How to Be Creative 6 steps with 6 photo

Steps

1. 1
   Limit your tools to only the most vital. Having a limited set of tools forces you to be creative; it really challenges you to use what you have to produce the desired results. As a result, you’ll get incredibly good with that small set of tools and refine your use of them to a point you can do anything you like with them. You’ll be far sharper than someone who merely dabbles with a larger set of tools. Learn how to be resourceful.
   
   
   

1. • If you're a painter, limit yourself to one medium and just the primary colors. If you're a drawer, limit yourself to pencil drawings. Especially in the beginning, excelling at the most basic kind of expression will help you be creative once you have more tools at your disposal.
   • If you're a movie-maker, limit yourself to black and white film. If you're a photographer, do the the same. Don't think that creativity always means the same thing as options; it often doesn't. Creativity creates options, not feeds off them.
   • If you're a writer, practice writing with only the words a 6th grader might understand, even if you're writing about concepts that adults find difficult to wrap their minds around. If you're a playwright, try to get by without using props in either your script or in your performances. See what happens!
2. 2
   Don’t listen to feedback. Keep following your own path. The problem with asking for feedback is invariably the feedback will be given infused with that person’s preconceived notions of what the outcome should be. Others will unconsciously push you in a direction that they see as best. This is done with good intentions; however, it actually hurts your creativity. Now this is different from sharing your work — by all means share, but listening to feedback is not a good decision if you want to truly find your own path of creative self-expression. Once you're finished with your creative work, whatever it may be, then you can listen to feedback. Just don't let criticism (even the constructive type) stifle your creativityduring the creative process.
   
   
   
   • Keep in mind that people will generally display resistance to your idea, because good ideas change the existing dynamic, and people, for the most part, like things the way they are. When you present something that challenges the status quo, many people (friends, relatives, co-workers) will feel threatened.
   • But don't be afraid, however, to criticize yourself. Actually, be harder on yourself than everyone else is. Always ask yourself, how could I have done this better? and what would I have done differently in a perfect world? Accept that you are not perfect, and that your striving to be as good as possible is the fruit of self-expression. If you can't find fault with your own work, you're probably not trying hard enough.
3. 3
   Having a routine may not actually be a bad thing. Routines are positive if they reinforce a healthy, creative mindset; they're negative if they destroy that. While breaking your routine once in a while to force new ways of thinking is good, what if growing/learning/experiencing new things was built into your routine as a given? The people who get stuck on a monotonous path and speak negatively about routine have probably not developed a routine that puts them on a path of internal growth. The key is to discover creative rituals that put you in a more creative mindset.
   
   
   
   • Many writers not only have a minimum number of words they must write each day, but they also have almost superstitious requirements for their writing conditions. The 18th century German writer Friedrich Schiller, for example, kept rotten apples at his desk and soaked his feet in a tub of ice water while he wrote!^[1]
   • Don't be afraid to seize control of your environment and make it work for you. Ray Bradbury wrote the book-burning story Fahrenheit 451 by leaving his house and writing in a library. Stephen King insists on utter silence while writing, while Harlan Ellison listens to high-volume classical music.
   • Set aside a block of time each day to foster your creativity. Kick the session off with a creative exercise or ritual that triggers a flexible state of mind. Whether it's meditating,freewriting, listening to a particular song, or rubbing your lucky rock — do whatever gets you "in the zone" and set a daily goal (e.g. one sketch per day, 1000 words a day, an invention or song a day).
   • Think like an adult, act like a kid. Adults who are trying to be creative face a lot of creative roadblocks along the way: there are rules about what's allowed and what isn't, how we're supposed to behave and not behave. Those rules are there for a reason (we're not saying they're bad), but they can inhibit your creativity. Instead, use all the natural intelligence you've gained as an adult and where possible, act like a kid. Children have a natural creativity that's constantly reinventing itself, partly because they're learning about the world and partly because they don't know that they're not supposed to do certain things. Don't be afraid to responsibly break rules. Tap into that playfulness that's inside of us all, and go explore that jungle gym that is the world.
4. 4
   Let go of perfectionism. Your natural output, drained of concern for creating something that's exactly right, will always produce creative results. There are limitless paths to achieve creative success; there are so many shades of gray. Imperfection is human, and sometimes the most creative artists leave mistakes unfixed on purpose. Nature itself is beautifully imperfect. Many try to be so perfect that they scrub away what made their work special in the first place. In a world saturated by overproduced, unnaturally perfect, and clean, the unpolished is the most creative and in many cases most inspirational.
   
   
   
   • Work on the "bad" ideas. Even if you are only coming up with what you feel are "bad" ideas, you are still being creative, so develop them, and they could turn into a great solution! Focus on improving your "bad" ideas more than perfecting your "good" ones.
   • Don't tie your self-worth to your creative output. Your value as a human is defined by so many many other things: how you treat other people, how you treat yourself, how much love you have for the world, your willingness to be selfless, your ability to do the hard things. We could go on and on for a whole article, and creative expression issomething that matters. But it's not the only thing that matters. If you fail at your creative endeavors, try not to let it affect your self-esteem. Try to use it as an opportunity to get better.
   • Put yourself into situations where you know you will fail. This one seems a bit counter-intuitive, but it's important. Lots of perfectionists are afraid of failing, and therefore only do the things they know they are good at. Don't succumb to this mindset. Creativity is like dating: If you never strike out at least some of the time, you're not trying hard enough. So let go of your ego, be prepared to fail (but don't expect it), and jump into new and challenging situations. You're never going to be creative if you never take a leap.
5. 5
   Ignore trends. If you want to be truly creative, you absolutely must ignore trends. Block them out — pay zero attention to them. Trends are the polar opposite of creativity. In many forms of art (especially music) a majority of artists are following whatever the hot trends are. Then there is the other, smaller group of artists that are pursuing their own path and not really paying attention to external trends in their art of choice. There is certainly more money, fame and instant notoriety for following trends, but most of what is popular is hardly creative. If you want to make something truly unique, trends are irrelevant. Looking inside yourself is where you will discover a greater wealth of creativity than available in any hot trend. Here are some more suggestions for insulating yourself from trends:
   
