Just get it out, no matter how crappy that first draft.
Teach and you’ll learn.
Drink ridiculous amounts of coffee.
Write all ideas down immediately.
Turn your work into play.
Get lots of rest. Overwork kills creativity.
Don’t force it. Relax, play, it will start to flow.
Do it when you’re excited.
Don’t be afraid to be stupid and silly.
Small ideas are good. Don’t need to change the world — just change one thing.
When something is killing your creativity, kill it.
Most of all, have fun doing it.
If I might add one idea to this excellent list (be sure to check out the full list from link above), you have to be in an environment that will allow (better yet, encourage) creativity. I’ve been so blessed for most of my working life. I guess this means working for the right company or working for yourself.
Telling someone how to be creative is like explaining how to wiggle your ears. But Hugh MacLead’s little blog-to-book (Ignore Everybody – And 39 Other Keys to Creativity) has some useful insights. Here are my favorites:
The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.
Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.
The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.
It was so liberating to be doing something that didn’t have to have some sort of commercial angle, for a change.
Doing anything worthwhile takes forever.
Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
Like the best jobs in the world, it just kinda sorta happened.
Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring.
The only people who can change the world are the people who want to. And not everybody does.
Selling out is harder than it looks (It’s hard to sell out if nobody has bought in)
If you’re arranging your life in such a way that you need to make a lot of fuss between feeling the (creative) itch and getting to work, you’re putting the cart before the horse. You have to find a way of working that makes it dead easy to take full advantage of your inspired moments. They never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long.
The best way to get approval is to not need it.
Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom.
The size of the endeavor doesn’t matter as much as how meaningful it becomes to you.
If you are successful, it’ll never come from the direction you predicted. Same is true if you fail.
“What if social media (Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Google Earth, etc.) were the only tool you could use to deliver the benefits of journalism to your community? You could still gather information however you choose (through in-person interviews, phone, Web, archive research, etc. — even social media), but you could only deliver your work via social media. How would you do it?”
I suspect this experiment is already out of the lab and we’ll see more and more examples. And I especially like the notion that “creativity thrives on constraints.” 140 characters. 30 sec of video. Boiling a story down to its essence.
Jerry Del Colliano offers 8 ideas for life after radio. Number 5 is particularly relevant for our company, which has half a dozen news websites:
It’s not news websites — that’s no business model. It will be blogs — special information on something that attracts a valued audience. But instead of monetizing it by selling ads (something I think has peaked even when the recession ends), sell a subscription. That’s right, I am nuts. I believe people will pay a reasonable fee for that which they crave — remember I said crave not like. In the past, if you are an expert on gardening, you would have done a radio show, TV or newspaper column. Now, you’ll do a blog. And if it has passionate followers and you price it right, you’ll make money and build revenue with your audience. Keep in mind I’m projecting this trend — it’s coming because it has to come. The Internet is a delivery system not the content.”
I should point out that we do not make any money from our websites. We are still very much in the radio network business (on the news side of our company). We sell 30 second commercials on affiliated radio stations. We have a few blogs and some Twitter accounts but –with a couple of exceptions– it’s more dabble than business. Exciting days ahead.
Our ideal candidate will have five plus of relevant experience in radio or TV programming, broadcast media marketing or online community management. Strong knowledge of online communities, blogs, user generated content is required. Demonstrated team building and leadership skills. Clear written, verbal communication skills, with solid group presentation skills. The ability to merge organizational mission vision with strong creativity and tactical execution. Strong project management skills with an acute attention to detail. Should have a working knowledge of content management systems (CMS).”
The Caucus (the NYT politics blog): "The election has “triggered an avalanche of cybersquatter activity,” according to NetNames, a domain name management service. Speculators have registered nearly 2,000 domain names related to presidential candidates as of last week. Names related to Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy made up over half of the registrations, followed by Mr. Obama with 635 and Mr. McCain with 269."
I didn’t see a lot of creativity in the domain names listed in the Times story. HillarysFatAss.com and UppityAfroAmerican.com were conspicuous by their absence.
“The feeling in newsrooms, especially among the people on the new-media side, seems to be that there are an awful lot of people within organizations that aren’t on board with a vision of changing for the future. Even when top management has developed a new corporate vision for a digital, multi-media and less print-centered future, and communicated it to “the troops,” implementation is being slowed by many people in the organization — including mid-level managers — who still don’t buy into the idea that a total transformation of the news organization is necessary.”
