The Big Idea Blog - Creativity

Favorite Quotes

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:47:00 -0500

Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it may sound at first. If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need

William McKnight, 3M President

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono

You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club

Jack London

So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering. Brenda Ueland

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Scott Adams

Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work. Rita Mae Brown

Writing is both mask and unveiling. // E.B. White

Begin at the beginning... and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
- Lewis Carroll, Adventures in Wonderland,

How creative people work...

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:20:00 -0500

Carr's Blog using numbers to measure/ promote creative work...

A useful pdf on finding time to be creative -- time management for creative people...

six traits of creative people I like this quote "By working at the edge of their competence, where the possibility of failure lurks, mental risk-takers are more likely to produce creative results."

A big ol' idea for today: learn what works for you by learning what works for others

Avatar is merely an average movie

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:38:05 -0600

Avatar didn't win best picture. Because it wasn't.

It was really cool. But so is peanut butter captain crunch. And mood rings. (Still sold in truck stops across Iowa, by the way.)

I saw avatar. In 3D. So did you. Now go watch it in 2D. What did you think? Kinda long-ish.

Here are the key problems with Avatar; the movie.

1) It has one really cool special effect. One.*
2) The story is poor.
3) "Unobtanium?" Really? Ten years and thats the best you can do?

Disagree with #2 above? OK. Name one 'twist' in the movie. Any un-expected plot turns?
Any character growth? {Really? Wasn't he pretty-much anti-army from the opening scene?}

Todays oscar special big idea: Before you spend a million - billion dollars on a project, get the core right. Frosting is good (effects) but there has to be cake. (story)

Avatar is merely an average movie. Neil Patrick Harris however

(*Three-d. Actor capture is only so-so.) ( Why do the characters in "UP" look like puppets, not people? But I digress.)

Spoiler alert.

Fresh links on creativity...

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:33:58 -0600

Love can make you more creative?

RITA MAE BROWN:
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.

100 on-line creativity tools

And 25 more tools...

You could never write a book like that..could you?

Winter gardening as creativity metaphor

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:01:00 -0600

Its deep Winter here. Twelve degree days. Six degree days. Snow. The perfect time to think about planting a garden.

Yes, the seed catalogs are about to start arriving - months ahead of planting time - so that we, the gardeners can start planning. You can't do any actual dirt work in Winter here, as the ground is both snow covered and actually frozen solid. But its a good time to plan, gather tools, and imagine next Summer's harvest.

Creativity is like that. You need to dream a little, prepare and wait for the right time to start.

Big Idea: Some days are for planting and others are for dreaming. Make both part of your process.

2010. Advice for writers (and other creative persons)

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:17:57 -0600

I was recently quoted in an article for writers:

My Gift
—Dave Walbridge

My gift to writers is to begin.
Start your project, book, poem, play. . .
Do not read another instructional book, buy a new pen or wait for inspiration.
Simply begin.

Write.
every.
day.

Full article here
Bottom of the page.

Today's Big Idea: Get a notebook. And a pen. Start.

Be funny - Right now

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:17:47 -0600

I make my living being funny. Its a great job, I get to travel, go to fun events and meet lot of interesting people. Humor is closely related to creativity in that both connect things in new ways for surprising effect. This is not a pipe

But, once in a great while, a social bore or similar person will say something exactly like" Oh, you're a comedian? Do something funny!"

In these cases, I politely refuse.

Being (successfully) funny, I have found requires not only the right preparation & mindset, but the correct audience. When I prepare to entertain, I prepare material, travel to a venue, warm-up. My audience is quiet, sitting, facing forward and expecting to be entertained. We (the audience and I) are both prepared to make the humor successful.

Creativity is much the same. Being asked to be creative "on the spot" is hard and rarely successful. But with the right situation (supportive environment, tools, expectations, time, etc.) creative ideas and people can flourish.

Today's Big idea: Be creative, right now. But only after you prepare.

How to develop lots of great, new, creative ideas right away!

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:05:27 -0500

Today's Big Idea: One way to generate lots of great ideas is to generate lots of (bad, regular, moderately successful) ideas.*

* I write jokes. But I can only sell great jokes. To get to 10 great jokes, I usually have to write forty OK ones, a few stinkers and a few I don't even understand. That's the success ratio that works for me. If you want to be a successful creative person, expect to create alot -- including creating/ writing/ discovering quite a bit of bland material. Get it out of the way so you can get to the great stuff.

Goblins in thongs

Rules for writing

sacred rules of creativity

Seven rules for creative output