Prompts Can Help You Get Those Creative Juices Flowing
Learning to use the creative side of your mind is a lot like learning to ride a bicycle—back in the day, you might have spent more time on the pavement rather than gliding along it.
But there was one thing that made learning to ride a bike easier: training wheels. Those balancing wheels your folks attached to the back offered some stability while you trained your body to balance on two wheels.
There’s something similar to training wheels that could make creative thinking easier: prompts. A prompt is any kind of cue—a word, a question, an image, or even an object—that warms up those creative juices.
Here’s an example: Hold a paper clip in your hand. Now, write down five uses for it other than holding sheets of paper together. The object of this exercise is to help you think about an object in a different way than you would otherwise, i.e. creatively.
There are plenty of prompt ideas online. But here’s a tip: if you simply search for “creative prompts” you’ll get mostly suggestions associated with creative writing. For a fuller array of prompts, search for “brainstorming ideas” or “icebreakers,” which will take you to sites like this.
Tools You Can Use
You can also use a few tools, makeshift or otherwise. One of my favorite ways to warm up my writing sessions is to use a random word website to generate three different words. I then try to come up with five or ten story ideas, each using a combination of all three words. It’s a great way to put the old imagination through its paces.
Similarly, you can use a free mobile app called Brainsparker. The home screen displays images of playing cards face down, running horizontally across the screen. You then swipe left or right to move the row of cards until you randomly choose one. By touching the card, it reverses to reveal a word or phrase prompt.
You can use this app as a standalone exercise, or in conjunction with an actual problem or challenge. For example, you might get “If you weren’t scared, what would you do?” Just imagine how that might play out if you’re applying it to a particular challenge you’re facing.
Another great hands-on tool is an actual physical deck of Zig Zag Cards, based on the book Zig Zag by creativity expert and researcher Keith Sawyer. Sawyer’s premise in the book is that we “zig-zag” in no particular order through eight different mind functions to arrive at solutions: learn, look, play, think, ask, make, fuse and choose.
Each card describes an activity that stimulates thinking in one of those eight mind functions (48 cards, 6 per function). You can use the deck randomly or with a planned approach. Zig Zag cards can help you or your group solve problems or brainstorm for new ideas.
Ask an Open Question
On the other hand, If you want something quick and easy for starting out, simply use open questions as prompts. As opposed to closed questions that are answered with either yes or no (“Are you going to eat that?”), an open question requires a more detailed response (“Why are you in the lounge watching television, while everyone else is in the bay reloading the engine?”).
Consider this question from an article at SmartStorming.com: “How would a five-year-old solve this challenge?” A question like this can instantly cut through all the complicated stuff we often attach to an issue to get to its simple essence. This same article lists a number of other prompt questions you can keep on hand when you need a little creative prompt magic.
In the end, a prompt is a tool: nothing more, nothing less. It won’t magically produce ideas apart from you exerting some mindful effort. But it could be just the thing to propel you into the creative zone that leads to great ideas.
David Webster served twenty-seven years with the Hattiesburg Fire Department in Mississippi before retiring as fire chief in 2013. Besides The Creative Fire Officer, He also writes marketing content for businesses.
