Tag Archives: blankpage

Change Your Scene

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Image by Keith Chapman

Image by Keith Chapman

One incredibly easy and simple way to spark creativity is to change your scene. Change your surroundings. Where do you do your creative work? In an office? In a room? At a coffee shop? Take a look at where you are most productive and take a look at what is around you. If you are blocked, go elsewhere even just for one small creative session. When I was writing my first novel, I hit a major lull. Until that time, I went to write at a bar and grill type restaurant over lunches that granted me free wi-fi access. Then I hit a wall. I was lost in the book. I didn’t remember how I got into the weeds but in the weeds I sat staring at a blinking cursor.
Finally, I closed the laptop, gobbled down my food, and left. I went to a local coffee shop, ordered an afternoon coffee and sat down for just another 15 minutes and opened the laptop on a whim. Nope. Blinking cursor sucking my creative synapses right out from under me. Then, totally out of the blue, two well-dressed business ladies sitting near me had a conversation that I could not prevent from overhearing. One lady was complaining how their meetings were so unproductive because people felt the need to talk to fill the air. She went on to say if a meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes and it only needs to take 10 minutes, then be a doll and give the time back to your people. Oddly, this resonated in more ways than one. It well stood true in my own experiences with corporate life but deeper than that was the nudge I needed on my book. I was hung up on  making the dialog of my parody go through this entirely boring scene line by line. I ditched the whole section and summed up the many, many paragraphs by replacing it all with a simple, snide commentary. It shortened the chapter significantly, became more direct, and most importantly removed the logjam. This would not have happened as easily as it had if I had not relocated. Changing it up gives you a chance for newness. This means the muse in each of us gets new input which in turn can result in different outputs. If nothing else, it keeps you moving.

Creativity Jump Start in 3 Steps

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Original Digital Art by Keith Chapman.

Original Digital Art by Keith Chapman.

When facing a blank page, a blank canvas or simply… a blank and you need to produce something… anything… at this point, try the following “simple” exercise. It’s like a shot of caffeine to the creative brain.

1. Think of an object that is for sale in a store that you shop at frequently. Write the first object you thought of down on a page of paper.

2. Think of an adjective that begins with the first letter of the object you wrote down. Take the very first one you thought of and write that adjective down on the same page as the object.

3. Below the object and adjective, write 10 connections between the adjective and the object without repeating notions. After a few, it should get crazy hard. That’s what you want. Persevere! By the 4th or 5th connection, you should be in crazy land but get 10 and you expanded beyond normal thought. Now… admire your oddities and hit that blank page, blank canvas, or that… blank… and create something spectacular.

As an example, here is one I just did:

Object: Tennis racquet, Adjective: tight

Connections:

1. The strings on my tennis racquet are tight.

2. My muscles are tight after using my tennis racquet.

3. The shot I made with my tennis racquet was tight up against the base line.

4. My grip on my tennis racquet was tight.

5. The grip tape was wrapped tight around the handle of my tennis racquet.

6. When I looked through my tennis racquet I framed the view of my opponent in a tight oval.

7. I rolled the handle of my tennis racquet in my shirt which made my shirt tight on my chest.

8. When I removed the strings from my tennis racquet, the frame was a tight fit over my head.

9. I strum my tennis racquet like a guitar because the strings seem as tight as guitar strings and the handle is like a guitar neck.

10. I bought a cheaper tennis racquet because money was tight.

Whew. That was not easy but that is the whole point. There will likely be obvious connections between the object and the adjective because your mind defaults to a connection to think of the adjective off of the initial object. However, after exhausting a few connections, you start looking for alternate meanings of words and alternate situations to put those words to use. I hope you find this exercise useful.

Now go. Create.  ~ The Mission Creative