Alternate worlds for creative resilience
What Prince, a roofer, a scientist, or a chef might teach use about being creatively stuck
How do you handle creative stuckness?
The character is lacking agency, the narrative is flat, the ideas feel stale. Worse: you don’t even know what’s wrong. Things just feel off.
I had professional development funds to use or lose at work, so I asked to be signed up for a Design Thinking course at Harvard. I thought it’d be super easy and intuitive. I’m a creative person, after all, and design thinking is all about creative problem-solving. I teach this. I do this all the time.
Or do I?
I’ve spoken about DT before here, but I want to introduce a new concept that I adapted and will ring familiar to many fiction writers: Imagining Alternate Worlds.
The curriculum suggested that in dilemmas, there are many ways to think about creatively designing a solution. This is just one, and its value is found in pretending to be someone else.
Let’s say you have a problem running a restaurant due the fast-paced nature of the work leading to inconsistent customer service, think about what other jobs in the world struggle with fast-paced work? Perhaps a hospital or a roofing team on a hot day. How might someone doing that problem-solve?
As writers, we’re always considering alternate worlds. Even in nonfiction, we can explore the interior and exterior as one, exploring perspectives from many angles.
But when we get stuck and are unsure what to do next—in our careers or in the story (or blog) we’re trying to write, we can implement this same kind of thinking as a solution.
What would others who are inventing things do if they were stuck? A scientist whose theory proved wrong. A hiker needing to traverse a wide creek. A chef who is missing an ingredient.
Then ask how they might move forward if they had to keep going.
How might a scientist respond to an explosion in the lab? How might a hiker use what’s around her to create a bridge? How could a chef experiment with ingredients? How might a first-grade teacher support a student who is struggling?
more questions …
How might your own character write this part of your book? How might a hostage negotiator deal with a publisher that disagrees with edits? How might a psychologist explore agency with your character?
Another way to look at this is adopting an alter ego.
When I think of alter egos, I think of Prince. He famously had many, including a symbol that I’m not sure the world will ever decipher.
One of his AEs was Camille, who he channeled when he wanted to sing in a high-pitched and transcendent way. He had others for song writing in different genres, and yet others for business.
Prince occupied many worlds for and with his art.
However you access the alternate, I think it begins with listening and trusting that we can use creativity to tackle creativity problems. Seems on-brand, right? Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
𓂃 ོ☼𓂃
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𓂃 ོ☼𓂃