   
   
   • Don’t watch TV, don’t listen to the radio, and remove the vapid elements of popular culture from your life. These things aren’t bad for you in moderation, but they are great at normalizing your thoughts with the rest of society, and they don't foster true creativity. Realize everything that you experience, every piece of content you consume plays a role in shaping your personality, even if it's at a subconscious level. You are in many ways a product of your experiences. Your creative output can be thought of as you interpretation of external stimuli. The bad part about this is that you're at the mercy of certain outside forces. The good part about this is you get to control much of what comes at you.
   • Don’t try and fit into a genre. Actively trying to fit your art or work into a genre is severely limiting and could be a detriment to its quality. Don’t try and write for a genre; don’t try to follow trends within a genre. In fact, as much as possible, don’t even consider genre when working. Putting your work in a genre is a necessary evil for people trying to find work, and you might have to do this. But it shouldn’t be something that crosses your mind when trying to work. People who are truly creative invent their own genre.
   • Spend some time alone. You don't have to be anti-social, but many people find their creativity really starts to open up when they are removed from others and able to have quiet focus for their creative work. Use a little bit of alone-time to brainstorm about your art. Spend the time right before you go to sleep — and right after you wake up — to journal some of your ideas. Many artists find that they are at their creative peaks right after they wake up in the morning.
   • At the same time, be collaborative. Lots of artists find that working with someone else pushes the limits of what they thought was possible. Whether it's Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, or Duke Ellington and all of Jazz, collaboration is an essential part of creation. Find someone who you can share ideas with. Challenge them to do something wild and unexpected, involving you in the process. Hopefully, your creativity will be unleashed.
6. 6
   Ignore the past. Want to be really creative or original? Ignore or forget the past; ignore what the world has created up until this point. Sometimes considering the past will make you place a sort of unconscious time stamp on a style. That’s the opposite of creativity and originality. Create things from within yourself that don’t draw inspiration from what has come previously or even consider it, and you’ll be on a path to creative output. In a creative state of mind, time doesn't exist — a few hours can feel like seconds, a moment can seem to last for hours, and you're completely immersed in the present.^[2] Learn how to live in the moment.
   
   
   
   • It's okay to take inspiration from the past, but don't dwell on it. There will probably be aspects of past art that you like and ones that you dislike. Take the aspects that you connect with and develop them into your own. Fuse Art Deco with something Modernist. Take Dixieland and make it Baroque. Whatever yo do with the past (if you choose to take inspiration from it), be sure to let it grow into something rather than keeping it what it is.

Creative Exercises

• Look at a picture. Think of 100 (or 50) words about the picture, write them down, then create a crazy story about the picture using all (or most) of the words.
• Think for a half hour a day exclusively on one subject. At first, this might be very hard to do. You can start off by thinking about a single subject for five minutes a day, then increase the period daily until you reach a half hour. At first it is wise to practice this when alone, but eventually you should be able to do it even in the midst of distractions, such as when traveling to and from work.^[3]
• Write a letter or speak for 15 minutes without using the words I, me, my and mine. Make it smooth and keep it interesting, so that someone reading or listening would never notice anything odd about it. This forces you to turn your mind outward, and give up the preoccupations and obsessions of your own life.^[3]
• Have someone doodle a line for you, then challenge yourself to make a variety of cartoons based on that one line. Don't resort to drawing faces, though--those are usually too easy!^[4]
• Take a familiar outline and challenge yourself to come up with drawings that could fit within that outline.
• Combine ideas. Choose two random objects, and describe each one in detail. What does it look like? What is it used for? How is it made? Then substitute one object with the other objects description. How can I make object A feel like object B? Or do what object B does?^[5]
• Keep a journal, describing everything you do and feel with metaphors. Each day, challenge yourself to come up with new metaphors. (After all, how many different ways can you symbolize brushing your teeth?) See How to Write a Metaphor.
• Write a list of basic questions, such as 'What is your name?', 'Where are you from?', What did you do last Thursday?' Try to come up with at least 10 questions. The more you ask, the better! Whatever question comes to mind, write it down, even if it seems foolish. Answer the questions with song lyrics. (Try not to use the same song too often.)
• Play word association games. It helps to have someone willing to play along, but if no one will, you can do this alone. If you're doing it solo, write down your beginning word and spend 10 minutes or so just saying the next word that comes to mind. Compare the beginning word to the final word. They should be pretty diverse. This loosens up your mind to allow free association of ideas.
• See how long you can talk (and make sense!) without using a common word, like 'and','but', 'the' or 'that'.
• Ask somebody to draw you a picture (ask him to try to make the picture nonsensical), and then write up a list of what the drawing may be/represent.
• Try to tell to what each person you see resembles to you (by appearance or character). Don't push your thinking to a limit; it's not bad if someone is a carrot, or a table, just be sure of your choice.