How to generate ideas as a creator

How does creativity work in your brain & what practices enhance your ability to come up with novel ideas?

Announcement!

I recognize this newsletter is pretty theoretical. It’s part of my interest in the science of creator habits. But I don’t want to ignore the other side of being a creator that’s much more tactical. So I’m excited to announce the launch of Creator Habits, the podcast, interviewing knowledge creators about the habits that help them create, grow, and monetize their work. Launching November 9th!

Check out our Trailer, Subscribe, & Maybe Even Add A Review 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏:

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Now back to our regular programming:

Can you train yourself to generate ideas?

As a creator, sitting down to post and drawing a blank is a surefire way to kill consistency. This week I dig into the science of creativity (and more specifically idea generation) & share frameworks that help make sure you'll never draw a blank again.

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Back when I worked at a global innovation agency, I used to sit in what we called the design war room, sketching out new product ideas for 10 hours straight.

At the time I didn’t realize this idea generating practice was actually rewiring my brain, nor did I understand that these brain changes weren’t just going to last - stop training and that high of having endless ideas starts to fade.

Recently, as I've been working on a month long Twitter challenge, I've been thinking about regaining that level of consistent generation - the kind where your mind is just overflowing with associations. So here are a few thoughts on being an idea generating machine & creativity more broadly!

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What is creativity and where does idea generation fit in?

There are many definitions of creativity, but for the last 20 years more and more neuroscientists have been trying to study how creativity shows up in the brain (TLDR: there isn’t one section of the brain that’s responsible for creativity).¹ One of the challenges of understanding creativity (at least for science) is that it’s hard to measure because it can be applied to different domains (painting, music, writing, science, business etc) and because there’s no consensus on what counts as a creative idea and what processes produce those ideas.

There are, however, a few common features that some of the field is in agreement around. A creative idea must be:

1. Original (novel or unique)

2. Useful (have utility, value, or effectiveness)

3. Surprising (not obvious)²

Generating ideas is just one component of creativity (others include problem identification & construction, information gathering, idea evaluation & implementation). There are countless studies about each one of these components, so I won’t go into them here, but suffice it to say, you need all of these components to turn an idea into a reality.

Why does generating ideas & creativity practice matter when you’re a creator?

By far the thing that surprised me most about how creativity is defined is the fact that a creative idea must be useful. That’s a far cry from the image of an artist pouring out their heart at a writer’s retreat.

But usefulness is a very relevant concept for the world of a digital creator.

The online writers Nicolas Cole & Dickie Bush recently coined the term “digital writing” to talk about writing that focuses on rapid experimentation (vs legacy writing where you hole up at said retreat and wait for inspiration to strike). By putting out micro-content on twitter they’re able to validate ideas before investing time into long-form newsletters, podcasts, videos or other content.

This kind of writing is a conversation between an audience and a writer seeking to create value or solve a problem. In other words, a writer seeking to be useful…

So much of how creators frame their work (and develop a niche) is by identifying what problem or value they can solve in a novel way. But in addition to experimenting with and repurposing content, how do you practice coming up with ideas that are useful in the first place?

Are there ways to train yourself to generate ideas?

So now comes the interesting thing about becoming more generative. Actually, becoming an idea generator relies on the same concept - deliberate practice - which I’ve talked about previously in this newsletter. Creative idea generation is trainable through practice, but you need to create a clear and uncomfortable goal, a focused system of learning, guided feedback, and iteration.³

Creative practice is often repetitive, incremental, and slow, unlike the sudden spark that is so often associated with a creative leap.

-Indre Viskontis ⁴

Some of the practices and programs that scientists have looked at when it comes improving idea generation, actually were popularized in the field of design. But I rarely see them adopted to content creation.

So for this week, I’ll leave you with a list of activities for when you’re stuck in an idea rut or just hoping to practice coming up with ideas:

In the meantime, have a great rest of your week!

-Alina

1. Kaufman, Scott Barry, and Anna Abraham. “The Neuroscience of Creativity: A Q&A with Anna Abraham.” Scientific American Blog Network, 4 Jan. 2019, blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-neuroscience-of-creativity-a-q-a-with-anna-abraham.

2. Simonton, Dean Keith. “Creative Ideas and the Creative Process: Good News and Bad News for the Neuroscience of Creativity.” The Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology), edited by Rex Jung and Oshin Vartanian, Reprint, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 9–18.

3. Viskontas, Indre V. “Training to Be Creative: The Interplay between Cognition, Skill Learning, and Motivation.” The Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology), edited by Rex Jung and Oshin Vartanian, Reprint, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 405–20.

4. Viskontas, Indre V. “Training to Be Creative: The Interplay between Cognition, Skill Learning, and Motivation.” The Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology), edited by Rex Jung and Oshin Vartanian, Reprint, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 405–20.