Time to Write

Forge ahead with your writing: the Next Massive Action Day is on Sunday, June 16

Want to make huge progress on a writing project (or on getting your home office organized, or anything else)? Join my online Massive Action Day on Sunday, June 16.

Declare your goal for the day in our exclusive chat window and update throughout the day. You'll get support from me and the other particpants and I do a brief live video broadcast every hour with tips and to answer your questions on how to get more done.

It's only £5 (about $7.70 or €6) when you sign up for the series of ten. Get all the information here: MASSIVE ACTION DAY INFO.

"I love the MADs - they are always fun and I get things done...I find it fun and productive. Working in the MAD chat is like having an exercise buddy - you can exercise alone, but you'll probably exercise more and have more fun when having a buddy!" -- Susanne Tanner, Zurich, Switzerland

How to flesh out the characters in your novel or screenplay

Looking for a fun way to get to know the characters you're writing about in your novel, screenplay or short story?

A self-help book called Adulting, how to become a grown-up in 468 easy(ish) steps could be useful. I’m kind of afraid to look at it because I’m pretty sure I have more steps left than I care to know. However, seeing some of the sample steps made me think using the book could be an amusing way to get to know your characters better. For instance, here are a few:

• Don’t mention how tired you are.
• Your intentions are important--to you. Your actions are all the world experiences.
• Buy toilet paper in bulk.
• Be fine with being alone in a public place, as no one notices or cares you’re alone besides you.

 So how about that character you’re creating for your novel or screenplay:

• Does he constantly try to get sympathy by mentioning the long hours he works?  Or does he pride himself on working 80 hours a week?
• How big are the gaps between his intentions and his actions? Is he aware of the gaps? 
• Does she buy toilet paper in bulk...or is she an extreme couponer?
• When he’s alone in a public place does he pretend to talk into his phone so people will think he’s waiting for another person?

Another approach is what I call the NSA View:

• What web sites do you think your character would visit? Why?
• To whom does she send emails? About what?
• Whom does he call? Who calls him? 
• If you tracked her movements for a day, where would she have gone?

These are questions you can think about at odd moments of the day; when you actually start to write you'll find you know your characters well.

(Want more tips? Get a copy of "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

How to be more productive by pretending you have a clone

Want to be more productive? To do the things you really should be doing, in the best order? Maybe the solution is pretending you have a clone.

On a blog comment I came across this:

"I imagine I've been paralysed and I'm having to pay a clone of me to do exactly what I do every day, which quickly leads you to say "Why the hell are you wasting my money doing that" - works wonders for proritising."

(I believe that comment was by Chris Webb from compelling.tv).

I don't want to imagine I've been paralysed--I'd rather imagine I'm in a hammock on a beach somewhere sipping a cool drink and giving directions to my clone via Skype video. I will be a firm but fair boss...

Of course even better would be figuring out how to outsource the stuff you don't want to do to a real person. Then you and your clone can both spend time in that hammock on the beach, or more time writing.

(You'll find innovative right brain time management methods in my book, Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

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You can't fail, unless you do this. (Last in a series of ten)

This is the tenth and final post in a series of ideas about creative success. The good news is that there's only one way to fail:

10: THE ONLY WAY TO  FAIL

You can fail only if you stop.

If on the last day of your life you still aren’t on the N. Y. Times best-seller list or your blog has only 99 passionate followers, or you never quite got the hang of rhyme scheme, so what?

If you believed in what you were doing, you probably had a hell of a ride.

That’s what it’s all about.

Isn't it?

I welcome your comments about this or any of the other ideas in this series.

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

 

Failing is not fun. But it (usually) won't kill you.(9th in a series)

This is the penultimate of ten facts about the creative process that I think are worth knowing. This one is about failing:

9: FAILING FEELS CRAPPY

Motivational speakers make it sound like failing is noble.

It sure doesn’t FEEL noble.

They claim Edison said something like, ‘I didn’t fail 1000 times to find a workable light bulb filament, I just eliminated 1000 ways not to do it so that I could find the one that worked.’

That quote worked only after he'd found the way that did work. I bet around the 700^th try he threw that bulb to the ground, stomped on it, took a stiff drink and yelled at his wife.

Yes, we have to deal with disappointing results and rejection, but we won’t like it.

