I recently started working on an awesome new project for a game company who's products I love. I'm sworn to secrecy about the project, but I'll say this: it's a wildly creative endeavor, that I couldn't be happier to put time into.
This morning, after seeing how excited I was to start working on this project, a few of my friends had questions about how they could keep themselves in a consistently creative place. It was an interesting question that I hadn't thought much about before.
Here's what I came up with -- feel free to let me know what you do!
Consume
Each week, I try to read at least one book, trying not to stick to the same genre. One of the keys is to read outside of my comfort zone. Some of my best ideas were generated from the least expected places.
Of course, books don't have to be your only source of creative fuel: movies, television, video games, comic book, art galleries, museums -- whatever works for you!
No matter the source, the point is to consume information, but don't take my word for it, take Joss Whedon's from this interview with Fast Company:
“The last piece of advice on that level is fill the tanks, fill the tanks, fill the tanks. Constantly watch things and things you don’t [normally watch]. Step outside your viewing zone, your reading zone. It’s all fodder but if you only take from one thing then it’ll show.”
Explore
When I first started studying Taoism and martial arts in high school, I was always taught that simply cultivating chi was not enough; you had to get it moving, to keep the energy from becoming stagnant and unhealthy. Whether you believe in chi or not, I think the rule is still the same.
After you consume the information, put the new information to work, get it moving, explore what it can do.
Whenever I finish reading a book, I talk about it with friends. Making sure to mention my favorite parts, lessons I learned, and my connection to the story.
Talking about the information allows me to see other people's perspectives argue about points, and it also allows me to try and articulate what I learned from the information.
In addition to talking about each book, I make sure to take notes. Some are in digital form; others are in a pile of notebooks. The notes could be about anything - word choice, sentence structure, ideas, questions, descriptions - whatever I feel like jotting down.
Create
The creation process, for me, is all about spitting out idea after idea and being prepared to toss nearly all of them in the trash. Take note of the ones that seem to springboard you into new ideas. Follow these threads until you hit a dead end, or until you've come up with something that fits your needs. You can use a variety of tools to help you keep track.
- Programs like Scrivener and Scrapple are perfect for brainstorming and keeping ideas organized.
- Mind maps are a fun way to branch out your thoughts while keeping them anchored in a central point. Here is a free mind mapping tool you can use: Mindmaps
- Using a whiteboard to jot down lists of ideas can be a more rapid fire and spontaneous approach to creativity.
Please let me know what you do to keep creative.
Cheers,
Decimus