Increase Your Creativity

A while back at work--the day job, that is (you know the one: it pays the bills until someone in the publishing world wakes up and smells the coffee and beats down the door with a contract)–anyway, a while back I came across a one page poster with 10 quick suggestions to increase your creativity.  There was no elaboration, and I consider there to be a fair amount of overlap, but I’m going to share each one with you along with my thoughts on what they might mean to a writer.  Take from them what speaks to you. 

1.  Question Assumptions.  Become aware of what may be subconscious understandings under which you “operate.”  For instance, the structure or format of a story: do you assume you have to write in three acts because that’s most common, or do you start in “mid-action” because you’ve read that it’s a “must” for beginning authors? Remember, for decades romances were written only in third person exclusively from the heroine’s point of view but it’s no longer a rule.  In writing, as in life, our expectation of how things are “supposed to be” can drastically affect our perceptions.  It’s up to us to be aware of our assumptions so we can question the validity–not necessarily to take a different path, but to take the one that’s the right fit.  (One idea I’ve read on nurturing a creative spirit in general is to invent new patterns in your life–do something different every day: take a different route to work, try a new food, change your clean-up routine, and so on, in order to keep yourself fully aware of your environment, both internal and external.)

2.  No Negatives.  (as in self-talk)  Yes, you can write!  It’s neither rocket science, nor a black art.  It’s not even a divine gift, although inherent/instinctive abilities certainly vary in writing just as they do in every other field of endeavour.  You don’t have to be the best ever.  You don’t have to be Nora Roberts or Georgette Heyer or Ernest Hemingway or John Grisham or anyone other than yourself. You just need to work at improving your own craft.  So no negative self-talk; it’s insidiously undermining, and I say again yes, you can write–in your own style, and if you choose to.  So combat the greatest barrier you’ll ever  encounter–poor self-perception--with conscious positive self-talk, affirmations, meditation, or relaxation techniques; practice your craft; and allow yourself to be yourself.

3.  Seek Quantity, Not Quality.  Self-explanatory for the most part, and definitely related to #4, Defer Judgment.  I’m reminded of the advice Judy Corser (a.k.a. Bowen) passed on at last fall’s session at St. Michael’s from, I believe, a Donald Maas workshop she attended.  When you come to spot where you’re not sure what happens next (whether it’s after the first sentence or first ten  thousand), write down ten options: the first few will be the most obvious, but by the time you wring out the 10^th one you’ll be getting to the most creative possibilities.  I’ve seen other versions of this same approach, along with various means of giving your left brain the reins: timed writing, brainstorming, clustering, free writing, journaling, and any number of writing exercises.  Try a bunch to find out what works for you–the key is to go for quantity and turn off the internal editor during the process–you can bring her out later to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

4.  Defer Judgment.  Easier said than done, yet an essential skill you must cultivate (I seem to be agriculturally minded today–must be something to do with living in Saskatchewan!).  Whether you’re toying with a raw idea, brainstorming a plot problem, or working through the first draft of a scene/chapter/whole @#~* book, invite the editor that loves to read over your shoulder to take a hike–not forever, just for a while. You and that editor have to come to an accommodation or she’ll have you backtracking time and again rather than moving forward, learning, and creating.  So talk to her, out loud if necessary, and arrange a compromise: she’ll leave you alone to get on with business of creating, and you’ll give her full control to bring that creation up to snuff once you’ve given it some form and substance.

5.  Challenge Conventional Wisdom.  This one’s a logical partner to #1, Question Assumptions.  Would your particular story improve if told in four acts rather than three, or if told in the first person, or even three or four “first” persons?   If the answer is yes, do it that way.  Does your story unwind in a slow and subtle build up rather than slam-bam action?  If so, take the space you need at the start to presage that.  Now to be honest I have to say the examples I’ve given are relatively “safe.”  We’ve all heard publishing house editors say ‘if a book’s good we’ll publish it regardless of the rules,’ and we all know that a good number of published authors will tell you they couldn’t break those rules until they had developed a reader base.  Wherever someone has boldly and creatively broken a rule, i.e. the editors took a chance, published an author who challenged conventional wisdom, and it worked, others soon follow.  I believe the key in romance or any other genre is to know when you’re stretching the boundaries and when you’re moving outside them and into another genre.  To illustrate, in romance it’s one thing to write a flawed protagonist and another to move to a direct anti-hero/heroine–the line between the two can be so fine that its blurs and you cross it without intending to do so.  As with #1, when you challenge, do it consciously and because the story calls for it.

6.  Ambiguity.  Let the ideas flow without getting into specifics.  You can nail down the details later.  There’s a relationship here to #3 and #4, seeking quantity and deferring judgment, but it’s more than just that.  It’s staying loose enough to work with concepts that can start out in one direction and take a sudden turn in another when they’re pursued.  Those changes in direction can lead to the most unexpected and fascinating destinations.

7.  Focus on the Real Problem.  Of course, to do that you must first be able to identify it.  In writing, that means learning your craft, practicing it, then giving the results a critical once-over (your own, or through one or more third parties).  If you find a problem, look at how you can make it work (and remember numbers 3 and 4 in the process!).  And while you’re at it, try giving your creative engine some homework–write out the problem and read it over before bed.  Mentally set yourself the task of finding a solution and repeat the problem in your head as you settle down for sleep.  Just make sure you keep pen and paper by the bed so you can capture your thoughts on it when you first wake (which could be in the middle of the night!).  No guarantees, of course, and sometimes your brain can be really stubborn about it–or totally mischievous in handing you the solution when you least expect or are prepared to capture it.

8.  Turn Obstacles Into Opportunities.  Can’t plot?  Use your characters to drive it.  Can’t characterize?  Use your plot to determine what characters would fit.  Dialogue an issue, or conflict, or setting?  Develop a workshop and let your research teach you something new.  

9.  Explore the Ridiculous.  Okay, back at #4 you and that editor came to an accommodation and she let you get on with #3, you kept #6 in mind, and now you have a whole host of possibilities to explore.  Some of them will look workable right off, while others look patently ridiculous.  Don’t be too quick to toss out the latter.  Instead turn them over a time or two–you may be surprised at the kernels of possibilities that show up.  Of course, they may simply be chaff. And that’s okay, too.  Just take your time with them.

10.  Build and Combine Ideas.  Your own, or someone else’s:  read!  Read romance.  Read other types of fiction.  Read non-fiction.  Read up on how to increase your creativity.  Re-read your own stories that didn’t work.  Read billboards, for crying out loud!  And while you’re at it, remember #6, and # 3, and 4, and......