Freedom To Let Your Creative Mind Flow / Happenings In The Outhouse 23-Feb-2024

I had an interesting conversation with my youngest daughter last week.  She's in speech competition and was in the process of writing her creative speech.  But she kept hitting a roadblock and didn't know how to finish it.  She reached out to a few others for help, but in fact got more roadblocks.  An English teacher told her to use some formulaic path to writing the story, and this only frustrated her more.

Once I heard her out, I told her to throw away all of the advice she had given.  Her eyes grew wide, then I told her to brainstorm as many ideas as she could.

"The first few ideas will be easy but you won't want to use them," I said.  "By the time you get eight, ten, twelve ideas down, that's where the great ideas will be.  The ones that will spark the direction your story will go."

When seeking advice from others, please be aware that not all advice is good.  In fact, no offense to the others, but they aren't a creative like my daughter and myself.  I knew how to speak the language of a creative.

When you feel stuck on a project, sit alone and just brainstorm.  Let your mind go.  Let it be free.  You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Now, on a side note, there is nothing wrong with the advice regarding formulas to writing.  There are a variety of methods, but I knew for her it would just confuse her.  So I kept it simple.  And guess what?  She finished it!