The first suggestion I want to discuss is the #3, which talks about the tolerance of ambiguity. In Media 205 we learned that many new TV shows come from old ones, with minor changes in the plot or focus. This shows how ambiguity is extremely important to the creative process. You can look at a show that was successful and find the parts of it that might have not worked, and then take those parts out and add some other ideas to make a whole new show. Just as the article discusses Edison saying he didn’t fail 800 times, he just learned what wasn’t right, we can learn from our past choices to make better decisions on the future. Another example of how to implement this would be in the writing of a film. In the process of writing a film, just as any other story, the ending can be the hardest. However, with the toleration of ambiguity you can keep trying different endings to see what works best, and ultimately come out with the best ending.
#8, perhaps, may be the most important part of creating, and I say this for personal reasons. When I’m writing a long paper, or doing a lot of math problems in a row, I get stuck; my mind starts to wonder, and everything I look at seems the same. The only thing I can do to get past this wall is to back away from it, and forget about it for a little. Whether this be hopping from piece of work to the other, or just forgetting about work completely to go watch some South Park. The point is, this break allows my brain to stop working and possibly find some new routes for the ideas to flow when the old ones are blocked by something. Before I discovered this idea of taking breaks I would spend countless hours sitting at my desk trying to force out ideas that just couldn’t find their way through. Though the ideas might be there and you can feel them coming, sometimes it’s a good idea to let your mind rest and calm yourself to where you can think more rationally. You’ll be surprised at how much easier problem solving is.
The last idea I liked was #12, Look for Happy Accidents. I believe that this is very important in any creative field, because it goes along with the idea of brainstorming, but almost puts fate in charge. If you go about your work and keep your mind closed off to ideas other than what you are expecting then you won’t ever discover something new. Now, that’s not to say that all new ideas are great, but like the article said, some of these extremely important items that people use daily came from accidents. I’m not a very faithful person, though I do go to synagogue for the high holidays, but if you wanted to look at it as “a higher power” telling you to follow that path, by all means. However, I believe that accidents just happen sometimes, and if you’re lucky enough to stumble across a good one, you should definitely take it. For instance, one time I was trying to come up with an idea for a commercial for my high school’s television show, so I went to the best place for commercial ideas, the television. As I flipped through channels I came across one of my favorite shows, Scrubs. This is important because I came in right as the opening was on, and that’s when I got the idea. I knew that we were looking for a new opener for the show, and why not something that everyone recognizes and loves like the Scrubs opener. This little accident, though hardly and accident gave me a great idea for a project that I wasn’t even planning on working on.
The last part of this blog entry asks me to choose one of the prompts, so I chose the one about making new connections. For #4 the prompt asks us to make 3 parallel lists of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, then look for intriguing connections between them. Here’s my list:
Nouns: Horse, Mountain, Car, Talon, Fountain, Book, Crystal, Skin, Cup, Goal
Verbs: Jump, Punch, Fly, Explode, Lay, Sing, Whine, Draw, Buy, Hold
Adjectives: Fluffy, Smelly, Loud, Bright, Vast, Old, Shiny, Greasy, Small, Bouncy
Using these 3 lists of words I came up with endless ideas, for stories, scenes in a movie, or just junk that didn’t make sense. However, like idea #3 said, you need to tolerate ambiguity and keep moving on. I think this prompt works really well for that.
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