prompt #1
divergent thinking
A common test for creativity (and a really good exercise to boost creativity) is divergent thinking. See how many uses you can generate for a simple object like a toothpick, a brick, an empty plastic water bottle, etc.
PROMPT: How many ideas can you come up with for what to do with a rubber band, in one minute?
Now, once a minute has passed, see if you can go another minute and generate a few MORE ideas.
What are some ways to assess your divergent thinking?
- Of the two sessions, which one generated the largest NUMBER of ideas? A large number of ideas gives a rough measure of your fluency.
- How many different CATEGORIES of uses did you find (for example, fastening, decorating, tightening, etc.)? This is a rough measure of your flexibility – the variety of types of uses.
- Which ones were the most ORIGINAL? The rarity or novelty of your ideas is a rough measure of their originality.
- How ELABORATE were your descriptions? For example, if you wrote, “use as a bracelet,” this is less elaborate than if you wrote, “Find seven different colors of rubber bands, and each day of the week, pick a different color of rubber band to wear around the wrist, and use it as a reminder of which day of the week it is.” The level of detail is a measure of elaboration of your descriptions.
Creativity is defined as novelty + effectiveness. A classic example of a novel idea that is not effective is lighter fluid as a soup ingredient. Novel, but with no usefulness. How many of your ideas are actually useful?
Because divergent thinking is open-ended and non-goal-oriented, this practice exercises your imagination.
Try this as a daily practice!
prompt #2
make (a little) room for negativity
No matter what level of project you’re working on, you’re going to have some gremlins. This is just as true for a multi-million dollar collaborative experiment as it is for a solo writing project. Gremlins might be fears about loss of funding, doubts about your abilities, envy of competitors, or other worries.
Rather than trying to suppress your gremlins or ignore them, give them a place to whine. Not a big place.
PROMPT:
Take a small cardboard box or a tin can, any kind of scrap, and make a little tiny desk. When worries and doubts come to you, just say to them, “Oh, thank you, good point. Why don’t you go sit at your desk and write down all the reasons this might fail or why I’m not good enough, etc. while I work over here at my desk / lab bench / easel.”
That way, you’re not trying to bury what might be a part of yourself. Negativity isn’t entirely negative — it can come in handy later on in the critical thinking process when you’re refining an idea. So don’t stifle that negative voice altogether, just minimize it so that you can get on with your creative work.
prompt #3
boundaries: for unbounded creativity
Ironically, one of the best tools for creativity is to have obstacles or constraints restricting what you can do. Limitations can be frustrating at first, but over time, you will find they will funnel your creativity into new ways of seeing a situation or solving a problem.
The painting below is an example of how creating my own boundaries worked for me. One year, I challenged myself to buy no art supplies, and just work with what I had on hand. I was oil painting at the time, and when I started running out of pigment, I found a new solution. I was living in Georgia at the time, where red clay is ubiquitous. I gathered some clay, dried it, ground it finely with the back of a spoon on an old plate, and then mixed it with linseed oil. I had fun making this painting, and it gave me interesting visual effects I could not have gotten from paint bought at the store.
PROMPT:
To practice working within boundaries, challenge yourself to make something with just three materials.
- TRY: Paper, charcoal, and grass.
- OR: String, sticks, and coins.
- OR: Envelopes, pen, and eggshells. Et cetera.
Give yourself an hour, play, try different things, and see what you come up with!
prompt #4:
radio garden
One of the best ways to spark creativity is to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar culture. The tastes, smells, and sounds of walking through a new culture awaken your senses. Even if you can’t travel, your EARS can! RadioGarden is a site that allows you to explore radio stations from around the world, in real time. Explore…
PROMPT:
Open RadioGarden and listen to five different radio stations in countries that are unfamiliar to you. (Unfortunately, a lot of stations will be playing canned American radio so you’ll have to do some hopping around to find some that are playing music indigenous to that place. But it’s worth the trouble!) Great rhythms and sounds, unusual instruments, new ways of bending the human voice, other languages… bon voyage for the ears!
prompt #5:
verb list
Richard Serra made large abstract site-specific sculptures, many out of monstrous sheets of metal. Below is one called Torqued Ellipses that is installed at Dia Beacon in New York. Serra also made a Verb List in 1967, imagining many ways to work with materials.
Inspired by Serra’s list, here is a verb list I created for my own creative practice, aligned with my interests in interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of art, science, and nature. Because creativity training works best when it is domain-specific, challenge yourself to create a list of verbs that aligns with your field, interests, or area of expertise.
PROMPT:
Write a verb list that aligns with YOUR interests. Mine have to do with art-science-nature projects. Don’t think too hard! Go fast. Just keep writing until you fill two pages.
Keep them around and read them when you’re feeling stuck.
prompt #6:
oblique strategies
Oblique Strategies are a set of cards with enigmatic suggestions to help you get unstuck. The full name is “Oblique Strategies: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas.” They were developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, with composers and musicians in mind. If you can’t afford the cards, here’s a lovely minimalist online version that changes randomly one at a time.
PROMPT:
Create your own list of enigmatic suggestions, related to the work you’re doing. They can be on Post-it notes, index cards, even backs of scrap paper. Poetry is encouraged, brevity is essential. Making sense is optional. Try being non-verbal: make doodles, icons, or simple visual instructions like Ikea diagrams.
Open your box / deck of cards / jar of notes whenever you need inspiration (literally “breathe life into”).
These prompts are part of a larger practice in creativity workshops and coaching. Want to take a deeper dive?
