The Creative Outlet
The outlet for your creativity determines, in a big way, what shape your ideas will take as you develop them.
Imagine that you're a comedy writer for your favorite television show. At the moment, mine is "30 Rock". If you're being paid to come up with ideas for dialogue and plotlines, all of the sudden, everything you read in the newspaper becomes a challenge. You start thinking, "How could that be turned into something interesting that happens to Jack Donaghy in one episode?" or "Could this be worked into a joke that happens in a conversation between Frank and Twofer?"
Without an outlet, your ideas don't get developed or go anywhere. One of the theories I read recently about neuroscience is that if you don't use the ideas you think of, your brain stops giving them to you. That kind of makes our brains sound like indignant drama-queens, doesn't it? (Brain: "Fine, you don't like my ideas? Well...I'll just stop giving them to you, then!" Talk about sour grapes.)
If you're a Tweeter, your first thought when you get an idea is: can I say that in less than 140 characters?
When I had an interest in doing stand-up comedy during college, suddenly, everything I thought of, I started trying to turn it into a bit I could do onstage. Now that I'm writing, I work with every idea I have to turn it into a book idea or blog post.
Here are some random outlets I just came up with that you could use to create stuff:
1. Greeting cards.
2. Coffee mugs
3. T-Shirts
4. Bumper stickers.
5. Cartoon strip.
6. News article.
7. Food.
8. Fortune cookie fortunes.
9. Your Facebook status.
10. An empty canvas.
You can pick the outlet. Or, even better, you can do what Hugh MacLeod did and come up with your own. (He does witty little sketches on the backs of business cards.)
Imagine that you're a comedy writer for your favorite television show. At the moment, mine is "30 Rock". If you're being paid to come up with ideas for dialogue and plotlines, all of the sudden, everything you read in the newspaper becomes a challenge. You start thinking, "How could that be turned into something interesting that happens to Jack Donaghy in one episode?" or "Could this be worked into a joke that happens in a conversation between Frank and Twofer?"
Without an outlet, your ideas don't get developed or go anywhere. One of the theories I read recently about neuroscience is that if you don't use the ideas you think of, your brain stops giving them to you. That kind of makes our brains sound like indignant drama-queens, doesn't it? (Brain: "Fine, you don't like my ideas? Well...I'll just stop giving them to you, then!" Talk about sour grapes.)
If you're a Tweeter, your first thought when you get an idea is: can I say that in less than 140 characters?
When I had an interest in doing stand-up comedy during college, suddenly, everything I thought of, I started trying to turn it into a bit I could do onstage. Now that I'm writing, I work with every idea I have to turn it into a book idea or blog post.
Here are some random outlets I just came up with that you could use to create stuff:
1. Greeting cards.
2. Coffee mugs
3. T-Shirts
4. Bumper stickers.
5. Cartoon strip.
6. News article.
7. Food.
8. Fortune cookie fortunes.
9. Your Facebook status.
10. An empty canvas.
You can pick the outlet. Or, even better, you can do what Hugh MacLeod did and come up with your own. (He does witty little sketches on the backs of business cards.)