EXERCISE: Creativity Supercharged (1)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 16 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

The article starts with notes about Claude Monet trying to paint with a brush attached to a long stick, Miles Davis giving musicians music only minutes before the start of the recording session, and Anton Chekhov who tried to always finish stories in 24 hours or less without using notes from his notebook. "Good artists often put themselves into risky or challenging situations to spark their creativity." Monet was deliberately reducing his control, forcing himself to rely on impulse. Davis wanted improvisation based on pattern and variation, pushing the riffs and motifs, depending on spontaneity. Chekhov gave himself deadlines and wrote from memory to add urgency and emotion to his stories. They were all working towards what's often called the creative moment or breakthroughs.

All too often, hours of concentration don't really move things ahead. But get up and walk around the block, take a shower, or do something else -- and there is a lightbulb popping over your head and suddenly you know what needs to be done. Insight, inspiration, Eureka -- whatever you want to call it, that moment of creativity often makes complex tasks much easier. "Any self-imposed device that focuses intensely on craft can serve as a catalyst to set the wheels of creativity in motion."

The exercises translate established artistic processes or devices into tools that you can use to spark the fires of your most creative moment. Some suggestions for using them:

1. The games are an experience or adventure, not a thought process. Don't over think, and certainly don't grind away at them.
2. Observe the time limits as one of the keys for accessing creativity.
3. Trust the unknown. It's scary, but thrilling.
4. Look for spontaneous answers. Don't fabricate answers, just watch and see what comes up.
5. If one game doesn't work, try another. But don't be afraid to struggle with an uncomfortable task that forces your mind to try something new.
6. Learn to identify what you feel like when creativity strikes. But then just observe. Save the analysis for later.
7. The object of the games is the sensation you discover. Get in touch with how creativity feels.
8. Don't strive for a polished, finished piece. Do accept the vitality of your results.

As for instructions, each exercise has its own. But in general, you want to do this:

1. Relax. Use whatever techniques you like, such as meditation or deep breathing, to relax.
2. Enjoy the discomfort. Follow directions, do the assignment, "stupidly copy everything" as Michelangelo said.
3. Let go. We are not analyzing, critiquing, etc. Play again.
4. Watch your body for sensations. We really aren't disembodied creatures of thought. Recognize what creativity feels like to you.
5. Wait for inspiration. Patience -- creative fish bite when they want to, with the word, a phrase, an idea out of nowhere.
6. Go back for more. When you fall out of the creative zone, take another look at the pattern or structure that got you there, and climb back in again.

Okay? I'll go ahead and write up the exercises.

EXERCISE: Creativity Supercharged (2)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 16 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

From drama and painting: A Painting As a Scene in a Drama

To get students to create dramatic action in their plays, playwright August Wilson asked them to describe a painting, then explain what was going on in the picture and evolve a story.

Your task: "Think of a famous painting or any other image you know from memory. Or find a photo of a painting in a book (one with people in it will serve best). Imagine the situation as a scene in a novel. Write one clear sentence describing how the characters arrived in their current state. Write a second sentence from one character's point of view. And write a final sentence about the scene that follows. Take five minutes."

So start with a painting or photograph. This situation is a scene in your novel. In one sentence, tell us how the characters got into their current state. Then in one sentence, look at the current state from one character's point of view. And then in one sentence, tell us what happens next. Three sentences -- how did we get here, where are we now, and what happens next. Five minutes.

Write.