Here are 7 habits that I use to help my creativity:
1. Get into adventures. Instead of saying no, say yes. Whether it’s agreeing going to the South China Sea or to Sundance festival or the grocery store.
2. Devour popular culture. Examine the work of other artists, movies, books, magazines, the interwebs.
3. Take pictures of things. I photograph things I see in the world that inspire me and use them for reference.
4. Scribble ideas. On a notepad, ipad, or whatever.
5. Share your ideas with others. Better ideas often come from a conversation. Give and receive. It’s a dialectic.
6. Ask Questions. Lots of other people know more than you do.
7. Listen. Try to listen carefully. When other people talk, you should listen. Ideas are everywhere.
All that is well and good…attempting to live an interesting or interest-ed life–via travel, adventure, new experiences, consuming the arts and devouring popular culture or whatever–is certainly a proven method to produce the raw material, the putty that makes up creative ideas….BUT, here’s a left hook. It’s all for naught…nearly useless if you don’t take one extra step…Beyond a doubt, the most important thing for shaping your raw creative material is QUIET.
Reading the biographies of so many of the great artists, inventors, and idea-people in history confirms it…they locks themselves away to get the master idea… But this is not myth. Doesn’t your own experience confirm it as well?
On reflection, it’s certainly true for me. The aesthetic for the best campaigns I’ve shot have come to me in the wee hours of the morning. Seattle 100 came to me while relaxing in my hammock on the weekend. The Best Camera ecosystem hit me in the middle of the night while on vacation. creativeLIVE was cooked up with Craig over the holidays when the studio was closed. The vision for many of my best photographs and videos have come while on airplanes, out of reach of phone calls in wireless signals. And time at the family cabin consistently produces long lists of things I want to create or do. I’m banking the same is true for you.
We’ve gotta carve out some time and space from the day to day noise…the laundry, the groceries, the homework, the job, the spouse, the friends, the television to go away.
Live and learn? How about Isolate and create.
[if this idea resonates with you, there’s more on this over at Zen Habits.]
I’ve started writing all of my photography/design ideas in a small Moleskine that I take with me everywhere. It’s amazing to look back and see the things you’ve thought of that you’d have otherwise forgotten. I try to keep that journal sacred so it’s not diluted with other things. The hard part is maintaining the diligence of putting them into motion.
Absolutely true, Chase. I recently completed a 365 project that I thought would be the death of me and most of the more creative ideas that came to me happened around 1 or 2AM before bed. Sometimes I couldn’t actually do them THAT day, and would save them for later, but they certainly flowed more easily than when I’d be focusing all day on trying to come up with my next piece.
In case you’re interested, the gallery is here: http://www.digimmortalphoto.com/p291432627
Totally agree. I’m currently spending a week on the Isle of Skye in Scotland where it gets very dark at night and is very peaceful. Now, maybe no great creative idea has come to me yet but I am certainly just loving taking pictures for the hell of it and I’M happy with them. I’m relaxed and so is my brain and I sense my creativity is being recharged just by being engaged with nature and disengaged with stress.
You’ve absolutely nailed it here (again) Chase. I think I can safely say that all my best ideas have come to me in the moments of quiet in between the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The best solutions to challenges in my day job have, historically, come to me in the shower or over my morning coffee.
And it’s funny, but until I read this lost I’d forgotten about the value of solitude. I’ll make more of an effort to find it for myself from now on.
True that! I would venture to say the my best creative moments come when I’m away from the technology, the noise, and the the buzz of civilization. AKA – in the shower, in a hot tub, or in bed.
Yup – I’m a shower one 😀
Thank you for this chase. I find it amazing how I was just taking a breather to do “nothing,” then your blog comes about! …and then more ideas come into my awareness.
I agree completely. My wife and I (who are co-authoring a handful of projects right now) usually get a lot of idea generation accomplished when we’re isolated from the noise and computers. The hot tub is a perfect setting.