On the other hand, most of the time it won't kill us (experimenting with explosives might be an exception). 

Knowing that failing sucks is good. It still won't be any fun but at least it won't be a surprise that you don't feel noble. 

You may feel like retreating to your bed for an extended period of time. A man I knew did that for six months. No kidding. His wife took him his meals but he didn't talk to her. One day he got up and made his own breakfast and started talking again. The next day he went back to work. 

My version used to be to start planning to move to a Greek island. Ideally a sparsely-populated Greek island. I'd plan to be a hermit.

By the time my plans were coming together I'd start to feel better. Eventually I'd feel ready to think about whether I could do something different to try to achieve whaterver it was I'd failed to do.

So far I haven't moved to a cave. Probably you won't have to, either.

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

If at first you don't succeed with your writing, don't try, try again! (8th in a series)

This is the eighth in a series of ten ideas about how to bring your creativity into the world. What if your first attempt doesn't work out? That's OK but forget about the old "try, try again" adage. Here's why:

8: IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED, DON’T TRY, TRY AGAIN

At least don’t try the same thing again and again.

Hit yourself on the head with a hammer (you may imagine this instead of doing it if you prefer).

How did it feel?

Do you think it will feel any different if you do it again?

If you do, go ahead. How about now?

If at first you don’t succeed, try something different.

Continue until you find the method that gives you the results you really want.

Hey, it's  a formula for success that really works!

Why don't more people do this? Probably because whatever we've done before is familiar. It's easier than trying something new. Sure, it doesn't work but we know how to do it, so let's try it again. You never know.

Except that you do.

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

Want to write a book or create something? The 2nd best time to start. (7th in a series)

This is the 7th in a series of ten important (in my opinion) principles about doing creative work. Today's is short and semi-sweet, designed to stir you to action if the previous post didn't:

THE SECOND BEST TIME TO START

The best time to start doing your creative project is ten years ago.

Look at the clock.

What time is it?

That’s right, the second-best time to start.

If you don't know where to start, check the previous post. It mentioned what a writer could do to start. A painter could draw some thumbnail sketches. A musician could jot or record some sounds.

You know what you could do, don't you? Well, now you also know the (second) best time to start!

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

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Your creative project: Is it the right time? (6th in a series)

This is the sixth in a series of ten things about creativity that I think are of crucial importance. This one is about being ready to start your creative project. 

6: READY, FIRE, AIM

Many creative people are waiting for the right time to get started on their book or their painting or their whatever. They want to be sure they have all the resources they need. 

The bad news first: It may never be exactly the right time, and you may  never feel you have all the resources you need. 

The bad news: It doesn't matter. Get started, see what happens, adjust, persist.

The first step? Anything. 

For instance, let's say you're a nurse and you have a vague idea of writing a book about a nurse but you're not sure that you have the time, or that you know enough to write a novel, or that anybody would want to read it. Here are a few things you could do (if you don't want to write about a nurse, adjust these as necessary):

* Come up with a name for your main character.

* Take notes. Lots of notes. Jot down any ideas that come to mind, even fragments. Interesting patients, problems at work, conflicts that come up (conflicts are good, at least for a writer). Don't rush into trying to figure out your plot.

* Think about what conflicts this nurse experiences that could be interesting for a reader. For instance, could it be about a nurse who is overruled by a doctor but gets blamed when the patient dies? Or could it be about a nurse who suspects a doctor or another nurse of being responsible for a series of deaths at their hospital? Or a nurse who falls in love with a patient and marries him, only to find that he no longer wants her to follow her profession? Each one of these automatically suggests new characters.

* When you have a general idea of a story, try writing short scenes. Don't wait until you have a big block of time, just start. You will find that soon new ideas start being attracted to you. The more ideas you have, the more will show up. 

* Don't think you have to start at the beginning. If you have a scene in mind for the middle or the end, write that one. Then work backward or forward.

* Don't worry if it's not perfect. First drafts are supposed to be bad. Keep going. Later you can get feedback and rewrite, for now just get on with it. Tell your inner critic to shut up.

Pretty soon you will find that although it's not the perfect time to write, you're writing. Congratulations!

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

Want creative success? Crazy is the first step! (5th in a series)

In this series I'm sharing what I consider to be ten essential truths about creativity (taken from my Creativity Manifesto, published in the book, Creativity Now). Today: you've had an idea...it's crazy but it might just work!

