Part 3

On Creativity, Part 3: Creative Techniques

There are many techniques you can use to generate more ideas and boost your creativity. You’ll find that many of them overlap, and as you get familiar with them, you might adapt them to suit your own style. The key is that they work for you, not how “experts” say they should be.

Active Idea Collection and Inspiration

A copywriter I know once said, “If the only thing you know about, and the only thing you watch on TV, is Paradise Hotel, then all your ideas and writing will be about Paradise Hotel.”

To combine old elements, thoughts, and ideas into new creations, we need new, varied, and constant input. This is why the knowledge part of the creativity model is so crucial. The broader your knowledge base, the greater your chances of coming up with a unique idea. What do you already know, and what are you willing to learn?

My debut book is a response to the question: “What if my childhood was the plot of a Stephen King novel?” So, my childhood + Stephen King = ?

When I decided to explore this question further, I began active and targeted information gathering and research. Which sub-questions could help me answer the main one? “What exactly did I experience as a child?” “What if the incident with the doll we found outside the kindergarten didn’t end as smoothly as it did?” “What if my brother’s death wasn’t the end for him—what would that be like?” My childhood + Stephen King = 3 Stones for the Nixie.

To answer these questions (and many more), I had to reflect on my memories and talk to friends and family about what it was like growing up in Båstad (or Øyerstad, as it’s called in the book).

Tip: Base your project on something you know. It saves time on research, and you’ll come across as more credible—an essential key to engaging your reader.

Involve Others and Set Deadlines

Writing and creating is often a solitary job, but you should involve others to keep your project moving forward. I was once stuck trying to describe the smell of the forest near the cabin where we used to play as kids. So, I chose the tool of “phoning a friend!”

“Hey, Ole! How would you describe the smell up by the cabin?”
Ole didn’t have a clear answer either, but he had a different perspective that pointed me in a new direction that fit perfectly. And the next time we talked, he asked how the writing was going, keeping me accountable for my progress.

If you’re doing research or trying to recall a memory, reach out to someone who might remember it better. Call and ask. Engaging your surroundings often opens up new paths to explore. It also creates a bit of pressure on you to keep writing.

Tip: Involve others as soon as the thought strikes you. If you wait, you risk overanalysing and never contacting them. Be spontaneous and impulsive. Most people enjoy sharing and talking.

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

You must push your boundaries and be prepared to cross them—this happens outside the comfort zone. Don’t fear failure; we all fail constantly. Read a book you didn’t think you’d be interested in, take a different route to work, eat something new, watch a film you don’t want to see, talk to people you wouldn’t normally talk to, write a list, try a new hobby. Be curious. Observe.

All new input gives you better and more ideas. Break your habits and do things you’ve never done before. That’s where the learning happens.

Reflection: Many of the stories in my debut book are very personal, and it took a lot for me to write about them in such detail. I worried about what my family would think. Fortunately, their feedback was almost entirely positive, and I’ve never regretted stepping outside my comfort zone. It’s said that it’s better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do.

Objects That Tell a Story

Make a list of things people can relate to, that fit what you are writing about. For instance, if you write the word “krone-is” (a popular ice cream cone in Norway), I think of strawberry ice cream and 17th May (Norwegian Constitution Day), childhood, sunshine, birch trees, and spring in the countryside. Others might think of chocolate, summer at the beach, and sand. Certain words carry so many connotations that you can tell a story just by writing them. Think about the DJ Cat Show on Sky-TV or the bag of sweets with Dunder-Salt and Bringebærtopper from our childhood. Objects that tell a story evoke emotions in the reader without you needing to describe them.

Example:

“It must have been April, maybe 1986, when I discovered Stjerneposen at the kiosk for the first time. The transparent stars on the white and red plastic revealed it was full of sweets; it was magical.”

Or maybe you could say:

“The rain containing particles from Chernobyl reached Øyerstad just days after I saw Stjerneposen at the shop for the first time. Wow!”

An event most people remember sets a timestamp on the story (it’s not important that the reader remembers the exact date, but rather roughly what time it was), and I don’t need to describe Miami Vice, because the reader will likely picture it and have their own feelings and memories attached to it.

Write in your own voice

I truly realised this when I was recording my book as an audiobook and sent some demos to a friend. Fortunately, he said something like, “you sound an old politician in parts of the book”…? That’s not how most people would say I sound, but I understood what he meant. I was not being myself.

This was actually something I struggled with when writing (and reading) the book. I drifted between writing in heavy local dialect and writing in polished standard Norwegian. I wasn’t consistent and I wasn’t using my own voice.

