Creative Thinking For Dummies

David Cox

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118381632
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Crescita personale
• Subtopic: Creatività

Creative thinking made easy

Being creative can be tough - and trying to come up with great ideas under pressure can leave the great ideas under wraps! Creative Thinking For Dummies helps you apply creative thinking techniques to everything you touch, whether it's that novel you have inside you or the new business idea you've had that will make you the next hot entrepreneur??? or anything in between.

Creative Thinking For Dummies is a practical, hands-on guide packed with techniques and examples of different ways to think creatively. It covers a range of techniques, including brainstorming, lateral thinking, mind mapping, synectics, drawing and doodling your way to great ideas, meditation and visualization, word and language games, and divergent thinking.

• See the world in a different way, and realise that you are surrounded by creative inspiration
• Brainstorm new ideas successfully and try out some lateral thinking exercises
• Open your mind to a new way of thinking and nail down those great ideas
• Discover creative thinking techniques using games, words, drawings, and storytelling
• Let creativity enhance all aspects of your life, whether developing your personal skills, becoming more professionally effective, or using creative thinking techniques to help your children develop their creative minds

You'll soon discover that everybody, including you, has a wealth of creative potential within—you just need to tap into it!

Part I

Laying the Foundations: Understanding Creativity

In this part...

I introduce you to the world of creativity, and you start your journey exploring a world of creative abundance. Find what inspires creativity. Discover how you’re hard-wired for music and other kinds of creative activity. Explore how creative thinking is used politically. Get under the surface of how your creative mind works. And catch a glimpse of the darker side of creativity.

Chapter 1

So What Is Creativity?

In This Chapter

Noticing the creative scene

Getting curious about curiosity

Exploring creative strategies

Finding your creative frame of mind

Incorporating NLP principles

Kick-starting your creativity when it quits on you

Creativity – a difficult thing to define, but perhaps in its simplest form the act of generating ideas – is at the very heart of human experience. The world is full of creative activity, so wherever you go and whatever you do, you’re in reach of it. Creativity takes many forms – from humble products to grand designs, from the simplest crafts to the highest art – and no two people will define it in exactly the same way. There’s always something to celebrate.

But creativity is about much more than passive appreciation. You were born creative and you have all the resources you need to partake actively in the abundance of creativity around you.

In some places and situations, creativity is obvious. And sometimes it’s under the radar. But it’s always there. You’re in touch with it daily, whether you notice it at a conscious level or not. As you look around at the products you use and the ideas you work or play with, you’re experiencing the flow of creativity that makes modern life possible.

Seeing Creativity Everywhere

Creativity isn’t just about ‘arty’ things. It’s manifested in every man-made object. Original works of art and mass-produced products are all the result of creative imagination and an individual’s unique ability to turn thoughts into reality. And creativity isn’t just about objects, it’s also about ideas. Whatever your politics, spiritual beliefs, intellectual preoccupations or personal passions, each object is the result of the creative evolution of original ideas.

Take a moment to consider something you feel passionate about. It may be a sport, a belief or a personal preoccupation. Consider why you feel so strongly about it. Think about how ‘real’ it feels to you. Now take a step back and recall what first excited your interest here. What was the path that brought you to where you are now? Who first inspired you? Who inspires you now? Those are all elements of the creative thinking that brought this passion into your life.

Spotting obvious signs of creativity

When you watch a film or the television, listen to music or use a computer, you’re in direct touch with creative thinking. All those films, songs and software packages began with the germ of an idea. Many people just experience the end product, which is fine because that’s what the creator intended.

It can be fascinating to go deeper, though, and consider how the product originated. Some individuals take pleasure in seeking out the processes behind the finished article. Doing so is one way to enhance your own appreciation of the creative process.

Creativity in your hands

This book, whether you’re reading a hard copy or an electronic format, is the product of several centuries of creative development.

A few hundred years ago, you may, if you were lucky, have had access to a manuscript or a public proclamation in your village. Unless you were a priest or a member of a small coterie of scholars, you were probably denied the luxury of reading. Gradually, education led to wider familiarity with reading skills, and this in turn created a demand for access to the written word.

By the time Gutenberg came onto the scene, the world was ready. His printing press came about, by his own account, through a flash of inspiration in which he combined the agricultural press with the concept of moveable type. The essential third ingredient was oil-based ink, and together these elements gave the world the printing press. This is a classic illustration of creative thinking, where disparate existing concepts are combined to create something entirely original.

Fast-forward to the present day and modern printing, which is the culmination of countless creative insights and refinements to this original process. It’s impossible to imagine a world without printing. The ability to publish came about through generations of creative ingenuity.

Selling High Concept

Hollywood likes originality, but not too much. Many ideas for films are pitched in terms of what’s called the high concept. This means existing stories or actors are juxtaposed to create a new entity. Examples include Jurassic Park (what if you were able to clone prehistoric monsters?), Groundhog Day (what if you woke up and every day was the same?) and Planet of the Apes (what if apes overtook mankind?). Sometimes the high concept is led by the actors, like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Twins.

Fleshing out the central idea, the pitch is usually presented in five steps (in descending order of importance):

Original and unique: Even if it’s based on existing material, there must be a twist that makes it new.

Mass appeal: The idea has to attract a large audience.

Story specific: There has to be a special factor that drives the story forwards to avoid a ‘So what?’ response.

Obvious potential: The pitch alone should make you want to see the film; that’s what the trailer will summarise.

Short: Hollywood is overwhelmed with ideas for the next blockbuster, so there’s no time for anything superfluous.

Next time you’re really hooked on creative output, whether it’s a film, song, programme, work of art, or even a simple wind chime or dream-catcher, track it back to its roots. What was the idea behind it? Where might the inspiration have come from? How did it evolve into the finished article? Can you make another one yourself? If you copied it, how would you start?

Noticing less obvious signs of creativity

Everything man-made has been through a complex series of processes from raw materials to end product. And nowadays almost everything has been through the hands of a designer.

If you choose to look at the world through fresh eyes, you can appreciate the innovation and ingenuity that’s gone into many of the most common objects. Even the humblest man-made object is an embodiment of creative thinking. Someone conceived it and then drew a design for it. And if it was manufactured, they drew a blueprint, made the moulds, and assembled it.

A simple disposable modern pen may not appear ‘creative’ on first inspection, but it’s a small masterpiece of creative thinking. For it to exist, someone had to rethink the way pens work. Then the designer had to design an intricate series of components. The manufacturing had to comply with very fine tolerances so the nib and the cap or click mechanism operated as intended. And that’s just a cheap pen!

Take a fresh look at a familiar object. Select something you use every day, and examine it as though you were from another planet, experiencing it for t...