5: CRAZY IS THE FIRST STEP

Every breakthrough is considered a crackpot idea at first.

Of course, some ARE crackpot ideas.

You can’t tell the difference until you transform the idea into something real. 

Just about every breakthrough idea seemed impractical or even crazy at first. Usually it was the perseverence of one person that brought the idea to life and, in some cases, changed the world.

Of course there is the possibility that your idea will indeed turn out to be unworkable. It may be ahead of its time. Or behind its time. Or something that will never have a time. That risk comes with being a creative person--or, rather, a creative person who takes action instead of just thinking.

Thinking without action is fun. It's called daydreaming. For most people, that's as far as they go. Then,when somebody else actualiy creates something similar, they enjoy telling their friends they had that same idea. Quite likely they did. What they didn't have is the drive and the willingness to take a risk and work hard to put that idea into action. That's why the person who did gets the attention, praise, and (sometimes) fortune, and they don't. 

If you believe your idea is worthwhile, don't let it be just a daydream. Make it happen. It might be crazy or it might be crazy good.

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

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We know you're good. Could you be great?

Find one person who believes in you (4th in a series)

In this series I'm sharing what I consider ten key things about creativity. You've probably heard the saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well, getting a following of people who appreciate (and perhaps buy) what you create beings equally modestly.

4: FIND AT LEAST ONE PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN YOU

It helps to have a champion, somebody who believes in you.

Your belief in yourself generates 1 unit of self-confidence. You plus a champion generate 100. (Psychology math is different.)

When I started out as a TV and film writer it was my now dear friend Rose Berman who did that for me. A little later it was an old-time, mostly retired producer named George Bilson. My best friend since college days, Bob Cochran, has always believed in me (and vice-versa). Going back farther, a teacher named Mrs Drake made me feel worthwhile at a time when I really needed it.

You probably have a few people like that in your life--at least I hope you do. Sometimes as we get older we lose those champions, or we get involved in a new arena and feel insecure about whether we can succeed. 

I suggest you thank your old champions and find one or two new ones. They make the journey a lot more enjoyable. Of course you can also play that role for others; I try to do it with this blog and with my books, as well as for a few people I know, and it's very rewarding when I hear it's made a difference.

(My book, Creativity Now, helps you develop a mindset that favors creativity, shows you methods for generating more ideas, gives you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspires you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

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What if not everybody likes what you write? (They won't!) - 3rd in a series

In this series of posts I'm sharing what I consider ten truths about creativity. It's a common fear that a lot of people may not like what we create. Guess what? It doesn't matter if 99% of potential customers hate it, as long as 1% love it.

FEWER THAN 1% OF PEOPLE HAVE TO BUY WHAT YOU DO

Not everybody wants to profit financially from their creative activity, but if you do, one person out of a hundred buys what you offer you’ll have more than 3 million sales.

In Great Britain that would be about 600,000.

If you happen to live in China, you’re really in luck. 

The internet makes it easy for the haters to express their dislike of what you create. Fortunately it also makes it easy for those with more discerning tastes to find your product and buy it.

It's natural for creative people to focus on the negative. I've taught large classes and if I had 99 compliments and one complaint I'd focus on the latter. Now I consider any complaints, see whether I can learn something from them or remedy them, and then put them out of my mind. 

From now on, put your attention on finding that one percent, or half-percent or .01 percent who will love what you do. You'll make them happy and yourself happier as well.

(My book, Creativity Now, can help you develop a mindset that favors creativity, show you methods for generating more ideas, give you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspire you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

 

 

How long does it take to be a successful writer? (2nd in a series)

In the previous post I suggested that you create your own definition of success, but if by success we mean getting published or finding an audience for your creative outlet, especially a paying audience, how long does it take?

2. COMMERCIAL SUCCESS CAN TAKE ONE YEAR OR ONE HUNDRED YEARS

J. K. Rowling got there fast.

Van Gogh didn’t.

Even finding one hundred passionate followers can take time.

Don’t define the journey only by the outcome. Also consider what you are learning about your craft, about yourself, and about the world. 

You can't force yourself not to think about commercial success, but by looking at the process in a larger context you can stop yourself from obsessing about it. And, as we know, often it's when you're no longer desperate for something that it appears.

