7 Average Words to Help You Discover Above Average Ideas
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Illustrated by Khalid Birdsong.
Are your ideas all dried up? Maybe you’re feeling like someone who can’t come up with anything exceptional anymore. Looking for new ways to express yourself and breakthrough a creative slump?
I’ve been there. More often than I’d like to admit.
As a teacher, writer, and cartoonist, I’m always in need of ideas, not only to start creating something new but to enhance what I’m already working on.
Let’s imagine we climbed the mountain of the creative block together. As we reach the top, standing majestically in front of us is a massive rock. On it are inscribed seven words. Words to get you out of your creative rut.
Reading each word given to us by the divine universe of ideas, I agree to interpret how to apply each one to your life. When you feel lost or blocked creatively, just think of one of these and then take action.
1. Challenge
The first word we see on the list is one of the most powerful. You must make sure what you’re working on has an element of challenge, or you won’t rise to meet it. If what you’re creating is too easy or in the middle of your comfort zone, up the stakes.
Perhaps you have a new skill to learn. Incorporate it into your process or a new way of doing something you’ve mastered. Taking a risk by learning a new style or way of creating can force you to think creatively in new ways.
This could be as simple as choosing a topic for an article on something you know very little about. You’ll need to research and find an interesting angle to take. Writing in the voice and tone of a novelist you admire could also push new ideas out of you.
If you’re very good at writing, try learning a new musical instrument and practicing it during your writing breaks. When you feel that uncertainty bubbling up inside, that means you’re on the right track.
2. Variety
Are you always reading the same genre of books? Watching the same TV shows? Add some variety to your life, and you’ll become inundated with fresh new ideas.
We become comfortable with our choices and could use something new and different to shake it up.
“Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.”
If remembering to consume something different is hard, try inputting a reminder to the calendar on your phone. Or, put a sticky note near your laptop that reads, “Watch a TV show you think you’ll hate.”
Read articles with opinions different than yours. Going in to understand why people enjoy or believe this could help your mind come up with ideas for characters or a new project to pursue.
3. Habit
When you make doing your creative work into a daily habit, creativity will walk in and join you.
How do you make something a habit? Write down a plan of what you would like to get done in a day and what order. Make sure to follow that plan for two straight weeks. Boom! You’ve got a habit.
If you plan to get up an hour earlier to create every morning, decide what time, set your alarm, and put it on the other side of the room. That way, you must get up out of bed to turn it off.
Your mind and body will expect the routine and look forward to making your newly established habit. When you sit down to create when you always do, your mind would have been formulating ideas in your off-hours, anticipating this regular creative release slot in your day.
4. Awe
Experience or observe something that fills you with awe.
Look at a beautiful painting. Watch a musician playing a solo on the instrument; they put their heart and soul into learning. Visit natural wonders like the Grand Canyon or something closer like your local park.
Appreciating the beauty of nature will help you see this world with open eyes and give your mind new ideas.
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
Albert Einstein
5. Walks
Humans have been walking since the beginning of, well, humanity. Yes, because that’s how we get around. But also to help us think clearly. Even come up with new ideas we can’t wait to write or create.
Before going out for a walk, ask yourself a specific question or fill your head with content from many different sources. Then, let it all simmer together as you move your feet.
Inspiration will hit.
Make sure to bring a small notepad or your cell phone to jot down any ideas that pop into your head. You’d be amazed what a little fresh air, sunlight, and physical movement can do for your creative thinking.
6. Opposites
When you see this word carved on the majestic stone, it might perplex you. How can thinking of opposites help with creative ideas?
Moving in the opposite direction for an idea creates tension and can shake out good ideas. I learned this from writing humor for comic strips. If I were having trouble coming up with a funny gag, I’d think of the opposite way that situation could look.
For example, what if I have a character in my story who’s a husband that hates taking out the garbage. Maybe this time, he decides not to take it to the bin outside and hides the overstuffed garbage bag in the house somewhere.
It sounds pretty gross, but my imagination is starting to light up with scenarios where the husband is trying to convince his wife there’s no foul smell coming from the closet. It’s still a funky idea, but my mind wants to make it work.
Maybe he tried to hide the garbage last week, and his wife comments on it when he refuses to take it out this time. “Remember, honey; we don’t wear the garbage, so keep it out of our closet.”
When you need new ideas, try thinking of the opposites of something you know well or of a popular opinion, and see where it takes you.
7. Practice
The final word on the stone makes sense to you and seems so simple. Taking time to practice the fundamentals of your creative pursuit daily does wonders for improving your skill and idea generation. Start with an exercise that gets you in the mood for creativity.
I like sketching people I see while out and about, writing 10 ideas a day, journal writing, practicing playing scales on a piano. Freewriting.
Anything that doesn’t take a lot of thought but makes you feel something, giving your mind a chance to wander as well. Something cathartic, if you will.
Once your mind is active in one way, from practicing your art fundamentals, but still has space to search for new ideas, you’ll have an easier time getting inspired.
In conclusion
As we walk down the mountain, we’re full of inspiration from the straightforward yet powerful words carved on the stone.
We see the truth now. Creativity is not magic. You can help your mind mold and shape fresh new ideas through normal activities and just a little bit of open-minded thinking.
Now, accept this wisdom and go out and become the extraordinary creative person you were meant to be.
