A huge problem that most people have when they are attempting to produce something creative is what our creativity class calls, "The
Judge." The Judge is your inner critic, your inner fears of what people might think when you show them your final product. But to create something that you really want to show people, you have to quiet The Judge.
This is a crucial part of the Preparation Stage, and that leads to the Incubation Stage, which leads to the Aha! Moment, which leads to the Verification Stage. Which means that without quieting The Judge, you can never get started.
The best way to accomplish this is to brainstorm. Don’t scratch over something, don’t erase anything, write about whatever you want, get as many ideas out as you can, don’t worry about the correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and most importantly, don’t let your hand stop moving. Don’t even give The Judge a chance. Once you have all of your ideas down, then you can pick and choose which ones you think are the best, and which ones you think you don’t need. A lot of your best ideas can come from these brainstorms (also called brain dumps) that you wouldn’t have gotten had you allowed The Judge to come in. Allowing that stops your whole train of creative thought, and then you don’t get any more ideas.
Look at your list, and look at some of the things that you know The Judge would have kicked out, and look at the ideas that came after that. Think about if those were good ideas, and if they were, remember that had The Judge been there, you probably wouldn’t have those great ideas.
Another thing that I do is if I am writing, I just write out what I know I want to say. That way, I can focus on that and I don’t get caught up in little details. What can happen when I am writing is that I am getting so many ideas so fast that if I stop to re-read something, half of my ideas are gone. So it’s important to me then to just write down the ideas when I have them.
The only difference between this and brainstorming is with my method I either write in complete sentences or in note shorthand only I can understand. With brainstorming you can list things, too, and the medium doesn’t have to be writing.
It’s important to kick The Judge out in the beginning so you can get started, but at some point, it’s also just as important to bring The Judge back in. The Judge is the little voice in the back of your head that helps you edit your papers, tells you how to fix a line on a picture you drew to make it look more realistic, etc. The Judge comes in and cleans up your rough drafts so that they are more presentable and have the finishing touches on them.
This is a crucial part of the Preparation Stage, and that leads to the Incubation Stage, which leads to the Aha! Moment, which leads to the Verification Stage. Which means that without quieting The Judge, you can never get started.
The best way to accomplish this is to brainstorm. Don’t scratch over something, don’t erase anything, write about whatever you want, get as many ideas out as you can, don’t worry about the correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and most importantly, don’t let your hand stop moving. Don’t even give The Judge a chance. Once you have all of your ideas down, then you can pick and choose which ones you think are the best, and which ones you think you don’t need. A lot of your best ideas can come from these brainstorms (also called brain dumps) that you wouldn’t have gotten had you allowed The Judge to come in. Allowing that stops your whole train of creative thought, and then you don’t get any more ideas.
Look at your list, and look at some of the things that you know The Judge would have kicked out, and look at the ideas that came after that. Think about if those were good ideas, and if they were, remember that had The Judge been there, you probably wouldn’t have those great ideas.
Another thing that I do is if I am writing, I just write out what I know I want to say. That way, I can focus on that and I don’t get caught up in little details. What can happen when I am writing is that I am getting so many ideas so fast that if I stop to re-read something, half of my ideas are gone. So it’s important to me then to just write down the ideas when I have them.
The only difference between this and brainstorming is with my method I either write in complete sentences or in note shorthand only I can understand. With brainstorming you can list things, too, and the medium doesn’t have to be writing.
It’s important to kick The Judge out in the beginning so you can get started, but at some point, it’s also just as important to bring The Judge back in. The Judge is the little voice in the back of your head that helps you edit your papers, tells you how to fix a line on a picture you drew to make it look more realistic, etc. The Judge comes in and cleans up your rough drafts so that they are more presentable and have the finishing touches on them.