(My book, Creativity Now, can help you develop a mindset that favors creativity, show you methods for generating more ideas, give you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspire you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

 

 

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A tail, er, tale of perseverance and success

Are you a Tough Writer?

What's your definition of writing success? (Here's a weird idea...first in a series)

Starting with this post and over the next nine I'm sharing with you 10 essential truths (as I see them) about creative success. They form the Creativity Manifesto I included in my book, Creativity Now.

1. SUCCESS IS WHAT YOU SAY IT IS.

If getting to number one on the N. Y. Times best-seller list makes you happy, great.

If writing a blog that 100 people follow passionately makes you happy, or writing one poem a night that nobody else ever sees, that’s what success is for you.

It’s your brain, your heart, your life—don’t let anybody hijack it with their definition of success.

(Creativity Now can help you develop a mindset that favors creativity, show you methods for generating more ideas, give you tools for translating your ideas into action, and inspire you with case studies of how others have achieved their creative goals. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

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Writers, don't say this (Things that turn off publishers and agents)

I read an interview with an agent in which she said there are some tip-offs that she's not dealing with a writer that knows what he or she is doing. One is using the term "fiction novel." A novel is, by definition, fiction, so referring to a fiction novel is like saying "a canine dog" or "a tall skyscraper."

That's why I was surprised to see this book on the Kindle Books site:

From the description: "You will learn how to understand the dramatic structure of a novel (both fiction and nonfiction), and all of the details in between."

Huh? What's a non-fiction novel?

One of the reviews says, "I only got a third of the way through before the incorrect word choices ("bare in mind", "the old barriers... ...is crumbling", "the same person playing every roll")".

There is also "the exact same book," "the imagination and visualization of our mind," and "Your mind places the exactly perfect faces and noses and eyes on the exactly perfect characters."

The author has some interesting ideas: "Reading is like running: like it or not we all have to do it. Everybody on this planet needs to be able to read. And everybody on this planet needs to be able to run. I'm pretty certain that if you are incapable of either of these things then your place in society is going to be decidely more uncomfortable." 

I'd run from this book--and from using the term "fiction novel."

OTHER THINGS THAT TURN OFF AGENTS AND PUBLISHERS

* Query letters that assure them your book will be more popular than 50 Shades of Grey (or whatever is the best-seller at the moment);

* Assurances that your relatives and friends all think your book is great;

* The revelation that you intend to rewrite it but decided to send this version anyway;

* Ideas for merchandizing and spin-offs or your ideal casting for the movie version;

* Offering to pay more than the usual commission, or suggesting a cut in the usual commission.

(You'll find friendly guidance for writing your book in Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

 

These novels are only as long as your flight. I wonder who wrote them.

Qantas Airlines has created a series of books designed to be read in the length of your flight. If you're flying from New York to Sydney, settle in with a hefty tome. If you're on a short flight, pick a short story.

The books were commissioned and developed in association with Hachette and ad agency Droga 5.

The series includes thrilers, mysteries, and short stories. Their length is based on an average reading speed of 200 to 300 words per minute, and I assume they factored in the time you're supposed to be paying to the safety instructions instead.

Refreshingly, they're actual physical books.

What's annoying, however, is that the press release names the cover designer, the Droga 5 Sydney Creative Chairman, the CMO of Quantas Loyalty the Quantas Frequent Flyer CEO...but not the authors.

Hey, they only wrote the words...

 

 

 

What has been given to you to write or create? (Here's Waldo...)

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

(If you need some friendly guidance in writing what only you can write, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

We know you're good. Could you be great?

Are you good at what you do? I'm guessing you are.

Could you be great?

I think probably you could.

By great, I don't mean people would be carrying you around town on their shoulders, although I guess that's always a possibility...I just mean doing work that realliy stands out and goes far beyond the norm.

At WebDesignerDepot.com I read a long post on this topic by designer Speider Schneider. He starts by recounting what a jerk he was when teachers tried to help him understand art. That part is a real tribute to the dedication of some of his teachers, who went out of their way to get him to open his eyes instead of being a wise guy. He later thanked some of them, but others were already dead by that point. 

He says his ephiphany came when the late Tom Corey, owner and creative director of Big Blue Dot, showed him the difference between good work and great work. Here's what Schneider writes about that distinction:

There is always another dimension that can be explored, another step that can be taken before falling over the edge… and that falling over the edge is sometimes how we learn to fly.

