Creativity – you know this already – is not creating something out of nothing. It is combining two or more existing somethings in a new way.
Curiosity is the way you put yourself in contact with existing somethings so that you have material to create with.
Creativity is not an an assembly line process. It is organic and seasonal. It can appear chaotic and random. There can be any amount of time, from seconds to decades, between the moment when your curiosity discovers something to the moment when your creativity connects it to something else. You need somewhere to store your discoveries in the between time.
Here are the places I store mine:
My brain – the best place for fast access, until I forget.
The Archive on my computer and Byword on my phone synced by Dropbox. This is where I put links, quotes, snippets of ideas, my list of character names, upcoming topics on TREE – pretty much everything text-based. I like these tools because they work with plain text files, which are fast, frictionless, and mostly future-proof.
I write in my journal about things I’m doing
I have an album in Google photos where I collect images and screenshots that catch my attention.
I put images I like in my wallpaper folder on my work computer. The wallpaper changes every 30 minutes.
I created an inspiration channel on Teams. I’m the only one in the office that posts to it. I don’t know if anyone else even looks at it, but I like it.
Sometimes I write in a notebook.
There are a million tools out there. Use what you like. As long as storage and retrieval are easy and fast, you’re good.
One of the best ways to combine things in new ways is to write about what you learn. When you share TREE (or anything else) with friends, take a minute and write a couple sentences about why. It will help them. It will help you even more
Something for the weekend
I grew up listening to old radio dramas on Tucson’s talk radio station. I’m so glad podcasting brought audio drama back. My favourite of the new bunch is The Lovecraft Investigations. It’s really well made, perfectly paced and genuinely scary in places. It’s what you expect from the BBC. They never stopped making audio drama. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts.
Have you got a podcast drama or comedy recommendation? Share it in the comments.
Happy weekend
Jeff
Memoria
The Memory of TREE playlist – every song from every email:
I really like the Snap Judgement podcast. They describe it as "storytelling with a beat." And they have a ~spooky~ offshoot called Spooked, which is the same style but only scary stories. Think Moth Radio Hour, but with a DJ in the background!