Assigning Creative Projects to Yourself

QUESTION

Joey, my writing over the last two decades, with the exception of social media, has always been in response to an assignment, from coursework to weekly sermons.

How might I build a practice that trains me to find my own "assignments," my own prompts?

—Eileen

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ANSWER

Eileen, you’re in a great spot having already identified the particular challenge you’re looking to solve:

You want to write for yourself—but what do you write?

The answer is: anything you like. But that’s the hardest part about all of this. Ironically, freedom becomes a limiter, whereas limits actually grant freedom. So before you get to writing, you have to mark your limits and minimize your options.

One aspect of creativity is problem solving. What is often misunderstood is that problem solving is the last piece of a three-step process.

I call that process the Problem Method. Here’s the gist:

1. Problem Seeking: Before you begin solving a problem, you must first identify one.

2. Problem Sharpening: Then you must take the time to hone your understanding of the problem.

3. Problem Solving: Only once you’ve found and sharpened the problem should you begin directly working to solve it.

In your example, writing is the problem we want to solve for. But first you must dedicate time to seeking and sharpening. What does this look like in practice?

• Next time you have the urge to write, instead sit down and list 50 ideas (yes*,* fifty) for what you could write about. Your goal is to focus on quantity, not quality. Any idea counts. The only goal is to hit fifty ideas, not fifty good ideas. Once you hit your goal, end the session.

• When you come back (at least a day later), your next task is to choose 1–3 of your favorite ideas, and write 10 versions of each. Again, your goal is to hit the number—quantity, not quality.

• Finally, the next session (at least a day later), choose one of the 30 remaining ideas and start writing.

This process forces you to separate the acts of seeking, sharpening, and solving. Chances are, you’ll have more writing ideas at the end than you know what to do with. And if you don’t? Just run the cycle again—you’ll get there.

—Joey

Creator of Baronfig
Author of The Laws of Creativity

A list of 50 ideas from my own notebook (text blurred, but the numbers are clear). I still employ this technique when I'm faced with a challenge that I need to understand better.