Using Creativity Techniques in Your Writing Career
March 4, 2005 by J.C. Hewitt
By Carolyn Campbell
Remember that exciting, lightning-flash moment when you conceived your first idea for a writing project? That initial electric charge of creativity is often followed by bursts of energy that help you complete vital tasks and spur you on to make your writing ideas become realities. Many experts feel that, rather than being a personality trait, creativity is a way of thinking that writers can take advantage of to build their careers in innovative and profitable ways. The following suggestions are offered to help you make the most of creativity techniques in originating, developing, and expanding your writing career.
1. Think like an artist to “make friends” with failure.
Patricia Sullivan, who has taught creativity techniques for eighteen years in her own writing business, feels that her “biggest revelation” was to accept the value of risk-taking and to realize that creative solutions are often reached after much trial and error. She explains that students are taught in school that they succeed when they reach the one right solution and get an “A” or a 100%.
“In artistic endeavors such as writing, people can’t figure out why the single right solution isn’t just around the corner like money found on the sidewalk,” she says. “Today’s advertising makes solutions seem instantly beautiful, clean and neat, when creativity is more likely a slow and often messy process. Remember, Edison received over 5,200 patents on various inventions leading up to the electric light.” She adds that Edison spent two years just looking for the best filament, sending agents to the Amazon jungle and Japanese forests in search of materials, and even trying a friend’s beard hair as a possible conductor of electricity.
Sullivan says a seasoned writer is likely to begin a novel with many starts, thinking of each different version as a new incarnation rather than a failure. When Sullivan created her first business card, she thought, “I see why I did that. I’m moving in the right direction. But now I know more changes I’d like to make, and I’ll keep going until I’m totally comfortable.” She says it took two years to reach the final version of her marketing brochure. “When you are creating, be accepting of your work’s newness and value the steps you are going through. An experienced writer knows that if he lets something he doesn’t like in one incarnation stop him, he’ll never proceed to the final incarnation.”
2. Let creativity help your writing evolve.
Being open to influences around you along with your own creative stages can help you realize which writing strengths are yours, says Sullivan, who feels her own presentation skills are stronger than her writing skills. “When you put your work out to the public, their response can help lead you to the next step,” she says.
Tina Lassiter, owner of The Business of Women’s Business in New York City, has watched her career evolve through several distinct stages as she discovered her writing strengths. “I was stressed and a mess,” she says of her 1988 departure from the demands and pressure of corporate business.
In 1992, her business segued more into the public relations realm, as she concentrated more on a form of public relations she terms “image development in events planning,” in which she helped client create marketing materials that reflected their unique personalities. “Even though public relations and marketing is a creative field, I felt unproductive in my work, because the passion wasn’t there. I liked the writing piece, but the other non-creative business aspects of public relations were draining to me.”
Lassiter found that getting away from her business through exercising her creativity actually helped her make decisions about how she wanted to change her business to include the creative writing aspects she loved. Finding that fewer clients called her on Mondays, she enrolled in a three-hour ceramics class. She says, “Taking my thoughts away from the business aspect of my work opened my mind so I could consider other options. Even if you just get out a pencil and draw or listen to a favorite piece of music that has affected you in an unusual way, it can help engage your mind to help you decide which direction your writing should take. ”
3. Explore creative thinking methods.
Creativity guru Edward De Bono says that creativity is like the reverse shift in a car. While you would not dream of driving along in reverse all the time, if you did not know how to use the reverse shift, you would be unable to get out of blind alleys and your general maneuverability would be limited. In a nutshell, De Bono’s 36 books describe ways to access “creativity on demand” by utilizing techniques he describes as lateral thinking, as opposed to vertical thinking. In his book, Super Creativity, De Bono states that in conventional vertical thinking you take a position, and then seek to build on that position. The next step depends on where you are in the first position. In lateral thinking, De Bono says, we “think sideways rather than moving from one logical conclusion to the next in order to try different perceptions, different concepts, different points of entry.” One way to do this is to pause before reaching a logical conclusion to ask, “Is there another way I could do this?”
In another De Bono thinking method, dimensions are exaggerated (amounts, completion deadline, number or size) to help you consider different options. What if you had to write 50 magazine articles in a month instead of 5? Which aspects of your operations would you change? If you had only a week instead of a month to complete an article for an editor, what would your priorities be?
4. Cross-pollinate your creativity.
While a writer may be inclined to spend all his time alone writing, the stimulation of others” ideas is often one of the greatest enhancers to creativity, says Padi Selwyn, speaker and author of Living Your Life Out Loud. “Writers need to constantly expose themselves to new ideas and the thoughts of others for cross-pollination of their own creativity,” says Selwyn.
She advises writers to form or seek contact with a “mentor” or “mastermind” group, in which participants meet regularly to discuss and consider ideas. In her mastermind group, there are five people who regularly write alone. “We meet and run ideas by each other, then serve as a sounding board. It’s a great way to get creative ideas,” she says.
5. Break away from work so your ideas will marinate.
For sixteen years, the hand painted fish Bri Matheson creates in his garage have graced tee-shirts, bolo ties, jewelry, sculpture, and promotional materials for an international tuna company. To jump-start his creativity on days when he puts off starting work, Matheson spends a brief interval in his garden, takes an energizing walk or goes skiing. “I find that changing my environment spurs me on to want to return to my art work in the garage with fresh ideas,” he says.
Selwyn agrees, “Most exciting breakthroughs occur not when you are sitting at your desk, but rather when you are doing something pleasurable for yourself. Art Frey, a 3M executive, got the idea for post-it notes while singing in his church choir. Velcro was born when a Swiss engineer took a walk to escape from his work. When a burr landed on him, he thought it would make a great fastener.” Selwyn feels that allowing time for oneself provides incubation time for creative ideas to grow. She recommends taking at least a 30 to 45 minute uninterrupted block of time for ideas to marinate in your subconscious mind. She says, “When you “break away”, be sure to take a “capturing device” with you–a tape recorder or notebook.”
Using creativity techniques can help your writing advance during the down times when you most need a spark to move ahead. From the beginning brainstorm, through each subsequent sag in momentum, creativity techniques can jump-start your enthusiasm and keep you on a focused track to success.
Carolyn Campbell is the author of two nationally-published books, Together Again : True Stories of Birth Parents and Adopted Children Reunited and Love Lost and Found : True Stories of Long-Lost Loves-Reunited at Last along with 300 magazine articles.
[...] away from work so your ideas can percolate. Carolyn Campbell at the Writer’s Resource Center recommends constructive ways to break away from work. Pursing replenishing, personally pleasurable [...]