Having a great idea is an opportunity.
- you can listen to the idea and begin following/creating in that direction
- you can capture the essence of the idea so you can return to it later
- you can let it pass along down the river
- you can stop paying attention to your big ideas altogether
For the dream to become real, however, you must figure out how to make sense of your ideas and inspirations. How to capture them. Save them for later. Or bloom them into your next great work. The choice is yours, but I can give you some of the tools and techniques I’ve used to keep dreams from keeping me awake at night, so I can get some rest.
The moment arrives (triggered by a song, a smell, an image) and my mind jumps to a novel and unusual place. What’s next?
If it’s a song idea I will often put my phone in video mode and sing or play an instrument so I can see what I’m playing. I don’t read music, so I have to memorize or capture my music in unique ways. If it’s a writing idea I can capture the title or the first few lines of a draft. At that point, I have a decision to make. Is the idea worth changing plans today to explore? Or is my work schedule packed so I need to capture and release the idea?
When I write an article I am processing a new question or idea. By the time I’ve finished the article I should have some idea of what the answer is. Then, an amazing thing happens, my brain releases the idea and I go on about my business. I had a friend and fellow songwriter who said, “Always finish the song. No matter what.” His point was, if you just leave fragments of ideas all over the place there’s a 90% chance they will not develop into full songs. The tangent is also, the idea, the chord progressions, or melody, will haunt you until you complete it, or get it down.
Capture it and release it.
Some of my best ideas are years old and still percolating in my system of should-do vs. want-to-do.
Dreams are important. They don’t always give you the answer. In the case of an anxiety dream, for example, perhaps your unconscious mind is giving you a message. Pay attention to *this.* It’s a signal from your grey matter, your LLLM, attempting to influence your conscious mind.
Give your dreams an audience. If they are whimsicle, capture and forget them. If you pass the big idea, because you’re busy, and you let it slide on through without any touchpoints, you’re probably going to lose it.
One last example, from my writing. If I have a big idea, a new book title, or a new section for a project I’m working on, I can often release the idea and push it away. As I’ve developed my own system of recall, if the idea has resonance, if it makes my soul hum, it’s going to come back around.
Don’t risk it. It is much better to capture and release your ideas rather than forget them. Then you can move along with what you MUST do. Return to your IDEA FILE later. Getting this part of our human creative process down is essential. I want you to generate a lot of ideas. Catch them. Release them. And see which ones come up for development using your time and your craft.
Human art takes time. AI art is instant and somewhat meanless. Often, however, that’s all people want. Entertainment. Learn to entertain yourself with your own wild and aspirational thoughts. Then, keep them to yourself until they are more fully developed. One of Rilke’s greatest teachings in Letters to a Young Poet is not to share an unfinished work of art. Use the pressure of wanting to share the piece to motivate you to actually complete it.
John McElhenney – artist
prompt: a writer in new york city at a sidewalk cafe writing, but the words are floating up off the page into the sunset woodcut
here is the dall-e output.
and here’s one variation of my favorite one
next up: community – how to find and support other artists
Watch this space. Our partners at iterativ.ai and isthisart.ai are hard at work getting our training and enablement system up and ready for beta testers. If you’d like to be among the first to try ArtistWay.AI please reach out to [email protected]. We will send invites as the system comes online in early 2025.
You may also be interested in the Write.Now Group.
From the minds of