“Everyone’s got work to do to put out the “daily miracle,” but in an era when the old industry model is in decline, we can no longer afford to have a workforce where the majority are solely doing the work of “putting out the paper.”
“The smart news organization in 2008 will be the one that encourages innovation — no, requires it — from ALL its employees. It will get everyone involved: in planning meetings; in committees charged with specific research and/or implementation projects. It will create some time in the schedules of everyone in the organization to do the work of innovation, and make that an integral assignment.”
“Most importantly, it will develop a training program to teach new-media skills to those still lacking, and regularly bring in innovation and creativity experts to guide both managers and employees. With the latter, exposure to and interaction with those experts will be company-wide.”
Our summer interns are packing up and heading back to school. One of their final tasks was to prepare a presentation on what they learned working for Learfield. The interns working in our Dallas office created a Powerpoint presentation which was, I’m sure, very… nice.
The Jeff City crew asked my advice and I told them Powerpoint is for losers. I suggested they produce a video and loned them my camcorder. I forgot to give them a mic so the sound is not all that it might be but their creativity and humor comes through loud and clear. Ladies and gentlemen… Coleman, Corey and Tyler.
Henry says I first mentioned blogging to him in 2003. He let the idea percolate for a while and emailed me last weekend to say he was ready to start blogging (he’s a thoughtful guy). I stopped by his office a couple of days later for my Are You Ready to Blog lecture. By the time I left, Henry had lost his blog virginity and had a couple of posts up at HealthCareFineArt.com.
Along with his medical practice, Henry has built a very successful business creating digital images for the health care industry.
Where was I? I remember. While Henry has a beautiful website, he had concluded a blog would be a valuable addition. People he knows and trusts warned him “this blog thing” might be a distraction. And he came to Dr. Steve for a second opinion.
Aside: Have I mentioned smays’ theory that the first 48 hours are critical in the life of a new blog? At the end of two days you’ll wind up with one, sad little “toe in the water” post… or a dozen or so posts.
I’m proud to report Dr. D. comes down solidly in Column B. He is off…and..running. And, like all good blogs, he has focus. He’s writing for and about the health care fine art space (the oxygen is thin up there).
Like all natural bloggers, he didn’t need much help. He came armed with passion, creativity and something to say. And he hasn’t stopped saying it. He is… empowered!
(Throw up the Prediction graphic)
A year from now, a Google search for “health care fine art” will take you to Henry’s blog. Comments are open, so if I’m wrong… I want to hear about it.
If any smays.com readers with blog want to give Henry a little link love, he’ll appreciate it and so will I.
Podcasting News: Psychologists Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in England and Sam Gosling at the University of Texas at Austin, have found that strangers can accurately assess another person’s level of creativity, open-mindedness and extroversion after listening to his or her top 10 favorite songs.
While I had no data to support it, I theorized about this a year ago. Anyway, two of the conclusions in the new study caught my eye:
“Whether you can study or work efficiently while listening to music may depend on how outgoing you are. Background music can help extroverts focus but tends to torment introverts.”
I’ve always thought of myself as an extrovert but I can NOT listen to music while I’m trying to concentrate.
“Fans of energetic music like dance and soul are more likely to impulsively blurt our their thoughts, compared with fans of other styles.”
Science fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling in his final column for Wired:
“The future of the Internet lies not with institutions but with individuals. Low-cost connections will proliferate, encouraging creativity, collaboration, and telecommuting. The Net itself will recede into the background. If you’re under 21, you likely don’t care much about any supposed difference between virtual and actual, online and off. That’s because the two realms are penetrating each other; Google Earth mingles with Google Maps, and daily life shows up on Flickr. Like the real world, the Net will be increasingly international and decreasingly reliant on English.”
“The Internet crawled out of a dank atomic fallout shelter to become the Mardi Gras parade of my generation. It was not a bolt of destructive lightning; it was the sun breaking through the clouds.”
This idea resonates with me because I have very little faith or confidence in institutions… and a lot of confidence in (some) individuals. And the Net allows me to find and connect with individuals in ways institutions can not.
Henry says I first mentioned blogging to him in 2003. He let the idea percolate for a while and emailed me last weekend to say he was ready to start blogging (he’s a thoughtful guy). I stopped by his office a couple of days later for my Are You Ready to Blog lecture. By the time I left, Henry had lost his blog virginity and had a couple of posts up at