Sometimes, I wrote how I would say it, and sometimes how I thought it should be written/said correctly. This was ultimately due to uncertainty about what was “allowed” to do. Instead of being myself, I read the text exactly as it was written in the book. It wasn’t bad, but it was a little… not quite me. In my eagerness to be correct, I lost a bit of myself along the way.

Tip: Think about how you talk, and use your voice to write with. It will be more personal and credible. Of course, you need to write correctly, but language is extremely flexible, and ultimately, only you know how your text should be written.

Tip II: In my upcoming book, I’ve found a golden middle ground between writing in “really broad Båstad dialect that you maybe wouldn’t understand a word of” and bokmål. And I’m consistent.

Never compare yourself to others!

Inspiration is important, and you should let yourself be inspired by other successful creatives. I was inspired to fulfil my dream of writing a book and recording music when two other local heroes took the leap and became authors and musicians. Ole Halvor Fossum wrote The Hunt for the Boot (a children book) and played in a band, and Trygve Skaug wrote and played a whole lot more.

Look at those you admire with an analytical eye. What do they do? What techniques do they use? How do they work with their creativity? What is it that makes them successful? Study them.

However, you should never compare yourself to them: “She’s so great, I’ll never be as good as her…” or “Shit, I might as well give up writing, I’ll never be like him…” That’s the death of your self-confidence and creativity.

Tip: The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself. “Okay, Kjell, where were you a year ago? Have you made any progress?” “Yes, I’ve actually written…”

You can never be anyone but yourself. You are only who you are right now. All the time.

Old McDonald had a farm…

An old trick I often use at work is to suggest McDonald’s when someone asks where we should have lunch (yes, I work in Sweden, where people always eat lunch out at restaurants). I don’t actually want to go to McDonald’s (even though I think it’s fine), but I use it to trigger other suggestions. “No way, I’m not going to McDonald’s, I’d rather go to…” and suddenly there are a couple of alternatives on the table.

Imagine you’re struggling to move forward with your story. You’re pulling your hair out and time after time, you hit the same obstacle. The problem is you’re so stuck in one track that you can’t think outside of the storyline you’re trapped in. Maybe you’re also afraid to look in another direction, since you’ve invested so much time in the current path that you don’t want to abandon it? Even if you choose to test another route, that doesn’t mean you have to choose it, but it can give you new perspectives and insights.

An inner dialogue: “Robert, the main character, gets hit by a train and dies.” “He he, no, seriously, that won’t work, for one, he’s the main character, and second, there’s no train in Øyerstad.” “No, but a bus, then… Or, the 17th of May parade, that happens.” “Idiot! The 17th of May parade? No one… Well, actually, it could be that he was killed during the 17th of May parade… by someone in the parade… or that he was nearly killed on the 17th of May, and…”

If the path isn’t working, choose another scenario: “Robert, the main character, oversleeps for the 17th of May parade and…” If that leads nowhere, try something else again.

Use radical and exaggerated directions to ensure you break the rut you’re stuck in.

“If you want to write something good, start with something bad.”

Write as briefly as you can, but long enough to tell your story

We’ve probably all been preoccupied with cramming in as many words as possible, especially at the beginning of our writing careers. We often think that the thicker the book, the better it is—“Wow, that’s a thick book, it must be good…” But that can also be a sign that the author hasn’t been able to kill their darlings. My first book was about 50,000 words, which I was quite pleased with. However, I didn’t have an editor for the book, and I’m sure it could have been cut down a bit more.

When I started working on book number two, I had the ambition that it would be at least twice as long. It’s great to have ambitions and visions, but remember that the word count is far from a mark of quality. The manuscript I currently have with my editor is around 100,000 words, and I’m both scared of, and hopeful, that she will suggest cutting a lot… How much, I don’t know, but I do know it will be a tough process, with many difficult cuts.

When the feedback comes, I’ll read it and let it sit in my mind for a while. Then I’ll get out the chainsaw. Maybe I’ll cut all or just some of the bits she suggests removing. Maybe the feedback will make me think in other ways?

Tip: Cutting your text is tough, and you MUST have someone external to help you with it.

Write everything down!

Document everything you have in terms of thoughts about the project you’re working on! Make lists.

Tip: If what you write down is something you can/must/should do to make something happen, write it as a task. If you can’t call Gustav right away, write: “Remember to ask Gustav about that lighter and hairspray we…” Don’t write: “Grandad probably knows more about the old baker,” but instead: “Ask Dad about the old baker.”

