What does a beer, a shower and playing Pictionary have in common?
And you can do all three alone or in a group? Well two of them at least and a third as a couple.
Okay, enough riddles.
The three subjects above are suggestions to help you generate creative ideas.
Really?
See if you agree.
What I like to do is read poetry and jot down whatever words or ideas arise. That’s suggestion #34.
Can you add any tips? How do you brainstorm creative ideas?
Maybe we can get to 40 ideas.
Yesterday I searched for a gift for my son whose birthday is coming up. He’s an artist who favors surrealists and abstract expressionism.
I came upon some Salvador Dalí paintings which made me remember a trip to London with my son where we visited “Dalí Universe.”
I read that much of his artwork came to him in the few seconds between sleep and wakefulness. I imagined Dalí dipping into his dreams while creating his artwork. He referred to his art as “hand-painted dream photographs.”
Dali called this “method” his “secret of sleeping while awake,” or the hypnagogic state.
This captured my attention since I frequently find that dawn is when I feel most creative.
Today during those seconds between waking and leaving my dreams I found a poem.
Sleep State
In the depths of the morning
I touch heaven,
the dawn rises
in ribbons of blue,
in the quiet
before the hum
of living.
In the depths of the morning,
when light creeps through
a flutter of lashes,
I reach back into a dream
to salvage a memory
relive a feeling.
In the depths of the morning,
in the silence
where there is only me,
I breath life
through a yawn
and decide
to try another day.
Luckily, I have my cell phone on my nightstand and use it to record notes, including this poem. I find if I turn on my lamp to use my pen and jot words down on paper, the bright light distracts me.
Maybe this technique of “sleeping while awake” will help you as a writer, artist, or poet.
Or you can try sleeping more, 😴
What prompts your creativity?
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