Advertisments

Publish It Write: Publishing and Writing Tips for Independent Authors

This month: USING CREATIVITY TECHNIQUES IN YOUR PUBLISHING CAREER

by Carolyn Campbell

Remember that exciting, lightning-flash moment when you conceived your first idea for a publishing project? That initial electric charge of creativity is often followed by bursts of energy that help you complete vital tasks and spur you on to make your publishing ideas become realities. Many experts feel that, rather than being a personality trait, creativity is a way of thinking that publishers can take advantage of to build their careers in innovative and profitable ways. The following suggestions are offered to help you make the most of creativity techniques in originating, developing, and expanding your publishing career.

1. Think like an artist to "make friends" with failure. Patricia Sullivan, who has taught creativity techniques for eighteen years in her own business, feels that her "biggest revelation" was to accept the value of risk- taking and to realize that creative solutions are often reached after much trial and error. She explains that students are taught in school that they succeed when they reach the one right solution and get an "A" or a 100%. "In artistic endeavors such as publishing, people can't figure out why the single right solution isn't just around the corner like money found on the sidewalk," she says. "Today's advertising makes solutions seem instantly beautiful, clean and neat, when creativity is more likely a slow and often messy process. Remember, Edison received over 5,200 patents on various inventions leading up to the electric light." She adds that Edison spent two years just looking for the best filament, sending agents to the Amazon jungle and Japanese forests in search of materials, and even trying a friend's beard hair as a possible conductor of electricity.

Sullivan says a seasoned publisher is likely to begin a project with many starts, thinking of each different version as a new incarnation rather than a failure. When Sullivan created her first business card, she thought, "I see why I did that. I'm moving in the right direction. But now I know more changes I'd like to make, and I'll keep going until I'm totally comfortable." She says it took two years to reach the final version of her marketing brochure. "When you are creating, be accepting of your work's newness and value the steps you are going through. An experienced publisher knows that if he lets something he doesn't like in one incarnation stop him, he'll never proceed to the final incarnation."

2. Let creativity help your publishing evolve. Being open to influences around you along with your own creative stages can help you realize which publishing strengths are yours, says Sullivan, who feels her own presentation skills are stronger than her writing skills. "When you put your work out to the public, their response can help lead you to the next step," she says.

Tina Lassiter, owner of The Business of Women's Business in New York City, has watched her career evolve through several distinct stages as she discovered her strengths. "I was stressed and a mess," she says of her 1988 departure from the demands and pressure of corporate business.

In 1992, her business segued more into the public relations realm, as she concentrated more on a form of public relations she terms "image development in events planning," in which she helped client create marketing materials that reflected their unique personalities. "Even though public relations and marketing is a creative field, I felt unproductive in my work, because the passion wasn't there. I liked the writing piece, but the other non-creative business aspects of public relations were draining to me."

Lassiter found that getting away from her business through exercising her creativity actually helped her make decisions about how she wanted to change her business to include the creative writing aspects she loved. Finding that fewer clients called her on Mondays, she enrolled in a three-hour ceramics class. She says, "Taking my thoughts away from the business aspect of my work opened my mind so I could consider other options. Even if you just get out a pencil and draw or listen to a favorite piece of music that has affected you in an unusual way, it can help engage your mind to help you decide which direction your writing should take. "

3. Explore creative thinking methods. Creativity guru Edward De Bono says that creativity is like the reverse shift in a car. While you would not dream of driving along in reverse all the time, if you did not know how to use the reverse shift, you would be unable to get out of blind alleys and your general maneuverability would be limited. In a nutshell, De Bono's 36 books describe ways to access "creativity on demand" by utilizing techniques he describes as lateral thinking, as opposed to vertical thinking. In his book, Super Creativity, De Bono states that in conventional vertical thinking you take a position, and then seek to build on that position. The next step depends on where you are in the first position. In lateral thinking, De Bono says, we "think sideways rather than moving from one logical conclusion to the next in order to try different perceptions, different concepts, different points of entry." One way to do this is to pause before reaching a logical conclusion to ask yourself: "Is there another way I could do this?" In another De Bono thinking method, dimensions are exaggerated--amounts, completion deadline, number or size--to help you consider different options. What if you had to publish 50 books a year instead of 5? Which aspects of your operations would you change? If you had only a week instead of a month to complete a book project, what would your priorities be? 4. Cross-pollinate your creativity. While a publisher may be inclined to spend most of his time with his own projects, the stimulation of others' ideas is often one of the greatest enhancers to creativity, says Padi Selwyn, speaker and author of Living Your Life Out Loud. "Publishers need to constantly expose themselves to new ideas and the thoughts of others for cross-pollination of their own creativity," she says. Selwyn advises publishers to form or seek contact with a "mentor" or "mastermind" group, in which participants meet regularly to discuss and consider ideas. In her own mastermind group, there are five people who regularly work alone. "We meet and run ideas by each other, then serve as a sounding board. It's a great way to get creative ideas," she says.

