I found this article very relevant.
writen by Scott H Young
Whenever I tell people about my website, one of the questions I'm
often asked is, "How do you think of so many ideas?"
I suppose it's a valid question. Over the last 5 years I've written
over 900 articles and 4 books. I know plenty of students that
struggle coming up with a topic for an essay, nevermind one thousand
of them.
But I'm definitely not a creative genius. Instead I just have a
trick I use whenever I want to increase my creative output. And
today I'm going to let you steal it.
---
The "Secret" to a High Creative Output
The biggest problem in having a high creative output is flow. It's
really hard to get into a creative flow, and once you do, it's
difficult to sustain any level of quality.
I'm sure you have had the experience of staring for hours at a blank
screen. Where do you start?
I'm sure you've also had times where you were insanely creative, but
looked back on your work an hour later and realized it was mostly
garbage.
These two extremes plague all creative types. On the one hand, you
don't want to get stuck. On the other hand, you want to be producing
magnificent work, not easily forgettable drivel. How do you balance
the two?
---
How to Produce Effortlessly, Without Sacrificing Quality
I got stuck in this trap a few years ago. At the time I was on a
hellish 5x per week article-posting schedule, in addition to around
2-3 freelance articles each week. This meant I needed to publish
a new essay of about 1000 words, more than once every single day.
Given I was writing roughly 8 articles each week, getting writer's
block wasn't an option. Staring at the computer screen could mean
dozens of hours wasted every week and I was already a full-time
student.
I also couldn't sacrifice quality. I was try to aggressively grow
my blog's presence, and I needed the freelance contracts to pay my
bills.
How would you handle it?
My solution was to think deeply about the creative process itself.
Notice when I was stalling, notice when I was producing great work
and see if there was something that could be replicated.
I also did a lot of research into creativity, to see what great
writers like Stephen King had to say about the problems of creative
block.
---
The insight that saved my sanity was that creativity is actually two
very different tasks. Neither are that difficult, but they are
virtually impossible to perform at the same time, which is the cause
of most creative blocks.
Once I started using this tactic, meeting my writing quota was a lot
easier.
Aside: Astute readers may notice I've wised up since those days,
after learning a high posting rate actually hurts my readership, but
I still stand by these tactics that I use whenever I need to do a
lot of creative work.
---
The Insight -- Two-Flow Theory for Creativity
The insight was this--every creative task consists of two elements:
1. Creation
2. Destruction
The creation phase is the generation of ideas. When famous writers
recommend, "just write and don't proofread," they are talking about
this aspect.
The creation phase requires a wide focus, high-confidence, zero
self-criticism and enthusiasm. Basically the opposite of every
neurotic creative-type.
I had learned about accessing this creation phase when reading about
brainstorming, mindmapping and other learning tactics. The problem
with this advice, I found, was that it wasn't enough. Trying to push
the creation switch all the time resulted in mostly garbage.
That's where the second phase comes in: destruction. In this phase,
you take on the opposite mentality. You're judgemental, analytical,
narrowly-focused, self-doubting and rational.
This mentality comes when you're reviewing and constructing your
work. Creation makes the raw material, destruction sculpts it into
something worthy of demonstration.
The key to having both a high-quality and high output, it turns out,
was to be aware of both these phases, use them aggressively, but,
DO NOT USE THEM AT THE SAME TIME.
Writer's block results from the hasty attempt to be both excellent
and prolific.
---
How I Implemented This to Write 8000+ Words Per Week
My implementation of this two-flow theory was straightforward:
First, I set aside one day per week devoted exclusively to
brainstorming. I made sure this was done on a Sunday, or similarly
quiet day, so I would be sure that I wouldn't be writing that day.
That day, my only goal was quantity. I aimed to create at least 20
to 30 headline ideas, all in one go. They didn't need to be good,
and I didn't need to know how I was going to write them. They just
had to seem vaguely interesting.
It's important that I stress how critical it was that I did this on
a day that no writing occurred. In fact, I tried to do most my
writing on Thursday and Friday. So I generally had a full five days
before I actually had to use any of the ideas I generated.
If you try to split these two tasks up on the same day, you'll
probably fail. The reason is that you'll start unconsciously
slipping into the judgemental, destruction mindset prematurely.
When I've tried this method on the same day, I would find myself
automatically thinking about how I could write a particular essay.
This distraction meant I would have a lower output and fewer truly
great ideas in total.
---
How to Implement Your Own Marathon Creativity Session
Here's what I'd suggest if you want to replicate my results:
1. Identify the minimal creative act associated with your art.
For essays this could be theses. For paintings it could be
subjects. For designers it could be layouts. For comedians it could
be potentially humorous observations. The idea is you want to
distill the core root of creation in your medium.
2. Split the minimal creative act to a separate day and place from
when you'll actually do the work.
Don't write on the same days you generate headlines. Don't compose
songs on the same time you think of melodies or hooks.
This rule is only if you need an unusually high output. If you only
need a normal output, it isn't necessary. I use it whenever I know
I need to do a lot of writing in the upcoming weeks.
3. Generate way too many ideas.
Spend a lot of time generating tons of ideas. Don't think about
execution, just brainstorm dozens of ideas.
4. Wait at least a day to start work. Then pick the best ideas and
start creating something great.
Once you have 20-30 possible starting points, it is a lot easier to
avoid getting stuck. Best of all, you can be discriminating and
perfecting, because you have so much material to work with.
5. Split complex projects into multiple creation/destruction parts.
As a final step, if you're still getting stuck, you might want to
digest the steps even further. Writing a book, for example, you
could start with c/d on the title, then c/d on the chapters, and
then c/d on material to cover in the chapters.
I didn't need to go too deep because most of my writing was in
article-format, which usually takes one sitting. However, if you
are working on something more difficult, there is no reason you
can't use this tactic multiple times.
This is pretty good stuff!
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