No matter your field or profession, it’s vital to find a variety of sources of inspiration that can influence new ideas and spark creativity in your mind, in order to constantly innovate and improve your craft.
This isn’t a new concept. But it’s one of my favorite methods of improving my craft.
I call it “Innovative Inspiration.”
What makes this inspiration innovation unique is that it is both a tool and method for improving your craft and developing your current projects and works. The tool function of Innovative Inspiration is what “stuff” can motivate you to create in new and different ways — to push your limits and explore endless possibility. The tool form of Innovative Inspiration is like a chisel, with which you chip away at a mass of stone to uncover the statue underneath.
The method form of Innovative Inspiration is what I use to cater my sources of inspiration to influence and develop specific projects that I am already working on. The method form of inspirational innovation is some “thing” that you seek out intentionally with the intent of further inspiring a particular work (maybe you’re stuck on an idea, locked in writer’s block, or having trouble finishing something you’ve started).
Here are a few examples of both the tool and method form of Innovative Inspiration, and my writing that it has helped:
As a Tool — “One Day” by Matisyahu (from forthcoming album “Light”), used as Innovative Inspiration to think up my piece, Dare This Moment.
As a Method — Zack Snyder’s 2009 movie “Watchmen,” currently watching (as I’m writing this post!) as inspiration for my piece, Birth of a Hero (which I’m trying to develop but really stuck!)
In other words, Innovative Inspiration can be used to inspire new ideas, or help you develop current projects you’re already working on. Get it? Inspirational innovation can comes from a wide variety of sources: media like music and movies, or experiences like travels, people, challenges, and so on. By seeking out inspirational innovation on a regular basis, you will develop your craft to its maximum potential, fully develop the uniqueness of your individual style, and truly exceed simple limitations of the mind.