5. Break away from work so your ideas will marinate. For sixteen years, the hand painted fish Bri Matheson creates in his garage have graced tee-shirts, bolo ties, jewelry, sculpture, and promotional materials for an international tuna company. To jump-start his creativity on days when he puts off starting work, Matheson spends a brief interval in his garden, takes an energizing walk or goes skiing. "I find that changing my environment spurs me on to want to return to my art work in the garage with fresh ideas," he says.

Selwyn agrees, "Most exciting breakthroughs occur not when you are sitting at your desk, but rather when you are doing something pleasurable for yourself. Art Frey, a 3M executive, got the idea for post-it notes while singing in his church choir. Velcro was born when a Swiss engineer took a walk to escape from his work. When a burr landed on him, he thought it would make a great fastener." Selwyn feels that allowing time for oneself provides incubation time for creative ideas to grow. She recommends taking at least a 30 to 45 minute uninterrupted block of time for ideas to marinate in your subconscious mind. She says, "When you 'break away', be sure to take a 'capturing device' with you--a tape recorder or notebook."

Using creativity techniques can help your publishing work advance during the down times when you most need a spark to move ahead. From the beginning brainstorm, through each subsequent sag in momentum, creativity techniques can jump-start your enthusiasm and keep you on a focused track to success.

* * * * * *

YOU CAN EXPAND YOUR OWN CREATIVITY

We are all creative, and creativity is like a muscle that will strengthen if exercised, says Cal Moyer, director of the American Creativity Association. The following are ways you can begin to exercise your creativity today.

1. Include a "creative space" within your home or home office. Moyer suggests that publishers can follow the example of many corporations by providing a "creative space" within their home offices. "This physical area could be an area of a desk, or nook or corner of the house and would include light, color, fun tools, and things that sparkle the imagination," he says. For example, he knows of large corporations whose creative space includes a roll of brown paper and markers for drawing, along with music, toys and lights. He suggests publishers "go into your creative space and let your mind wander."

2. Use technology and triggers to help spark your creativity. Today, computer programs and other creativity triggers are available to help exercise your creativity through utilizing techniques such as mind-mapping. Jurassic Park originator Michael Crichton, the Walt Disney Company and the U.S. Dept of Commerce are among users of IdeaFisher software, described as a "wall switch" to explore the attic of your memories and associations. Says Moyer, "Idea Fisher is a program writers often use. You type in a word or phrase that is part of your current project, and the data bank chooses other words that relate to the first word.

Author Roger Van Oech, author of the innovative book, A Whack On The Side Of The Head has created a stack of cards called "The Whack Pack" with thought-stimulating phrases such as "Think like a kid." "Idea Deck," another set of flash cards filled with creative thoughts, comes in a "Rolodex" format. "With both of these card sets, you can read them in order like a "creative thought for the day" or spin or shuffle them and pull one out for a random creative thought whenever you need one," Moyer explains. There are also creativity seminars available through a variety of business, management and professional seminar organizations.

3. Tap into your subconscious creativity. Moyer says that publishers can ask their subconscious minds to work overnight and capture those highly creative ideas early in the morning. He recommends that before you go to sleep at night, "Be clear on problems that you want to resolve, such as finding a new marketing strategy for a book, or seeking a new form of publicity. Consider writing these problems in a creativity journal." Once you've established your creative goals, expect to find the answers in the morning. Then relax and free your mind to go to sleep. "During the night, your subconscious mind will continue to grind," says Moyer, who explains that upon wakening, the mind is in the fragile, fleeting and highly-creative "theta" state "As soon as you wake, instead of getting our of bed immediately, focus on harvesting the delicate ideas that come overnight, and write these solutions in your creativity journal so that you can consider them as possibilities later in your working day."

* * * * * *

Carolyn Campbell is the author of three books, most recently, Reunited: True Stories of Long Lost Siblings Reunited At Last (Penguin-Putnam).

---