There are all sorts of different types of creativity, but at the end of the day, it all boils down into three basic types.

The Technician

After toiling in the trenches and learning the craft inside and out, the technician has lots of different tools at their disposal. Rather than focus on the art of storytelling, they choose the path less subjective by learning about f-stops, memorizing Pantone colors and being 100% grammatically correct.

The technician:

• Can be found in supporting roles
• Knows how to get things done
• Has ideas that are always doable
• Has ideas that are predictable
• Executes flawlessly.

The technician is often jealous of the next creative type, the storyteller. This is because the storyteller’s work often looks amateur, even though it has what the technician never has - heart.

The Storyteller

This creative usually rises in the ranks quickly on their raw talent alone. They think in big, broad strokes, but their ideas are often hard if not impossible to execute.

The storyteller:

• Can be found in leading roles
• Has no idea how to get things done
• Has ideas that are difficult, if not impossible to execute
• Has innovative ideas
• Executes sloppily

When placed in a room with the next creative type, the complete package, the storyteller is often embarrassed because they look like they have no idea what they’re doing. And most of the time they don’t.

The Complete Package

This is the creative type everyone should aspire to be. They have the innate ability to tell great stories and sell their ideas. They’ve spent the time learning how to be technical and are extremely dangerous to both storytellers and technicians.

The complete package:

• Works for themselves on their own ideas
• Will work all hours of the night to get things done in the most effective way possible
• Has ideas that are groundbreaking, yet accomplishable
• Has ideas that make everyone else sit up and take notice
• Is obsessed with executing everything from the big idea to the details flawlessly

So what type of creative are you? Most people fall into one of the first two categories, and only hard work and time will turn them into the complete package.

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One fine, autumn day, my friends and I decided to go hiking on the North Country Trail up by Manistee, Michigan. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and the trail was nice and sandy.

“Great!” I thought to myself. “I’ll hike barefoot for a bit. Get back to nature.” We hiked and hiked. About 7 miles in, the trail wasn’t so sandy. The sun had given way to ominous clouds and I could hear vultures cawing overhead.

I opened up my pack and saw that I’d forgotten my boots in the trunk of our car.

Crap.

If I had taken quick stock of what I was supposed to be doing when I started what turned out to be a 26 mile barefoot adventure, I would have noticed that I didn’t have my boots.

Improvisation is great, but do a gut check before you get too deep. If you’re in the middle of writing your novel, a screenplay or making a painting and you get this wild, wacky idea - take a quick moment to think after you’ve chased the idea down for a few minutes.

• How does this affect the overall impression of my idea?
• Does this eliminate any possibilities I really want to include in my work?
• Does this create any opportunities I hadn’t thought of?
• What happens if it doesn’t work out? Am I just creating more work for myself?
• Does this change the story I’m trying to tell?

If you check your progress 5 minutes down the trail, you’ll be less likely to get stranded with no solution to your problem.

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The only person who will make sure you achieve the goals you set for yourself is you.

Scary thought eh? You are squarely responsible for getting things done.

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of setting goals for yourself and then not following through, thinking the work is done. “Heck, people always say half the battle is setting goals. The rest should take care of itself, right?”

If you’ve got this attitude, you’ve also probably got lots of goals, but no results to show for them.

And it’s good to have long-term goals that only get achieved after 1 year, 5 years or maybe even a lifetime. But within those large goals, there are tons and tons of “mini-goals” that you need to accomplish. These are the things you need to get done and out of your goal queue in order to achieve “the biggie.”
So how do you keep your self accountable AND keep your eye on the big prize?

Make your goal visual. Then put it somewhere you will always see it. This helps give your goal tangibility, a feeling that it can be real. It also constantly reminds you of what you want to achieve and (hopefully) inspires you to keep going.

My current project is to write a novel. So, I’ve got a picture of a bookshelf with authors who’s last name start with “P.” My last name starts with a “P.” My goal is to go into a bookstore and see my novel right in there with those authors.

Never stop.

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Go to any writer’s or designer’s blog and you’ll more than likely find at least one post about working for free. Unfortunately, there are quite a few people and businesses out there that think it’s perfectly OK to get art or writing from somebody without giving them anything.

“Sure,” they say, “but it’s good experience.”

But is it really?

