CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 14 | All about creativity

16 january '14

Lateral thinking, step by step creativity explained, part 2

Vertical thinking is all about rightness
Lateral thinking is all about richness

Vertical thinking selects a pathway by excluding other pathways
Lateral thinking does not select but seeks to open up new pathways

Vertical thinking selects the most promising approach
Lateral thinking generates as many alternative approaches as possible

Vertical thinking looks through approaches for the most promising one
Lateral thinking finds a promising one and keeps generating and keeps looking for more

Vertical thinking only moves when there is a direction to move to
Lateral thinking moves in order to generate direction

Vertical thinking is analytical
Lateral thinking is provocative

Vertical thinking is sequential
Lateral thinking can move in jumps

Vertical thinking follows the most likely path
Lateral thinking explores the least likely ones

Vertical thinking is finite
Lateral thinking is probabilistic

The vertical thinker says: I know what I'm looking for
The lateral thinker says: I'm looking, but i won't know what I'm looking for until I have found it



A small note about todays workshops

Teacher? You look exactly like Obi wan Kenobi of the Star Wars.

If I want to know about fantasy, I observe kids. If I want to be inspired, I converse with kids. If I want to be creative I listen to kids. 

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 10 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

12 january '14

Writing skills. What? 

The quest about better blogging takes me to sites about writing skills. I need skills or methods to improve my writing. On the website +wikihow you can find a article about methods for improving your writing.

Method 1 The basics
- Write active instead of passive
- Use strong words, but this doesn't mean you use complicated words
- Write simple direct and clear
- Let readers discover what you mean, don't explain it in detail
- Avoid cliches
- Break the rules
- Keep editing

Method 2 Read a lot of books
- Read classic good books and learn to understand why it's classic.
- Go to theatre, read newspapers, magazines
- Try not to copy the style of classical good writers. Do some free writing exercise to discover your own style

Method 3 Write a lot, write often, write as much as you can
- Write everything that comes to mind down in a notebook
- Buy a new notebook when the first one is full
- Go for a writing class, do a workshop, learn from other people
- Just write every single day!

Writing or blogging, in my situation it's the same. I write every day, except on saturdays. Maybe it's time to read more classic novels. The books I read are all non-fiction. That's what I like. I will write a book this year and that will be a non fiction, informative book. This methods as described above, might come in handy.
16th of march there is a writing workshop in Amsterdam. +www.schrijfatelier.nl organizes a training for column writing. This looks interesting and I put it in my agenda.