Creative Habits

[stuck]

For the purposes of this thread, let's postulate:

1. The fetishization of creativity is a good thing.
2. Creativity can be modulated and amplified.
3. Creativity exists in the modern incarnation.

What are habits you use to cultivate creativity?

Elaborate, simple, cryptic, negative, positive, all welcome.

[KM]

I make an effort to spend lots of time in alternative and artistic environments. For me, creativity is infectious. Even more so when I surround myself with positive people. I find confidence feeds creativity.

[Pan_Sonic_000]

Serious: sitting down and starting. All other techniques (for me, anyway) pale in comparison.

'Sitting down and starting' feels like tuning an antenna. I can't lock on at first; the signal is fuzzy and psychically constipated. So I just keep noodling around and fucking about till all the sudden it feels like lightning is coming through the top of my head; there's no way I could ever keep up with the torrent of shit going through my brain at that point. It's like trying to read a scrolling marquee that's displaying a thousand words per second. But I can grab a handful of what's swirling about in the tornado and hold onto it. That's good enough.

When I go too long without 'sitting down and starting' (IOW: procrastination / fear / avoidance), the antenna gets really rusty, really fast.


Also, there's a famous web designer named Joshua Davis who, if I recall correctly, use to do crazy shit like put food dye in his eyes and stand on his head to force his brain into seeing the world from a different perspective. Maybe that's BS, though.

[notdavidlynch]

For me, regardless of what I'm doing, I've found that writing out my thought process in a sketchbook/journal helps immensely. Journaling/blogging on a keyboard for a public audience doesn't seem to help at all. Something about pen/pencil on paper really gets my juices flowing, and I'm not at all worried about editing or even being comprehensible.

Most drugs don't help me at all, not even caffeine. The exceptions being anti-depressants (if depressed), or amphetamines.

[Pan_Sonic_000]

Most drugs don't help me at all, not even caffeine. The exceptions being anti-depressants (if depressed), or amphetamines.

I'd like to experiment with shrooms (again). I've not done them in a long assed time, in large part due to the fact I would have needed to face aspects of myself and existence that I simply wasn't ready to face. I've done the ol' 4 gram 'what-have-I-allowed-myself-to-become?' trip and it wasn't pretty.

But now I'm ready to go again. An ancillary goal on my next trip will be to find out whether or not creativity can be enhanced.

[Dirac]

A strict routine with regular breaks outside. The routine allows you to stop thinking about quotidian mundanities and concentrate on actually cool stuff. The breaks get you out of rutty funks.

[Blorg]

It's probably useful to have a wide range of "intelligences" to draw from, in order to be creative. I assume that you're more likely to make innovative connections if you have a wider variety of mental tools. Someone with only a saw and one type of material probably won't build as interesting a house as someone with nails, hammers, saws, variety of wood types, gadgets, etc.

Then again, I think it's confusing that creativity declines (or is commonly said to decline) with age and, therefore, with an increasing knowledge base. "children's imagination," "you can't teach an old dog new tricks."

I guess there's a difference between tools and materials though.

[jigglypuff]

the "creative habit" that consistently works is isolating myself, looking at a lot of art and being able to direct my own schedule... it's kinda hard because of relationships. also cuz you need to eat and sleep so you gotta do a bunch of other stuff that makes that possible.

[stuck]

I spent a long time hammering the gospel of dedication into myself. I've spent years sitting down and starting. Years ago I began to practice dividing my days by starting different creative activities throughout the day, metered out to the hour.

I think it's been mostly beneficial, BUT…

I began to realize that the most creative I'd been in my life were deeply entrenched in periods of unrestricted play. I made some of my best music while doing other shit, while watching tv, while playing video games, while walking around, being inebriated… while relaxing and not thinking. Conversely I've learned some of my worst habits by forcing things to happen.

Forcing things is not so much deadly as it is inferior, almost as useless as it is to wait for inspiration.

Inspiration is overrated, too, I've found. Inspiration can be a million bad ideas that make you feel terrible and exhausted in trying to execute them.

Both things, the over-dedication to industry and the fetishization of inspiration can equal a growing dread for the creative act.

Instead, seeing "inspiration as a ubiquitous, never-ending trickle, and dedication as simple as presence and repetition" takes the sting out.

Also, being lazy, like spending time trying to figure out easier ways to do things, it's a perfectly valid way to innovate. Innovation should be fun, ridiculous. It should be allowed at every stage.

Deadlines, just write them down and let them achieve themselves.

[stuck]

My habits:

walk and think, log the results.

leave my music gear open, hit play often.

when i get an idea i can execute immediately, just do it and figure out if it sucks later.

trust collaborators and self to be able to hear works in progress and give honest feelings about how/if to pursue/finish something, be open as possible.

let yourself do a whole bunch of shit nobody ever asked for, just go for it if you want.

stop working on something if it's been an hour or two and you're bored of it or hate it. you can always sit down again and restart. you'll probably get 2-3 chances a day to do that.

sometimes being over-scheduled requires a little bit of forcing your time, you'll survive.