Let’s say you get contacted by the local liquor mart and by George Lucas on the same day. Lucky you. The local liquor store wants you to write a banner for their grand opening. George Lucas wants you to write a pilot for a new Star Wars animated series and pitch it to the Sci-Fi channel. Both are unpaid gigs.

Now. Is writing something for that local liquor store REALLY worth the experience?

Of course not. The fact of the matter is, people will always get away with not paying creatives because it’s such a highly competitive field, and there will always be people willing to sacrifice their time for no money and no benefit.

But you can be smart about your unpaid gigs. Before you apply or accept a no-pay job, think about what you’ll get out of it. If you get good contacts, if it’s a project you care deeply about or if there’s some sort of back-end compensation to it, by all means consider it.

But if you get none of those things, what motivation is there for you to do decent work? And if you do hack job work that you don’t care about, you’re not learning or progressing as a creative.

Don’t be afraid to be selective about the work you take. Just because you’re just getting started doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your integrity.

And don’t confuse spec work with unpaid work. As long as you’re creating something for yourself to sell, you’re gold. If someone else asks you to do something else on spec, be wary. They might take your hard work you did to “win them over” and use it anyway without paying you. Best just to steer clear of those situations.
I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on unpaid work.

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There’s a perception out there among creatives that being told what you can and can’t do is a very bad, unspeakable thing.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. And frankly, it’s a reality all people who create work for clients have to accept.

Imagine a client coming up to you and saying, “I want a big idea.” Would you then retreat to your creative cave, brainstorm and concept out idea upon idea, and then emerge with the perfect solution in hand?

Hell no! Every ounce of effort you put into finding that vague “big idea” would be torture. And I’d guarantee with 100% certainty that the idea wouldn’t work for the client at all.

What if the client said “I want a concept for my website that’ll be viral, and seamlessly push consumers to buy my products?”

Heavens! How dare they constrain your creative ability! They’ve just restricted you to thinking up something that’s a website, viral, allows for ecommerce and “Gasp!” It all has to be about their products?!?

They’re really painting you into a corner, aren’t they?

Sarcasm aside, project requirements are key to coming up with a solution that’s not only creative, but that actually works. The more we know about the problems we face and the realities we deal with, the better we are able to come up with a creative solution for those problems.

If you embrace constraints and make them work in your favor, you will find yourself coming up with some pretty innovative solutions.

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Heard of the saying that success is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration? That’s a little vague, so let’s take a look and see how that breaks down for idea generation.

There are five factors that go into becoming more adept at generating better ideas.

50% Hard work

There’s no way around it – to get one great idea you need to have ten bad ones. And if you get that ratio you’re lucky.

20% Organization

Being organized frees you from all the inefficiencies created by disorganization. The less time you have to focus on meaningless tasks, the more time you have to think.

20% Attitude

You must be in the right mindset to have and recognize an idea you can do something with. For instance, an idea doesn’t have to be great, just good and executable. Don’t throw away something just because it’s not the next iPhone or light bulb.

5% Luck

Sometimes coincidence and luck are your best friends. Learn to recognize a great idea that is born out of randomness.

5% Talent

A shred of talent is needed to get things from your brain to reality. I believe everyone has great ideas – creative people are the ones who have the knack and drive to get them from mind space into the world.

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Finding time to be creative is something everybody struggles with. Often times there’s only a half hour or an hour to write, paint, what have you. By the time you sit down and get into your creative groove, it’s time to quit already.

Don’t you hate that?

The key to making the most of that time is to always be prepared for inspiration. If you have to set up anything or do something to get ready for generating ideas, you’re dead in the water.

Here are some quick tips you can use:

• Reserve your own space for creativity. Find a quiet corner or room in your house that has all your supplies, computer and files in one place.
• Be ready, always. Always carry a notebook and pencil. Always have a brush and paints ready to be uncapped. Keep your camera in the trunk of your car. Once you have an idea, you shouldn’t have to stretch some canvas and dig around for paints first.
• Get support from your friends and family. Tell them that your creative time is yours, and hold to that schedule. It’s easy for other things in life to steal 5 or ten minutes of that precious time.
• Plan for set up and tear down. If you know you absolutely have to do things like mix paint or strike a set, build that time into your schedule. If you need an hour to be creative, set aside an hour and a half.
• Keep focused. Unplug your computer from the internet (unless you are doing research). I’ve convinced Google Reader is creativity’s worst enemy.