As soon as you have a bit of downtime, take out the list and find a big or small action. It’s very satisfying to cross off things you’ve done on the list.

What if…

Use creative triggers to explore unexpected possibilities.

“What if the character I’m struggling to fit in didn’t exist?” If it’s a main character, of course, you can’t remove them, but maybe it will lead you to think something like, “No, that obviously doesn’t work, but what if he wasn’t there when it happened?”

Now you’ve got a new scenario to discard or pursue. If you didn’t find a solution there, move on to the next question: “What if the situation were reversed, so it wasn’t Robert but Fredrik who did it?”

Tip: No ideas are wasted. I often find that old ideas become the starting point for new projects. Do you have to scrap a beloved character in your book? That’s fine, maybe you can use the character in something else you write? Kill him—don’t wait until I come (or however that saying goes).

Tip II: The more questions you ask, the more ideas you create. And the more ideas you have, the better the creative end product will be. It’s all about convergent and divergent thinking. First, you generate lots of ideas, and then you analyse them and move forward with the best ones.

Brainwriting

This is an important tool discussed in the blog Writer’s Block is Overrated, Part 2. The main point is to never stop writing, and it’s better to write badly than not to write at all. Writer’s block is indeed overrated.

Dare to write simply

“Are you living someone else’s life?” is about how we live our lives based on the feedback we think we might get from others… Silly, right?

We are often terrified of and held back by what others might think of what we produce. “What are they going to say about this?” “What if someone points out my mistakes or calls me out on my spelling errors?” “What if someone thinks I’m stupid because I don’t use fancy words?”

This makes us overcomplicate things and make life harder for ourselves and others because we want to impress. We’re too afraid to be ourselves. Remember, people are lazy, so get straight to the point.

Don’t write correctly!

Sure, you should write correctly, but it’s not important in the early phase of the project. All thoughts of being correct and perfect will stifle your creativity. Save the nitpicking for a later phase.

Read aloud

Read what you’ve written out loud, and feel free to record yourself doing it. Take a break. Listen to the recording. It’s all about changing perspective (again). Yes, it’s a little unpleasant to hear yourself, but it’s worth it. You’ll discover so much in the structure of the language that you’ll want to adjust.

Avoid Clichés (Sort Of)

Many “pros” will say this, and I only partially agree. Why? Because clichés are clichés for a reason—people like them. Even though originality is great, we’ve learned that an idea is simply other ideas put together in a new way. So, don’t avoid clichés—embrace them and study them. What happens if you mix one cliché with another? Can it become something new and exciting?

I work a lot with design and often find myself in situations where, for example, I’m choosing images for a client’s campaign. I’ve done this so many times that I’ve become a little blind to what most people find acceptable. Sometimes, I look at the clichéd images clients want to use, shaking my head (when they’re not looking), thinking, “Oh my god, are they really going to use that image?” In my eyes (and the eyes of my industry), the image they’ve chosen is a cliché, but for the target audience? The audience might not even realise it’s a cliché, and it works perfectly for them (again, different backgrounds and perspectives).

If you’re writing a story that resembles something others have written before or contains elements that have been used previously, just go for it. It’s not like Joe Bonamassa invented either the blues or the guitar. No, he’s inspired by artists like Keith Richards, who played a lot of blues (especially in the early days), based on Robert Johnson’s music. Robert Johnson? Yes, he was inspired by…

All ideas come from something or someone that already exists. The question is: where and how will you take it further?

Trial and error

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. As a creative idea generator, you have to walk the line and explore new paths, or you’ll never come up with anything new. Nothing kills creativity faster, so you can’t worry if things don’t always work out. You can’t take criticism personally when it does fail. Those who complain the most when something goes wrong are often the ones who don’t dare to try anything themselves. Failing is part of the creative game.

In the end

There are countless tricks and techniques for creativity, so this is just a small taste. However, I hope you’ve gained a better understanding of what creativity is and picked up a few tricks to develop your own creative power. Unfortunately, much of the secret lies in hard work—there’s no miracle cure.

When you start a project, you begin a journey (here comes a real cliché), and you must explore the universe you’re entering. A good story can be engaging and powerful, it can mean a lot to many people. A good story can change reality, and with these tools, I hope you’ll have the courage to try creating your own.

If you’re not tired yet, you can also get some great input on creativity here (13 minutes).

Music is Everywhere

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Kalmarnäsvägen 8
746 91 BÅLSTA
Sweden
Phone: +46  70 35 28 210
kjell@music-is-everywhere.com