
nothing more than the ideas you have already, along with a few ordinary household items.
So...what's in your toolbox, McGyver?
1. The mysterious omniscient Google (and Flickr)
I did a series of very popular posts on the searches that landed people
at my blog. Depending on the challenge at hand, you may or may not come up with an exact answer, but almost anything is bound to spark your
creativity a bit.
Similarly, a simple word or two typed into Flickr's search engine--"excruciating" or "fantabulous" or
"oh noooo"--will turn up a
slew of interesting thoughtstarters.
2. The amazing and all-powerful meme
There's a reason the blogosphere loves memes: in addition
to disseminating information quickly, they do the heavy lifting of
idea generating.
But memes can do much more than provide blog fodder: they can kick-start an
article, essay, painting, song, etc., or just unstick
you at a critical point in the creative process.
I have a post up at communicatrix-dot-com about using an actor's character
checklist--a very meme-like document--to work through blocks. It comes complete with 28 questions (and examples)--something for everyone,
and no
acting skills required.
3. The awesomely telescoping perspective (or Day-Job Eyes)
As a friend of
mine said the other day, most of us have one or two or five income streams these days. But even if you do one thing for a living, chances are you
play at something else: a hobby, an endeavor, a passion, a duty.
The simplest example is the worker/parent duality: when you run up against a challenge at work, think of
how you might address it if you were dealing with your children (or parents) in your off-hours.
An actor having a tough time parsing a scene--figuring out why his character is (or isn't) doing
something--could break down the scene from his vantage point as an office manager (or waitron, or teacher, etc.) A songwriter can call on his inner
gardener, a journalist on her inner bridge player.
The chief idea here is to get out of your head and a few feet away--to see how your "x" is really like a
red, red "z".
If you have other ways of doing just that, I'd love to hear about them!
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