Systems for Creativity
The most common obstacle to creativity is "blank page syndrome", or the sensation that there are so many potential starting points that choosing and committing to one course of action feels impossible. We often convince ourselves that ideas should spring forth fully formed from the blank canvas of our mind, but this expectation is unrealistic. In fact, the greatest creative minds throughout history have borrowed ideas and used tricks and techniques to facilitate progress.
Here are some high-level approaches that may help to kickstart the creative process.
Narrow It Down
Rather than attempting to visualize the entire work, choose one slice to focus on, and make a quick decision. This may be a color scheme, a topic, a first line, or a musical key. This choice can be completely arbitrary and is totally mutable. Consider flipping a coin, consulting the I Ching, or rolling a die to choose between multiple ideas.
The intention is to kickstart progress by taking a first step, with the understanding that we may change direction at any point.
Passive Contemplation
Take time to daydream. Opening ourselves to the collective unconscious through meditation and passive contemplation activates our receptivity. Let the flow of ideas come.
Background Noise
Play music, white noise, or a movie in the background. Welcome subliminal suggestion.
Create a Template
Establish a structure for the content or design in advance. This may mean writing an outline for an essay, establishing the media and dimensions of a painting, and choosing a rhyming scheme for a poem or song lyrics. This becomes the skeletal structure upon which the muscle and flesh of the piece are built. Knowing the general shape of the work makes it easier to visualize the final form.
Explore a New Technique
To avoid repeating ourselves or becoming uninspired, make new neural connections via learning a new skill. Switch mediums altogether, or pick up a new instrument or tool. The discovery process is exhilarating, and the wonder this engenders fuels creativity.
Steal and Conceal
Use an existing work from a respected artist/technician as a starting point. Borrow the subject, tone, rhythm, chord progression, melody, or structure from the piece. Build upon it so that the original "borrowed" component is no longer recognizable, or remove the stolen element altogether.
