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WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU’RE IN YOUR CREATIVE ZONE

Once in your creative zone, you can freely daydream while visualizing your project idea.

Write all your ideas down into your idea journal. I have several journals, one for each category.

FOR EXAMPLE:

I have one journal for each blog I own to keep all my ideas together and organized.

For general brainstorming and thoughts, I have one journal that contains all my project ideas.

Then use one dedicated journal for each project idea I decide to develop into an actual project.

They are making things even more convenient and organized. At least for a creative personality.

I have since added Scrivener my list of valuable tools for documenting, developing, and storing my ideas.

TRY TO JOT DOWN 5-20 IDEAS PER DAY.

Yes, that is right, you should try to jot down 5-20 ideas per day, but if you can do more, then please jot down more. 

If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas, don’t worry, you need to get into the habit of doing this every day.

At first, your ideas may not be as great as you would like them to be, but as time goes by, you will get into the habit of coming up with more creative ideas that keep getting better.

THIS HAPPENS FOR A FEW DIFFERENT REASONS:

Your ideas will develop more over time.

As you go through your day, your subconscious will bring to your attention symbols, situation, and other things related to your ideas.

Helping you begin connecting dots and further develop your ideas.

You’ll start recognizing a good idea from a bad idea quicker the more you practice. (but for now, write everything down.

You will start noticing which ideas will and won’t work.

You’ll start to kick the bad ideas out of your head quicker or keep them on the back burner to see if it develops more over time.

Keep an open mind to find more inspiration from other people’s creative solutions, ideas, and visions that intrigue you throughout your day.

Your natural dot-connecting will start to help you come up with new ideas and possibilities.

JUST KEEP PLUGGING ALONG, IT’LL ALL COME TOGETHER.

Your mind can only draw from what it knows and what it has access to so add to your skill sets, information and influences.

If you’re stuck with your creative pursuits whether problem solving or when creating just add more influences of different visual styles you like, be gentle with yourself, and enjoy the process.

Study other people’s work to learn how they came to those outcomes.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Here is an example of how I approach brainstorming and idea creation. Let us say I decide I want to create a digital sticker pack. I think of the practical stuff I need to consider the night before.

For this project, I decide I want to create an inspirational sticker pack for women. Then I decided that I wanted it to include 25-50 digital stickers.

Half of them in words and the other half in images. With 5-10 pieces that include both wordages within the images.

Ok, now I have a basis of what I want to think about tomorrow morning.

PAD OF PAPER AKA SCRATCH PAD:

It’s the following day; I get up, get a cup of coffee, sit down with my pad of paper. I would usually start with as many inspiring words as I could think of at the moment.

 

Examples: WORDS

Giant word on top of the page, write “INSPIRING WORDS.”

Then write words that feel inspiring or uplifting:

Awesome, Congrats, no way, What, Beautiful, How Lovely, etc

After I run out of ideas, I would start thinking of the kind of messages my friends send when they feel down and then write a short one-four word reply I would like to send back depending on their personality and what motivates them.

 

Example: TITLE, FEELING DOWN

NO Way! You’re awesome! What! No, they are wrong; something wwwaaayyy better will come along. It’s ok to feel sad for a short bit, Not TRUE, Feel better, 

Then I would start thinking up the imagery.

 

Example: IMAGERY

Jotting down about 20 images of something that would probably make me feel better or, I have noticed, make other people feel better.

You can start with writing the description or roughing out stick figures of your ideas; the point is to begin.

The more you work on it, the more your ideas will develop.

Then I would start thinking of words and images together.

 

Example: WORDS AND IMAGES

Thumbs up with NO, Way your awesome, and draw a super cute character that says beautiful with a huge smile. Etc and kept going until I ran out of ideas.

I would repeat this process for about five mornings, each at least an hour or two.

If I could complete all those tasks, I would break up the tasks one for each morning.

WHAT MY BRAINSTORMING WEEK MIGHT LOOK LIKE:

MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

 MONDAY:

Brainstorm for encouraging words.

TUESDAY:

Brainstorm for encouraging 1-4 word, sayings.

WEDNESDAY:

Work on response to sadness.

THURSDAY:

Work on imagery.

FRIDAY:

Work on mixing words and imagery.

ON THE FIFTH NIGHT OF BRAINSTORMING 

On the five nights, I would go through my five days, worth of ideas and start checking the ones I like, then marking the ones I kind of like, then crossing out the ones I don’t like.

Then the next day, I would start over, but this time with a defined idea of what I want to see if I can develop and expand on those ideas.

MY SECOND WEEK WOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS

Take your existing ideas and develop them further. I am expanding on them in rough sketches still on a notepad or artist pad.

Be sure to add dates and notes as your questions and thoughts come to you.

 

By roughing out the concepts from your brainstorming sessions, you create a visual to see if it is worth pursuing further at the moment.

Rough sketches = chicken scratches to see if it’s worth putting real time into it.

WHAT MY THIRD WEEK MIGHT LOOK LIKE

Pick 25-50 of my favorite

Started developing the sketches 3 for each idea

FOURTH WEEK..,

Pick the best of the three drawing of each idea

Then create the template.

Clean it up as the final pieces.

Colorize the final pieces.

FIVE WEEK…,

Prep for publishing and planning market research

It is advisable to do marketing research before creating the items.

However, I didn’t see the point of disrupting the brainstorming process, creating to doing before we had a solid idea. 

In a perfect world, you see what people need then start brainstorming.

But I like to create what I see in my mind, so sometimes I do the process in reverse.

WEEK SIX..,

Double-check everything and upload stickers, then implement your marketing plan.

So went a little further than planned, but you see the point.

Celebrate your success in accomplishing this considerable endeavor.

WEEK 7.., CIRCLE BACK AROUND

Start brainstorming again, sifting through past journals for new ideas.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

I know some of you are thinking; I don’t need seven weeks to get all that done…,

And that’s fine, move as fast or as slow as you need to or want to. I base this plan on 1-2 hours of work a day dedicated solely to the sample project.

Best wishes, and I hope you found value in this article.

Please let me know what you think in the comment area. I love questions, so please ask. I would also like to see what you’re working on and what you would like to discuss next. So please let me know in the comment area!! Yay!

PRIOR Post In This Series is HOW TO TAP AND FLOW INTO CREATIVITY.

WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU’RE IN YOUR CREATIVE ZONE

Once In Your Creative Zone
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