How to Train Your Creativity

The popular view on creativity is that either you have it or you don’t. That its a magical quality inherent to some people, which others have a harder time with, or lack completely.

Is it true? It depends.

It depends on whether you are looking for an excuse not to do something, looking for a reason out. “I’m just not creative enough” is a good excuse. Hard to argue there.

And if you’re the opposite, looking for how to get something done, well you are in luck: creativity is trainable.

Creativity is merely the act of thinking in new, different ways. It is no secret that our brains create new neural pathways when faced with creating a solution to a problem they haven’t faced before. This is why, in general terms, more educated people are smarter – they have had more opportunities to be faced with new kinds of problems that their brains have had to create more neural pathways in order to solve. These neural pathways, if left unused, die out.

This is also why if you were good at math in school, after a few years in a no-math job, you suddenly find you’re not so good at mathematical problem solving anymore. Ack.

Creativity is the same. Just more neural pathways in your brain that need to be supported, created, and used. The more the merrier. What does this mean?

You train your creativity through practice.

There’s a very simple exercise that only takes a few minutes daily specifically for this task.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to make a daily list of 10 ideas on a subject.

Any subject. They must be your ideas though! No looking on the internet for “inspiration”.

Notice, I said simple, not easy.  As my exercise for today, I’ll make a list of subjects that you can make lists about!

1. 10 new game ideas
2. 10 kinds of channels to use when marketing your game
3. 10 features that would cost less than 10 hours to implement
4. 10 new things you can charge money for on your game
5. 10 ways to motivate yourself when the going gets tough
6. 10 times when its okay to not do anything productive
7. 10 traits that describe your ideal target player
8. 10 social media posts you could make and schedule right now (about your game)
9. 10 ways to improve one feature on your game
10. 10 things that bring a smile to your face
11. Bonus! 10 things you could cut from your game and still ship a playable product

There, that’s my exercise for today. Took less than 5 minutes. If you exercise your brain thusly, you will see the benefits of more out-of-the-box thinking in all areas of your life, not just game development (although it’s hugely beneficial there).

Your turn. Use one of my list prompts, or come up with one of your own, and post your exercise list in the comments! Can’t wait to see them.