Coming up with something great requires challenging the usual assumptions:

Why does a logo have to have the same parameters they have had for centuries? In the age of digital movement, paper-thin t-ink and lenticular technology, what is the future of paperless logos?

Web sites, applying the same thinking, can be an immersive experience and not just a layout of blocks of information. ...Will you be able to look at a site you’ve designed and see a level of innovative design no one else has seen? Can you say, “how will I make this different and exciting?” This is the freeing process to experience a leap into a creativity you have never thought you could imagine...why does an ad, brochure or billboard have to be a rectangle? Why does a piece of paper have to lie flat in two dimensions when it can be three dimensions? Imagine all possibilities your designs can have and take it farther… as far as your mind will allow and budgets be damned! It’s better to aim high and let others bring you back to Earth.

His examples are from the world of design but the idea applies to just about anything. I sometimes teach screenwriting and often what students want to know is how to fit within the conventions of screenwriting, how to write so their script is most like the ones that have been made recently. I understand that desire and frankly that may well be the best way to sell a story, but it's not the best way to come up with a great one.

What assumptions are keeping you in the realm of the good?

How could you break out of it into the realm of the great?

(Want to stimulate your imagination? There are many ways to do that revealed in my book, Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available this very minute from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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Why Amazon's plan for fan fiction may fizzle

Amazon recently announced that writers of fan fiction--that is, fiction using characers and situations in books written by others--can get published and paid via the new "Kindle Worlds" program. 

At first glance this sounds pretty good. Fan fiction violates copyright laws when done without permission, which is the case most of the time. Here it will be done with the approval of the authors. Second, writers of fan fiction do it for fun, so getting paid (for those works selected) will be a bonus.

However, the program ignores the fact that a lot of fan fiction is fun because it takes the characters places the original authors wouldn't. A favorite is imagining that characters like Batman and Robin or Spock and Kirk are having a gay relationship. Others give a secret, dark history to a wholesome character. Yet others have one character killing another or stepping into a totally different work of fiction. 

I wonder to what the degree the original authors will be prepared to approve these kinds of storylines? I also wonder whether some of the attraction of fan fiction is the fact that it is a bit naughty to appropriate someone else's characters? As for the wholesome variations, will they be written well enough to tempt buyers?

Only time will tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if this program fizzles. In the meantime, I'l get to work on some mash-up fan fiction myself:

WHO MOVED MY HOLY CHEESE? - Robert Langdon uses modern management strategies to find the a missing piece of limburger said to have belonged to one of the Disciples.

GONE, PLOT, GONE - James Patterson sends a ghost writer a napkin on which is written the plot for his latest book but it gets lost in transit. Or did it ever exist? 

LIFE OF 15-MINUTE PIE - Jamie Oliver is trapped in a kitchen with a tiger who will attack him unless Jamie can feed him a delicious pie made with fresh ingredients in the next quarter hour.

Amazon, you know where to send the money. 

 

How to make a scene in your book or screenplay come alive (Prof. Chekhov)

I'm sure you've heard the writing advice, "Show, don't tell." It applies equally to prose and to screenwriting, but how do you do it, exactly?

One of my favorite authors, Anton Chekhov, provides an oustanding example in the first paragraph of his short story, The Cook's Wedding:

GRISHA, a fat, solemn little person of seven, was standing by the kitchen door listening and peeping through the keyhole. In the kitchen something extraordinary, and in his opinion never seen before, was taking place. A big, thick-set, red-haired peasant, with a beard, and a drop of perspiration on his nose, wearing a cabman's full coat, was sitting at the kitchen table on which they chopped the meat and sliced the onions. He was balancing a saucer on the five fingers of his right hand and drinking tea out of it, and crunching sugar so loudly that it sent a shiver down Grisha's back. Aksinya Stepanovna, the old nurse, was sitting on the dirty stool facing him, and she, too, was drinking tea. Her face was grave, though at the same time it beamed with a kind of triumph. Pelageya, the cook, was busy at the stove, and was apparently trying to hide her face. And on her face Grisha saw a regular illumination: it was burning and shifting through every shade of colour, beginning with a crimson purple and ending with a deathly white. She was continually catching hold of knives, forks, bits of wood, and rags with trembling hands, moving, grumbling to herself, making a clatter, but in reality doing nothing. She did not once glance at the table at which they were drinking tea, and to the questions put to her by the nurse she gave jerky, sullen answers without turning her face.

