Creative Thinking

Chapter 1 CREATIVE THINKING

Our journey must begin by exploring creative thinking, because it's critical to everything else you'll learn in all the chapters that follow. Creative thinking is based on the word create. It's a way of thinking that allows us to create new ideas. A storyteller needs unique ideas to entertain. There are three main steps in the creative process;

1. Inspiration
2. Planning
3. Creating

Inspiration

There is a similarity between how your mind works and how your body works. Your body can do great things, but it needs to be fed. Your mind also needs to be fed and you feed it with inspiration. Inspiration is something that gives you an idea. All story projects, whether it's a film, a play, a book or a video game, start with inspiration. Inspiration is not something you create, it's something you find. When a person finds inspiration we say they are inspired. A creative person knows when they are inspired because they suddenly feel good. They feel a sudden burst of energy and that's why people say it's like a light bulb turning on in your mind.

So where does inspiration come from. It's not something you create, it's something you find and there are good ways to find it. Different people have different ways of finding inspiration, but usually it involves exposing yourself to new ideas. Here are some things that can give you inspiration.

1. great music 2. stories 3. history 4. religious teachings 5. fine art 6. magazines 7. books

8. movies 9. traveling 10. internet research 11. youtube 12. pinterest 13. festivals 14. conventions

Planning

Once you've found inspiration, you have to decide what you're going to do with it. It helps to think of planning as involving two stages. There's brainstorming and organizing.

Brainstorming

This is often the step people try to skip, but for a creative person this is very important. Brainstorming is when you come up with ideas. To do a proper brainstorm you must not evaluate your ideas or worry too much about details. The way to do a really good brainstorm is to give yourself a time limit and come up with as many ideas as you can within the time limit and within your topic. A popular example is "How many uses for a paperclip can you come up with in one minute?". We are so used to questioning our thoughts, but when you brainstorm you shouldn't let your critical mind take over. The goal is just to produce lots of ideas. It takes practice. So often your mind will dismiss an idea so quickly you barely realize you thought of it. You have to retrain yourself to allow your thoughts to come out. We use the world storm because you have to let out your ideas so quickly it's like lightning flashes in a thunderstorm. Also, just as some lightning flashes hit the ground and some don't, some ideas will work and some won't but when you brainstorm your not worrying about what will work, your just putting down ideas.

Usually ideas are put in the form of a hand written list, but a brainstorm could also involve charts, drawings or any way you can think of to get your ideas out quickly. A really great way to brainstorm is to use a mind map. The term mind map was coined by the brainstorming theorist and author Tony Busan who has written a book about the technique1. Here's how it works. You put your main topic in the center and circle it. Then instead of writing down the page, you surround your main topic with your sub topics, circle them and draw lines connecting them to the main topic. You repeat the same procedure by creating sub-sub topics by your sub topics and so on and so on. Basically, any idea you come up with, could include sub ideas, so instead of just making a list you surround each idea with its subtopics. It's like making an outline, but with a mind web you can work much faster. Another advantage of using a mind map is that you have more room for flexibility. There are also mind mapping programs and websites you can use that allow you even more flexibility.

Try this one

Organizing

This is where you pick the ideas you like the best and develop your plan. Here's where you use the critical thinking you had to shut out when you were brainstorming. After brainstorming you have a large quantity of ideas to work with. It helps to look over the ideas you came up with. Notice patterns. Notice what ideas you were favoring when you brainstormed. Remembered that you're not limited to just choosing one idea. You combine and organize your ideas. You can also ask yourself if there are more unique choices you can try. A common phrase is Think outside the box. It means consider finding ideas that are not the typical choices.

How old is this woman?	What do you see in This picture?

Creative thinking involves seeing more than one possibility.

Creating

Once you've made your plans, it's time to put them into action. The last stage is where you turn your ideas into something that others can enjoy. These stages are at the heart of what this book is all about. The next three chapters are based on the first two stages of the creative process showing you how to plan your story. Chapters five to ten show how you can take your story and turn it into a production that others can enjoy.

You're not bound to go through these stages only once with a production. On a big production you'll go through these stages several times. Plans always change when you're putting them into production. You'll find problems that need new ideas to fix or you'll realize there's a better way of doing something. Don't be afraid to change your plans. Life is full of inspiration and you might find it even when you're not looking for it. The process of creating also provides a source of inspiration. For example, you draw something based on what's in your mind, but then the drawing because something separate from your mind. Seeing it on paper can inspire you and provide new ideas. Another example is when you get actors to perform your show, the actors performance allows you to see the characters in a new way which might lead you to change the script.

Also, notice where you get stuck in your creative process. Getting stuck somewhere means you need to work on the stage that comes before. If you're having trouble coming up with ideas than it means you need to find some inspiration. If you're getting stuck trying to organize your plans you might consider doing more brainstorming. If you run into problems while trying to carry out your plans, than it means you need to fix your plans or make new ones. Also, if you're not find inspiration than try putting your current ideas to use. Sometimes getting your ideas out frees up room for you to create new ones. Even if you think you're ideas aren't good, try putting your bad ideas on paper. Seeing your idea outside your imagination helps you think of ways to improve on it.

Activities

1. Try seeing how many uses for a paper clip you can list in two minutes. It's a great way to test your creative thinking ability. The more creative you are the more ideas you can list.

2. Before looking at the list of brainstorming topics on the next page, choose a number between 1 and 100. Set your timer for five minutes. As soon as you start the timer, find your number on the next page. That's your topic. Write as many ideas as you can in that topic before the timer goes off.

3. Instead of a timed brainstorm, you can try an endurance brainstorm. Try picking another number without looking and then find it on the list. Give yourself as much time as you need and see if you can come up with 100 ideas.

Summary

There are three stages to the creative process. The first stage is inspiration. Inspiration is something that gives you an idea. There are things you can do to help you find inspiration. The second stage is planning. The first part of planning is brainstorming. Brainstorming is when you come up with lots of ideas. To do a good brainstorm you come up with as many ideas as you can within a time limit. Brainstorms are usually done as a list, but they can be charts, drawings or mind-maps. The second part of planning is when you organize your ideas. The last stage of the creative process is creating. Creating is when you turn your plans into something other people can enjoy. The creative process is a cycle, because when you create something it gives you ideas. If you find yourself stuck in one of the stages, try going back to the previous stage.

Glossary

Brainstorm
To brainstorm is to come up with lots of ideas quickly without taking time to think about your ideas critically.

Inspire
To inspire is to give ideas. You start the creative process by finding something that inspires you. Inspiration can come from many sources such as books, movies, other people, events.

Mind-map
A way of organizing ideas in which you put your topic in the center of the page and branch out relating ideas and branch relating ideas off of those and so on creating a form much like a web or a tree.
References Tony Buzan (1996). The Mind Map Book. New York: Plume. Recommended Resources Websites bubbl.us 6 thinking hats Books How to think like Leonardo DaVinci