Lesson 1 - Part 1

A Lesson by Lady KrimZen

Lesson 1: Creative Thinking For Writers - Part 1: Introduction and Activity 1.1 - 2 Minute Circles

In order to be a good writer you need to be a good creative thinker.
Creative thinking can be one of the most important skills in life. If you’ve shown natural ability at creative arts (such as writing) then you are probably already a highly creative thinker and you should be very proud of your natural abilities.
In this first chapter we're going to look at some basic creative thinking concepts. We're not going to get too technical about how the creative side of the brain works, because you could write a thesis about that sort of stuff (and, quite frankly, take all the fun out of it). But here we're going to introduce some basic creative concepts and some fun exercises used by writers, particularly when it comes to generating new ideas.
Think of one of the most creative ideas you’ve ever had. Perhaps it was an idea for a story you wrote as a child that impressed your teacher so much it was read out to the class. Now try to remember how you came up with that great idea. Chances are it was fairly random, which is fine. Creativity works like that.
But great creative thinkers can use specific techniques, ways to harness their creative energies and apply them effectively to the task at hand. Let's start by exploring some of these techniques.

ACTIVITY 1.1 - 2 MINUTE CIRCLES

As a warm-up, here is a quick activity that flexes the creative muscles.

First, draw 20 circles. Then, create as many pictures as you can. For example, you might turn the first circle into a tennis ball, the second into a basketball, and so on…
You can draw anything you like. There are no rules, except that you only have two minutes!

How did you go? That was a basic activity exercising two of the most fundamental creative thinking skills:
FLUENCY and FLEXIBILITY