Joshua Uebergang asked:
When you hear the word ‘creativity’ what comes to mind? How about words like spontaneity, impulsive, hasty, on the spot ideas?
Some reason we associate creativity and not just in writing with the ability to quickly think on the spot. How we often perceive what creativity is limits whether we actually do become creative in our writing. If you want to become a great writer and you think a great writer as someone who can write a lot of articles, then you’ll work towards writing a lot of articles. If a basketball player wants to be great at this chosen sport and he thinks a great basketball player is someone who scores thirty plus points a game, then he’ll try to score thirty plus points a game.
Your limiting views affect how you act. These mental road blockages you erect can often constrain not only your creativity, but how you see creativity.
Hopefully I’ve expanded your views as to what creativity skills actually are. Now I’m going to give you some ideas for capturing this “impulsiveness” I explained about at the start. This advice I give you will be no surprise to you but hopefully my perspective and experience will change your mind about the technique and encourage you to begin using it for improving your creative writing skills.
All this technique is about is writing down your ideas.
From my experiences, I hear people going on about writing thoughts down on a notepad and I think to myself, “I’m not carry around a notepad, how damn geeky” or “it’s just another thing to lug around”. I see it as more of a liability then an asset. Rather, I should say “I use to see it as more of a liability then an asset.
Now, I have ideas for writing that pop into my head and I then quickly whack it down on paper.
When writing I do not come up with the ideas in a single session. I don’t sit down and say that “right now, I’m going to come up with an idea about helping people with depression”.
Carrying a notepad works whether you like it or not, but I like to write on scrap paper with a nearby pen. I do however risk not having the resources available but they have always been available.
My ideas come to me when I’m washing my hands, or when I’m at work. This is because I have a passion, and the thoughts about the subjects I love, I always think about. It is when I am daydreaming about my passion that creativity about possibilities hit me.
Events may spark ideas into you. For example, on a television show I see people arguing. I begin to wander off in my mind and ask myself “why are they arguing? What could be done to stop this?” Then wham. A solution I have never thought of hits me.
You need to capture the impulsiveness we see in creativity and begin write it down on paper. Have a passion and let this explode your ideas. Don’t let your creativity go to waste and start capturing them on paper. Use this simple and definitely overlooked to be able to improve your creative writing skills.