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Creative people do things. Everyone else talks about what they do.

Is it really that simple?

The only difference between “creatives” and “everyone else” is action. Movie critics can rip apart a film, but do they have the guts to risk their dignity and make their own? Art buyers can stand around with glasses of Shiraz and pontificate about the use of blue in a painting, but do they have the heart do put emotion to canvas?

Are you a talker, or a doer? Next time you find yourself criticizing or praising someone else’s work, stop. Go out and do it better than them.

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Unless you’ve got a job that completely fulfills you creatively, you’ve probably got a day job to pay the bills.

And a lot of creatives, like myself, have full time jobs as writers, designers or artists. But between the client, the realities of business and budget limitations, a full-time creative can go home at the end of the day feeling pretty un-fulfilled.

So how do you find the energy and the time at home to do something as intellectually exhausting as being creative, or even tougher, marketing yourself and dealing with rejection?

The number one criterion is passion. Time at home is free time. If it isn’t something you’re prepared to give up valuable free time over, you probably aren’t going to do it.

Number two is discipline. There will be days when your passion won’t be enough. You’ll be tired. There will be a movie to watch. Garbage will need to be taken out. (It’s sad state of affairs when you’d rather take out the trash and put off working on your idea).

This means finding some way to get yourself to do something you don’t want to do. Try:

• Rewarding yourself after an hour of work on your idea with dessert
• Punish yourself by returning that movie you picked up until you’ve worked on your idea
• Find something that inspires you. (Being outside, a good movie, a painting are all good candidates). Pull it out when you feel uninspired
• Find a friend who is creative as well. Like a running partner, you can lock yourselves away to work on your ideas for an hour or two and keep each other honest
• Do things by hand. Take away the computer and you take away lots of potential distractions

Number three is to take a break every once and awhile. If all you do is sit in your room and create, you won’t be very interesting. Get out and actually do things. Live a vivacious life. You’ll have a lot more material to draw on and you’ll meet more people like you.

Number four? Don’t get overwhelmed by your own genius. If you’re like me and generate tons of half thoughts and small ideas that don’t go anywhere, it’s very easy to feel like you’ve got so many things up in the air. Where could you possibly begin? It’s OK to put things to the side.

Focus on one project at a time. You’ll get to the other things later. It’s far better to work on one thing for a month and have five ideas waiting in the wings than to work on five things for six months and have nothing to show for it. That type of approach can be very discouraging.

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Now, are you still going to put off doing something creative with your ideas?

To put off writing, designing or drawing is human nature. Robert Russell put it best in his freshman novel, Pretty Little Things, when he described why the main character, Travis, did not write. “Travis was afraid of what he might write, of what he might discover about himself if he started.”

Travis fancied himself a writer, but hadn’t actually written anything for years. Now what do you think he was afraid of? Discovering he wasn’t any good? Learning that he wasn’t a writer, just another hack? The prospect of that can be frightening for anyone.

Sound familiar?

Fear is a major obstacle to starting anything unknown. And since the creative process is essentially creating something where nothing existed before, it’s very easy to put off taking the first big step.

That’s why it is essential to create a feeling of urgency. What happens if someone else does something with this idea before you? What happens if you meet an investor or publisher on the bus and you can’t pitch something solid? How many opportunities will you miss?

That feeling of urgency, the feeling that you absolutely HAVE to get the ideas out of your head will go a long way in helping you overcome your fear. Now you know the secret to success of the innovators and creatives you admire.

If an idea for a scene hits Charlie Kaufman, you know he’s scrabbling for a pen and paper to write it down. Steve Jobs was brainstorming for what comes after the iPhone a long time ago

Once you’re in the “urgency” mindset, you’ll find yourself writing down ideas as they come. You’ll have many more ideas than you ever would have before because you’re not dwelling on one single idea. You no longer can say to yourself, “Well, I can’t have any more ideas because I still have to do something with the one that’s been in my head for five years.”

You’ll have more unfinished projects and half-thoughts too. That’s a key factor in eliminating your fear.

If you’re having trouble getting into this mindset, try setting a deadline. When I’m making a short film, I always make sure there’s a film festival or a competition I am making it for. Whether or not I win isn’t important. What’s important is that I made one of my ideas come to life, and I learned how to do it better next time.

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