by Rachel Madorsky
Boosting Our Creativity
by Rachel Madorsky
Writers are all very sensitive to the elusive idea of "creativity," and we want to tap into our own for many different reasons-not the least of which is the taste of success. But who can blame us for that?
Our desire to learn how to be more creative inspired us to attend IWPA's September program, a workshop by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz, principal and chief trainer of Jaguar Mind (www.jaguarmind.com). Jaguar Mind's purpose is to "empower agile thinking" in business and the arts.
Wendy opened the workshop with a story about blind man who tried to collect
money on the street unsuccessfully. His poster, which read "I'm blind,"
did not attract attention from passersby.
Finally, someone with a kind soul decided to change his poster. Then a miracle
happened. Money started coming. The blind man could not understand what happened
and he asked someone to read what was written on his poster. The poster read,
"It's spring and I can't see!"
This story taught us about the importance of communicating with your audience through human emotions. The new sign used a more effective approach to reach the public, whose experiences with nature connected them with the blind man.
Wendy shared her fresh ideas through a series of group exercises intended to teach attendees how to approach problems creatively. Attendees first were asked to describe a lollipop in their own words from three points of view. Everyone became an inventor as we came up with new uses for that childhood object. .
Wendy then asked participants to solve their own writing problems by using different approaches.
This workshop taught us very valuable lessons. One of them is to never judge your own ideas immediately and to continue the process of creation by writing so that at the right moment you will feel when the best will come out from your heart.
Rachel Madorsky is author of Create Your Own Destiny! Her Web site
is www.quasimir.com.