CHAPTER 13 On Creative Spirit
Keep a Sketchbook or Scrapbook to hand
Sketchbooks and scrapbooks promise an endless supply of inspiration;
you simply have to fill them. Always — always! — carry a sketchbook and
a pen. Although it seems that the very best ideas are scribbled on the back
of a beermat or a napkin, carrying your thinking utensils should be second
nature.
The more you use your sketchbook, the less precious you’ll find your-
self becoming. Sketching isn’t about being an excellent draughtsman, it’s
about synthesizing and processing your thoughts and ideas, as Jason Santa
Maria summarises nicely in his article “Pretty Sketchy^4 ”: “Sketchbooks are
not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker.”wear a Digital Toolbelt
The last maneuvre to make (after you’ve embraced the offline tools) is to fit
yourself with a bespoke digital toolbelt. We’re blessed with a cornucopia of
tools at our disposal, like Gimme Bar^5 , Instapaper^6 , Instagram^7 , and even
our old friend RSS, which offer us ready methods of gathering and saving
raw material. Equipping your digital toolbelt will fill those moments on
the go and enable you to repurpose downtime (bus queues, short trips,
dull or never-ending meetings), enabling you to add yet more jigsaw pieces
to your EndlessJigsawPuzzleBox™. Remember, more raw material equals
more new combinations.Choose a Conductor
With a collection of primed brains in place we can begin to orchestrate
them, coaxing even greater ideas from their collective consciousness.
When we embrace the opportunities that arise when harnessing a hive4 http://j.mp/jasonisprettysketchy
5 https://gimmebar.com
6 http://www.instapaper.com/
7 http://instagram.com