Constant creativity is based on a strategy. It is something you build by cultivating your ideas. To have the best ideas, you have to create a lot of ideas. When you have many, you can choose. If you constantly make new ideas, you will never run out of ideas.
How can you do that?
How can you always have ideas to write about?
You need to cultivate them.
Write 100 ideas now
Suppose you don’t want to face the scary white page syndrome when creating the daily piece. You’d better prepare for it. Here is your most important preparation step. Write 100 ideas. It’s hard, you will feel empty, doubtful and you will want to quit.
Don’t. Follow some rules and some tricks, and you will populate your Creative Repository.
The Guidelines: how to write the ideas
The following are not rules but prompts to help you come up with your ideas. Use them, abuse them, scratch them or come up with your directions.
One idea, one concept.
Be specific. Cover one concept. Restrict scope as much as possible. Do not be abstract. Do not add variations of the same idea.
Provide value
Is your idea creating a benefit? For whom? How?
Be original
Is your idea unique? Are you consciously or unconsciously getting inspired by something already existing?
Use your experience
Try to look at your history. What have you created in the past? What have you failed to develop in the past? What were your dreams as a child?
Be bold
Think big. Look higher and broader. Imagine you have all of the resources in the world: what would you do?
Be concise
State your idea in one sentence, 14 words at the maximum.
Be a force for good.
Focus on how to improve the quality of life for the World: How can you create unity? Inclusion? Equality? How can you increase peace, wealth, and health?
Be simple
Think of something really down-to-earth and very accessible: What do you like to do every day? What are your innocent pleasures? What places would you like to visits?
Combine and connect
Pick some of the ideas you wrote and combine them.
Get help
Ask your family. Ask your friends. Do you like your suggestions? Include them.
Get random
Open a random page of your favorite book, point your finger: is it a good idea? Write it down. Otherwise, repeat.
In conclusion
This creative activity aims not for you to submit a draft for the next Pulitzer (who knows!) but just to get you started. Overcome the thrill of ideation, get unstuck, fill in 100 rows with ideas. You will feel funny, silly, stressed, and you might regret one or two of them. That’s how the game works.
Do you want to play?
Then join us in CREAZEE!