If people knew how to bottle creativity they would. And that includes most creative people, who know they can come up with ideas and thoughts, but who don't always know exactly how that happens. It comes down to trying to create the right environment and circumstances in which the creativity can occur.
I strongly believe you need outside stimulation for true creativity. I think new ideas come from the association and connection of existing ones in different and exciting ways. I have a whole theory about that, but that's another post altogether.
Creativity comes from a combination of challenge, passion, mental stimulation and good old fashioned hard work. The sitting-down-and-really-thinking-about-it stage. You know, the old Thomas Edison quote that "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration".
But it's not just about hard work. Somewhere there's a spark or a trigger. I think the most we can do is try to facilitate the sorts of conditions in which that spark is going to ignite.
There's a great book called WHY ARE YOU CREATIVE? by Harmann Vaske, with a foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. It asks lots of famous creative people why they are creative and then analyses their answers. My favourite is German film director and writer Wim Wenders who drew a simple line drawing of a bear with a sign around his neck that said "BECAUSE".
Designer David Carson wrote back "Why the hell not? Life is too short."
Advertising legend Lee Clow simply replied, "Because the alternative sucks."
He's right.

Comments

[Adrienne]

LOVE your random scribblings Doug - especially the 'Oh no I've stained my best white shirt' penguin! :-)
I think you need to check out www.shoeboxblog.com if you haven't already. There's a few laughs there too.