For those of you still struggling to come up with a great idea for the Idea sketch, here follows a few tips from author and writing coach Michael Levin who over the years has developed several tricks to stimulate his creative muscle which has helped him come up with great ideas for whatever challenge he may face.
- Ask yourself, “What’s the most dangerous, expensive, and illegal way to solve this problem?” Imagine that you have no limits – legal, moral, financial, whatever. This may lead you to new ways of thinking. (And then you can find a non-life-threatening, legal way to solve it!)
- Hide. Slow down and get your brain back. It’s impossible to generate ideas when responding to endless external stimuli.
- Count to 20. Go somewhere where you can be undisturbed, bring a yellow pad and a pen, turn off your phone, and sit there until you come up with 20 ideas for solving your problem. This requires discipline, and not every idea you invent will be a great one, but as long as one idea is brilliant, it will be worth it.
- Give up. Take a major step away, even for a couple of hours, from whatever battles you’re facing, contemplate the greatness of the human spirit or the wonder of nature, and reawaken the creative energy that our fight-minded world suppresses.
I hope this can help someone. The full article can be found at http://www.franchising.com/articles/creativity_under_pressure_4_ways_to_come_up_with_brilliant_ideas_when_the_p.html
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. Even though I’m finished with my idea generation, these tips are very valuable. It took a couple of days for me to find my idea, but using these tips already got me thinking about a few other solutions in just a few minutes.