For me, thinking divergently is a mania. I do it as much as possible. That is, I push myself to see things from odd angles and slam together ideas that don’t conventionally connect. (Steve Woodruff might say I’m restless.)
Because of this self-induced push to be creative, I’ve come up with some curious ideation techniques. I call them “situational techniques,” because they help you use your immediate surroundings to produce ideas.
One situational technique I often use is book surfing. I stumbled upon it years ago while organizing my home office.
My office was a mess. The bookcases were jammed with hundreds of books. There were so many books, in fact, that they spilled onto the floor. What’s more, the subjects were shuffled together: fiction, science, sports, psychology, poetry, history, magic, pop culture. Finding a specific book was rough. When I wanted to read one, I first had to recall its thickness and jacket color, and then I’d go on a tedious and uncertain hunt.
After one particularly frustrating hunt, I pulled the books from the cases, piled them in the center of the room, and started to shelve them in a more logical order. Doing that required that I think about each book’s content.
Would I, for instance, ever again open this copy of “The Executioner’s Song,” or should I donate it to the library? Would I more likely read Ray Bradbury’s “Zen in the Art of Writing” if I shelved it with the author’s novels and stories, or if I put it with the other books I owned on writing technique? What about my copy of “Send ‘Em One White Sock” by Rapp and Collins? When I first read it, I’d found many of the strategies useful. What were those strategies again?
In giving each book a cursory look, ideas started coming to me without much trying.
I got ideas based on a book’s content (“Bradbury says to write a story out of ‘pure indignation.’ So, if I were to write such a story, I’d write about the time . . . “) and title (“‘Send ‘Em One White Sock’ is actually one of many tactics in the book. So, if I were to write a book about positioning and wanted to title it by a single intriguing tactic, I might call it . . . ”).
The ideas also came from picking up two unrelated books at once (“Hmm, ‘Moneyball’ is about using metrics to measure a ballplayer’s ability, and then there’s ‘The Collected Screenplays of the Coen brothers.’ If I combined these two, I’d get a statistical way of measuring a Coen brothers’ screenplay. Or, I’d get a dark, funny screenplay about a baseball statistician”).
By the time I’d shelved the last book, I’d written down 87 ideas I didn’t have when I started my impromptu project.
Why, then, does book surfing work and how can you surf, too? First the reasons:
Reason #1. To get ideas, we regularly need to fill ourselves with new thoughts, stories, and experiences. That way, we have a fresh inventory of stimuli to draw from. The more information we take in and actively think about, the better we’ll be at using it.
Reason #2. The randomness of the information coming at you keeps you on your toes. It’s almost like attending an improv class. You’re forced to deal with what comes up.
Reason #3. In my version of book surfing, reorganizing my books really was the primary goal. Coming up with new ideas was secondary. The pressure to create, then, was off.
Now that you understand the purpose of this exercise, I challenge you to stand in your office (even if it’s on top of your book piles) and come up with three new ideas to write about. Send me photos of you amongst your books, and I’ll share them with blog readers.
Mark-
This post was spot on!
At one point, my bookcase looked like your bookcase- even with all the books on the floor!
Some time ago, I was really stuck for an blog post idea. I mean– I was stuck.
At some point during the day, as I stared at my overstuffed bookcase, I got inspired to ditch the books I’ll never read and then figured I’ll create some order out of what’s left.
When I started putting the books back, I discovered a pattern of books and ideas I never would have discovered unless I intentionally set out to do organize the bookcase. Then I thought, “Hey- why not write about about some of these ideas?”
These “situational techniques” definitely work. Even if you self-create the situation, you never know where, when or how the inspiration will come to you.
Great post- keep ’em coming!
Thanks for the comment, Tom. Knowing you, I can imagine that post you wrote was dynamite.
As I said, creating situational ideation techniques isn’t hard. You look around and ask yourself, “What’s in my immediate environment, and how can I use it to send my mind in a new direction?” Most of the time you’ll create techniques based on what you see.
But remember, you have other senses and each one of them can be the focus of a different situational technique. (Example: “What am I hearing? What other sounds does that remind me of? How can I use those concepts to help me solve a problem I’m facing?”)
Great post, Mark! Funny because my best ideas often come in the 10 minutes of absolute aloneness that I savor in the shower! No pictures from that though! I will accept your challenge and re-organize and revisit my home library…titles to follow!
Jennifer Wong
http://www.rockstarbuzz4biz.com
Your shower comment reminds me of something a friend said: Since he, too, gets his best ideas in the shower, he takes an erasable marker into the shower with him, so he can jot down thoughts as they appear to him. (I myself wouldn’t do that in a million years, because I’d be scared I’d damage the walls.)
Anyway, thanks for the kind words. I look forward to hearing about any ideas you come up with during your book surf, Jennifer.