Author tips

This Is The Answer

To where new ideas come from…

At times, I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves sitting staring at a blank page, or a blank screen.

Waiting for inspiration to strike.

And at other times, we produce something. It might not be perfect, but it’s there. A draft, that we can work on and polish into our story, song, or whatever our creative passion is.

It’s strange, though. As a creative writer myself, I’ve often wonder where our ideas come from, and why can’t we just flick on the creative switch any time we choose.

I’ve spent some time reading about the psychology of creativity. What I have learned suggests that there are four main factors in creativity. I think that knowing about them makes a massive difference to avoiding writer’s block and procrastination.

Here they are:

1. The brain

First and most important is your own brain, and specifically your memory.

Did you know that the human brain is the most complicated known object in the universe? And that some researchers believe that memories, once learned, are never truly forgotten?

You have a lot stored away in there!

And after all, the things you create must involve your brain. On some level, they have to come from within. If you sit by yourself, staring at a screen for an hour, and then finally produce a few lines of a story, then where else did that come from?

The creative ideas were already in your brain — or at least, the raw materials were. They are derived from your own knowledge, life memories, and understandings of the world.

Did you know that the human brain is the most complicated known object in the universe?

Many creative writers will say that they don’t base their plots and characters directly on real people. But on the other hand, it’s easy to see influences. Fiction always reflects real life.

So: trust yourself. Your brain already holds the key to most of the ideas and information you need. The next three factors are all about how to make use of it.

2. Triggers

Of course, sometimes what you already know isn’t quite enough. It’s like the fuel for the fire of creativity, but we also need that little bit of a spark to get the fire started.

These are the triggers in the world that get your creativity started. That get things flowing.

It might just be something you hear, a person you see, or a book or movie you’ve enjoyed and that inspires you. I’m sure you’ve experienced a story at some point, and thought, ‘hey, I’d love to write something like that!’.

That’s a good thing. Remember, it’s not copying — it’s inspiration! Or the other way around, as Voltaire put it:

“Originality is just judicious copying” — Voltaire

A story or poem idea could even begin with an unusual phrase you hear, or seeing an interesting person in the street.

These sparks of inspiration are uncommon, but there are things that you can do to make them happen more often, and take control of the process. These include:

• Looking at writing prompts
• Reading widely
• Varying what you experience, for example by going to new places.

All in all, sparks of inspiration can be random, but there are things you can do to make them more likely to happen.

3. Chaos

A good story or movie is often very carefully planned and crafted. It takes many days of planning and editing.

It might surprise you, then, to know that creativity can depend on randomness.

Think about a box of legos. The jumble of bricks can lead to two things appearing beside each other in a way that you haven’t heard before.

Jimi Hendrix used to talk about how he would hear a bum note in an amateur concert and it would stimulate an idea. The randomness, even the mistakes, could lead to musical ideas that wouldn’t occur if you just followed the usual patterns perfectly.

Mistakes have led to insights in science, too, with things like lab accidents leading to breakthroughs or inventions.

‘Ideas arise from chaos’, as this psychology article found.

And so —it pays to embrace the chaos, for example by shuffling note cards with ideas, characters and phrases as part of your own creative practice.

4. Incubation

Finally, let’s consider a process that scientists call ‘incubation’.

When an adult bird sits on their nest, we say that they are incubating the eggs. The chicks can’t hatch straight away.

It takes time.

This is a great metaphor for the creative process. The ideas sometimes need to rest in your brain. It might feel like you are doing nothing, but your amazing brain is still working away, subconsciously putting pieces together!

It’s one of the reasons that good ideas often come to us at strange moments — when out for a walk, or when taking a shower.

Perhaps you have ideas for stories when lying awake at night?

It’s also a reason why it can be a good idea to leave stories aside, and return to them with fresh eyes. This helps you spot mistakes… but it also gives time for the ideas to fully mature:

Don’t leave it too long, however. That’s just procrastination. Those memories in your brain? They get harder to recover as time goes by. But the creative process does really benefit from a few hours (or even days) of down time.

Overall, then, you can’t guarantee coming up with a good new idea. But there are things that you can do.

Your brain has the information you need, but you can use cues, prompts and inspiration in the outside world in order to trigger those dormant memories. And when creating, an element of chaos and randomness can really help you to connect two or more ideas in a unique and original way.

Good luck with all of your creative work!

Thanks for reading! To get more like this, you can get my posts direct to your inbox. Do that here! And if you’re not yet a Medium member, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership with this link, Doing so will support me directly with a portion of your fee, and won’t cost you extra. If you do, thank you so very much!

Follow The Orange Journal so you don’t miss a post. Do you love to write about self-improvement and personal development? Learn how to be added as a writer here. 🍊