Theme:

Some folk think of creativity as being some lightening bolt from the blue that strikes you with an idea, be it to draw a picture on this cave wall, make the wheel round or construct an ipod. However most creative folk have got a discipline to their process, a discipline used not only for getting their ideas but also for what they do once they have the idea.

Beyond Scratching - The Factions of Creative Actions

If scratching is an ideas hunt - digging through everything in order to find something, then what do you do after the scratch?

For me, there needs to be some catching of the scratching. Ideas man and educator Art Costa says that one of the unique things about the human mind is that we Store Information Outside of Our Bodies. In The Thinking Learning Classroom book (Glenn Capelli & Sean Brealey) we talk about one of the organisms of learning as being the SIOOB and ask how do you Store Information Outside Of your Body?

Do you –

• Write or draw on cave walls
• Paint on a canvas
• Type on a computer
• Scribble on a pad
• Fingertip on a Blackberry

And what do you do with the information and ideas once you have SIOOB-ed?

As I scratch (or after I’ve scratched) I catch and my favourite way of catching is my journal. Ever since I was a kid I have kept journals in which I draw and write ideas, thoughts, musings, confusions and other mental ablutions. Sometimes the thoughts spill into black ink on a page, other times they spill into a variety of colours from crayon tips. Some times the ink or colours spill as words, other times as drawings, sometimes as mind-maps but more often as a kind of visual explosion on the page.

In my catching I often draw a little symbol that alerts me to a potential idea imbedded in my inking. It might be that what I have jotted is an inking of an inkling for a potential song, a radio piece or simply something that deserves extra thought & research. Other times I might just write myself a note saying:

• Find and read this book
• Dig more in this area
• Link this idea to such and such a topic

These little notes to self become an extra prompt when I go back and look through my journals. And this is vital. The journal is not just a place in which I catch what I scratch through it is also a place that I revisit often in order to transform some of the jottings into plotting. I plot by asking myself ‘How can I use this?’

So the process is –

• Scratching
• Catching and then
• Hatching

The hatching is the transformation of the musing into something I might be using.

Being fine with rhyme, if I wanted to continue the Scratching, Catching and Hatching I might toss in the ideas of Patching and Latching.

To patch means to use an idea to solve a problem that already exists. To latch means to join the new idea with an existing idea and see what the combination brews.

However, patching and latching are not the only reasons I scratch, catch and hatch. The main reason for my journaling is to create possibilities that don’t already exist.

Racking my brain I seek a rhyme for the Scratching, Catching, Hatching, Patching and Latching and cryptically come up with Watching.

Watching is a process of watching (as in looking) and the sound of the word action. To take waction is to observe with an active intent:

• What can this become
• What can I do with this
• What doesn’t exist now that could exist if I put this idea into action
• What will happen if we did this, what consequence will emerge from this creation

Watching is to:

• Do a variety of potential rock throws into the future
• Build a prototype by kluging some rough bits of plastic, string and such together’
• Do a trial
• Test for potential errors
• Bring a physical representation to the abstraction

Each of us is a creative being to some degree and each of us will have different ways to Scratch, Catch and Hatch let alone different ways of Patching, Latching and Watching our Hatchings. We might even have a different sequence of how we go about our creative process or maybe at times it is not so much of a sequence as a continuous development of parallel processes. All things happening at all times and occasionally entwining like triple or quadruple helixes.

Phew – something to think about or something to scratch through perhaps. Enjoy your hatching.


Where to from here:

• Do any of you keep a creative journal? If so, how long have you been doing this for and what goes into it?
• Who can explain to us (in writing or by phone) how you best scratch (look for ideas), catch (hold ideas) and hatch (use the ideas to create something in reality)
• A kluge is a clumsy or inelegant – yet surprisingly effective - solution to a problem often using bits and pieces. Do you kluge? Do you do your thinking by tinkering?

Glenn Capelli
www.glenncapelli.com
Professional Speaker