Helping Creative People Create

Creatives Love: Scribbling On Anything They Can Get Their Hands On

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creatives love scribbling

This is part of the weekly series “Creatives Love…” which gives a satirical look at creative types.

Creative types have lots of ideas. We pride ourselves in the fact that we are idea “hatchers”, the heralders of new ideas. It is the Creative’s ideas that spurn innovation and world change, and he knows this.

Yet the ideas never seem to happen at an opportune time. While driving, in the shower, (God forbid) on the Johnny… when ideas strike, action is required. The Creative knows the idea has an average of about 3.6 seconds of life before it is lost forever.

Once these ideas are bestowed upon him, the creative will hastily scribble it on a piece of paper. Or any other kind of flat surface: Empty toilet paper roll, book page, french fry, bodily limb, smooth stone. Anything that will absorb ink long enough until the Creative can get the idea home.

The irony in all of this is that typically Creatives are quite messy and unorganized. Really messy and unorganized. So the crumpled receipt from 2005 that should have been thrown out when Dubya was being inaugurated for the second time, ends up being thrown in the trash two days later in a psuedo-cleanup while looking for yet another idea written on an old letter.

You’d think that if we thought these ideas were so important, wouldn’t we tote around something a bit nicer to catch them in? But that would take all of the fun out of it…

Photo by aplumb

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  • http://TheGrowingLife.com Clay Collins | The Growing Life

    Hm… so are you admitting to being “really messy and unorganized.”

    Interesting post. I sometimes feel that my thoughts are dragging me around by the hair. It’s a nice feeling, but I think it militates against organization.

    Here’s to getting our sh*t together :-)

  • http://www.Kelley-Online.com Kelley Ann Hornyak

    This is why I keep pads of paper in my purse, on my nightstand, on my desk, next to the couch, and even in the vanity drawer in the bathroom. I’ve found myself hastily text-messaging myself snippets of lyrics that occur to me as I’m driving (I know I shouldn’t!), and sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and text something to myself that came to me in a dream.

    The good news is that I am pretty organized at this point, and most of what I come up with does get used rather than tossed in a drawer or in a box like it used to!

    Satire or not, I’m much more creative with those pads of paper around to support my idea habit (lol), and I’m about to buy one of those tiny portable laptops to really get my writing engine revving…

    Great post, made me smile!

  • http://www.streamlinedmind.com Farfield

    I try to keep limit all my scribbling to my Moleskine notebook. Besides the fact I like to write things down for later use I really like to keep things organized. So I basically use one notebook for everything.

    And if I don’t have it handy I write on whatever is there and then copy the notes to my book.

  • Cole

    When those random ideas hit, it gives me the most annoying, and yet ecstatic, feeling. However, forcing myself up multiple times in the middle of the night to write down some notes does drive me a bit nuts.

    Once a week, I go through all the random ideas I threw down in the past seven days, throwing out the bad ones and stashing the good ones in a box. The sad part is I have the grotesque handwriting when trying to be neat, which means my creative scribbles are barely legible. :(

  • http://www.clarakuo.com Clara

    “Or any other kind of flat surface: Empty toilet paper roll, book page, french fry, bodily limb, smooth stone.”

    That is funny…french fry…ha! It’s actually easier for a creative to learn to be organized rather than someone who is not creative to learn how to be, so maybe that’s a good thing.

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