Chekhov makes us wonder right away what is extraordinary about what the boy is seeing (and in the few words, 'a fat solumn little person of seven,' lets us know exactly what kind of child he is).

The details make the characters come alive. And without openly saying anything about what the characters are thinking he gives us plenty of evidence that some strong feelings are brewing.

It's a wonderful example of showing and of going deep into a scene. 

I use this as an example in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass. In that book I also pass along the writing advice of more than 100 of the best classic and modern writers. I hope you'll take a look at it, but even if you don't, one thing to take away is that if you want to make your scenes come alive, get acquainted with the short stories of Anton Chekhov. See how he did it, then do it yourself!

Figured out your novel or screenplay story? Not so fast!

We’re so relieved when we come up with a solution to a problem, like what the story should be of a novel or screenplay we want to write, that we usually quickly take the first answer. However, there may be several better solutions we’ll never even consider.

Suggestion: Generate a set of questions that prompt you to consider additional alternatives. These will vary depending on what you usually write (or do). For works of fiction, for instance, it might look something like this

• What if this story took place in the past?
• What if it took place in the future?
• Who else could be the viewpoint character?
  • Older
  • Younger
  • Different gender
• Where else could it take place?
• What if it started in the middle?
• What if it started at the end?
• What if it were a different genre? (Any that you write or want to write)
• What other format could it be? (e.g., graphic novel, screenplay, novel, short story, novella, monologue, etc.)
• What if the ending were the opposite of what I have in mind?

Try not to compare them one by one to the first solution, just write them all down without judging. 

Do this for a set time period—say 15 minutes—on several consecutive days. At the end of a week or so go through all the options and find the one (or the combination of several) that are most exciting and promising.

 (You'll find lots more right-brain writing approaches in "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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The one word that will skyrocket your creative output

If you want not only to be creative, but to get the fruits of your creative labor out into the world, there is one word that can make all the difference.

I’m indebted to an article by Yasha Wallin on the good.is blog. That article pointed out that when Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi contacted 275 creative people in order to interview them for his book, Creativity, a third of them said no.

Not because they didn’t respect him or didn’t think the study was worth doing but because they were too busy doing their own thing.

Management guru Peter Drucker answered, “….one of the secrets of productivity…is to have a VERY BIG waste paper basket to take care of ALL invitations such as yours—productivity in my experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people but to spend all one’s time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do, and to do well."

Many others said pretty much the same thing, especially the ones who were into the second half of their lives.

My late friend Al Collins used to refer to the shortening of the time we have left by saying “It’s getting dark out.” We get in touch with our mortality at different ages, but as a rule of thumb I think at twenty you believe you have time for everything, at forty you believe you can still conquer new worlds, at sixty you realize you’d better do as much as you can of what you do best.

At some point we realize it’s the things that only we can do—that is, the stories only we can tell in exactly the way we tell them, or the way we can be a close friend to a few people rather than a casual friend to many, for instance—that are the best use of our precious time. That means accepting limitations as well as embracing strengths.

As you’ve guessed by now the magic word that can skyrocket your creative output is “No.”

That’s not to say we can’t help people or have to become totally obsessed with our own work but it’s all too easy to push our projects into the background, to please people, or else to take on too many projects.

I plead guilty. It wasn’t until I was in Panama for almost a month recently with very few distractions and worked on only one project that I was reminded how much more I get done that way.

Since then, I’ve started using “no” more often—to others but also to myself when I have what seems like a great new idea and want to jump right into it without stopping to consider all the other things I’m already committed to.  It has also meant abandoning, for now, a couple of projects I’d committed to, which makes me uncomfortable when others are involved but it’s still the best way forward.

When I wrote above that I was “reminded” of the need to say no, I think that’s the key—it’s not a lesson we learn only once. I, at least, seem to have a great capacity for learning these things, writing about them…and after some time suddenly realizing somehow I’ve forgotten them again. Oh well, as long as those reminders keep coming before it gets too dark out…

(The best strategies I learned--and probably will learn again!--are im my book, Focus: Use the Power of Targeted Thinking to Get More Done. It's published by Pearson and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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