creativity

Crowdsourcing creative writing on Twitter

December 6, 2009 By Dan Thornton

For every criticism of the presumed mindless nature of Twitter conversation, it’s just as easy to find it being used in an interesting and useful way.

For instance, published author Jeff Kirvin wasn’t sure of the way to kill a character in his current work, so he put the question out on Twitter. (HT Steve Rubel). And out of the suggestions he received he found some that might work, and enough to get him thinking more (Read more interesting details on brainstorming with the hive mind).

Not only is this an example of Twitter aiding creativity, which is a counterpoint to the idea that microblogging kills writing and full-length blogging, but it also shows an example of someone who isn’t hiding his work away until it’s complete – because, after all, the people tweeting suggestions aren’t likely to suddenlly find the drive to crank out 50,000+ words. So why worry about sharing some details and asking for some suggestions?

Creative flow?

March 6, 2009 By Dan Thornton

I recently watched an interesting TED presentation by Elizabeth Gilbert on ‘a new way to think about creativity’ (found via Lateral Action where there’s a good post about the content of the talk):

The presentation looks at how creativity was often assigned to divine assistance in historical times, and the benefits that approach had – and could still have.

And examples include dancers in Spain, who for one night might be seen as channelling that divine creativity, or an American poet who felt like she had to catch poems as they passed her by.

But the insight that people, including Gilbert, can work for a long time before having that moment of celebrated divine creativity struck a chord, and reminded me of another interesting TED talk:

It also ties into the idea of practice, and of 10,000 hours being about right for expertise in any field, as written about recently in Outliers: The Story of Success. (My own thoughts on Outliers)

As a writer/journalist/blogger/marketer/geek, I’m always fascinated by insights into creativity and expertise – Lateral Action has proved a constant source of great insight, along with Springwise and many more sites (Many of them appear in my Google Reader Shared Items). All accompanied by music – usually Last.fm.

It did bring up one question on a marketing theme – with so many new social networks arriving, and so many new social media marketing experts appearing – how many people can honestly claim to be approaching 10,000 hours working in social media marketing or especially on a single social network?

Creative inspiration – interviews with TV writers

January 8, 2009 By Dan Thornton

It’s easy to like Charlie Brooker for his ability to rip something apart in a suitably scathing way, but sometimes he also betrays himself by giving away insights into how to build something up in the first place.

Which is why I’ve spent a happy 50 minutes watching a Screenwipe episode in which he interviews some brilliant TV writers about how and why they write.

The writers are Russell T Davies (Doctor Who), Graham Linehan (Father Ted, the I.T Crowd), Paul Abbott (Shameless), Tony Jordan (Eastenders, Hustle), Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain (Peep Show), and Brooker himself wrote Dead Set, which is on Channel 4 at the moment.

Highly recommended for anyone doing anything creative – it’s inspirational, makes writing seem hard but possible, and helps remind everyone that there’s no set rule on how to do it, aside from hard work.

Sadly, the fact it’s on the otherwise brilliant iPlayer means:

I can’t embed it.
The chuffing thing will be gone in 5 days (or 30 if I download it).
The fact I want to watch it again and again in the future means some enterprising person will have to illegally steal it and distribute it.

Why I wish I was my son…

December 30, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Originally I was going to write a flippant post about how doing social media is a lot like having an 8-month old (long hours and sleepless nights worrying about how he/it is developing, and which are the best toys to be providing to enrich his/people’s lives).

That prompted me to consider how lucky he is to have been born now, even if it coincided with the family moving house, me changing jobs, and an economic collapse.

While I’m no economic expert, I’d guess that by the time he’s reading, writing and computing, the economy will have recovered in a changed fashion to what has existed until now – new business will have arrived, existing businesses will have changed, and the wikinomics of collaboration and social networking will be an accepted part of everyday life and business.

It’s amazing to consider the opportunities that brings compared to my own childhood, especially when I’ve only just reached my 30s. (I’m still adjusting to publicly admitting it!)

In some ways I was fortunate to have been given a head start on reading and writing by my parents, and to have always been encouraged to be a voracious reader – to the point that my primary school ran out of English and Maths textbooks suitable for me before I left.

Yet although I got good results from secondary school based on that start, if I’m honest, I probably good have done a bit better – and thinking about it now, it’s because I’d already got the information I needed, and I was bored waiting around to try and use it.

I wanted to be involved in projects and collaboration, and not in the restrictive setting of a school science laboratory, but in a wider world to be able to tie it into the things I was most passionate about. That’s partly why I played guitar and bass in bands, despite not being the most musically talented. And why I wanted to write and be creative.

But the biggest struggle was finding people to collaborate with – especially as two of the things I really wanted to do was to create a comic, and to make films – difficult for someone with no art or photographic skills.

Now it would be relatively easy to network with similar people – indeed, last year I was helping to run an online magazine, Disposable Media, which sadly seems to have stalled around the time I left.

And that’s why I’d love to be my son – the only major barrier to creating, collaborating and experimenting is time – which is harder to find as an employed father than as a school student. (Definitely not impossible, just harder). (How many dotcom successes under-30 benefited from being at universities with similar technically minded people, and having the time to play?)

He’s going to have time and opportunity to make use of a world which allows real-time collaboration across continents, and the infrastructure may finally allow speeds suitable to do far more than is even possible today.

After all, a nine-year-old has become the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, and a five-year-old can have his own company (via Communities Dominate Brands). And apparently it won’t be long before my son starts navigating websites etc for himself, from chatting with Chris Hambly on Twitter.

Actually, thinking about it now, perhaps it’s better to just let my son benefit, and then fund my early retirement.