Use a Tree to Write a Song

#11: Use a tree to write a song.

Now, this is not me, but it's bloody brilliant, and it's definitely something to take to heart.

If you don't have "the industry standard" tools, then use whatever you have. Paint with tea, build with scraps, cook a meal with leftovers, shoot a dance video in an abandoned factory if you don't have a formal studio. There are so many things you can use to do what you want in life. If you really want it, you gotta do with what you can instead of waiting for the "real deal."

Here's another example:

Toonboom has become one of the best beginner-to-pro animation software out there. A lot of potential animators don't have stuff out there because they don't have this piece of software.

But people have animated long before computers were even an idea!

Hand draw every frame and take pictures with your camera or smartphone. Put these together and you've got an animation! Now, that is a longer method, but it gets more results than waiting.

Be A Part Of The Group That Redefines The Industry

Master-mind groups work

#10: Be a part of the group that redefines the industry.

Put together a Master-Mind group and commit to it like a shotgun wedding.

Master-mind groups are where you get a handful of like-minded people who are having some success of varying degrees and meet on a regular basis. It could be anywhere from 2 to 15 people, but consistency is key.

In these groups, you should plan to meet every week, or once a month, but no less. When you meet, make sure that you have a clearly defined schedule for the meeting. This is how I work mine:

• Go over your current project status
• Talk about what you hope to accomplish by the next meeting
• Group discussion on connections, resources, and ideas for the goal

Take turns with each person doing this, and give everyone a fair amount of the group's interest.

With a master-mind group, you can hold each other accountable for your work. So if I make plans to write a chapter in my novel by next week, the group will shame me if I don't provide them with the chapter.

Often times, we end the group with some kind of team game to wind down. Have fun, and do the work you set out to do!

Working Together In Person Is No Longer Necessary

Connect across the world

#9 Working together is no longer necessary

O.K. GO

I'm sure you've heard of this band, or seen their video on YouTube by now. They started by collaborating on the internet.

Internet collaboration isn't just geared towards music. Many, MANY people collaborate over the internet all the time to create their work with others.

If you don't know how to get in touch with people to collaborate with, you can look on many different websites specializing in different industries as a social network:

Vimeo or YouTube for film
DeviantART or Behance.net for art
SoundCloud or LastFM for audio
and many more. Just do a Google search!

You also have things like forums, and other social network groups. Facebook, for instance, has so many groups it's insane. Join in on some of these groups and contribute. Make friends with the people on there and get working!

Friends Are Great Sources Of Ideas

Double-team creativity!

#8: Friends are great sources of ideas

Friends! We have them. Everyone. Even if you think you're alone, you're not. You have someone you talk to online, in class, at work. Talk to them!

Now, you don't have to say "Hey, give me your ideas for what I can do." If you want, you can. But more organic conversations yield the best ideas.

As an example, I'm working on a story of a cupcake miner. This idea came around from jokingly threatening my girlfriend I'll send her to the cupcake mines if she kept punching me. This gave me the idea of a big, burly miner with a serious look on his face mining for cupcakes.

Ideas also don't have to be something obvious.

Imagine this scenario:

Todd is hanging out with his friends and they're talking about a video game. This particular video is really fun to play, but the music doesn't fit the feel. So Todd has the idea to write an album specifically to fit the feel of this game.

Enjoy hanging out with your friends and absorb their awesome. Then utilize it!

Look Through Every Eye But Yours

#7: Look through every eye but yours

We use our eyes all the times, literally and figuratively. Our perspective is always with us, and we tend to forget that others will not see things from our perspective, and we also forget that our perspectives change quite often.

Try looking at things from the perspective of friends and family, of a child, a bird, a couch, everything!

If you're a guitarist and you write songs with a lot of crazy guitar riffs, why not try something simple and give the drums more focus?

Dancer? Choreograph your moves as if you're right in front of the audience, instead of on a large stage.

Different perspectives can give you much so much more depth with what you do.

Negative Space Gives More Focus To The Content

#6: Negative space gives more focus to the content.

In creativity, we often pack in way too much content and forget about...      space.

Spacing singles out the content that matters, and I'll give you some examples shortly. But what you need to understand is that even a little bit of space can create a huge impact. Especially if that space is different than expected.

For a written example:

"It has come to my attention that you have forgotten why you're doing what you're doing. In fact... I believe you threw that purpose aside."

In this example, the space after "in fact" emphasizes the thought, giving it a slightly bigger punch. The space could have held much longer by adding descriptions of the speaker looking at the accused. The longer the space, the greater the emphasis.

For music, I saw Disturbed live and they played their biggest hit, "Down With The Sickness" as an encore. The whole arena was dark, everyone chanting, then you hear the drummer play a solo. Lights come on underneath him as he plays: the crowd screams. Then the lights go off again. The screams die down. And then... the drummer plays the intro of "Down With The Sickness." Screams erupt like crazy. Then he stops. The crowd gets louder. He starts again, this time with the bassist. The crowd gets louder. They stop.

They start again, this time with the guitarist out on a lit catwalk. Still just the intro riff. Then they stop.

They stop longer then before.

Then you hear David Draiman come into the song, the full band comes in, the arena lights up, and you see Draiman on a platform in the middle of the arena.

The pauses gave tension and anticipation that made the song feel so much more epic. Space can add a lot to your content.

Tomorrow Is Full Of Unlimited Potential

I said yesterday that you can look to the past to bring in different ideas to help yourself, but you can also look to the present to help shape your future.

Innovators are everywhere: the underground wizards of their industry who do things differently than standard, or even the big behemoths who define and redefine the standard.

Take your contemporaries and their innovative ideas and apply that to what you do.

An example? Here ya go:
Susan is a car designer. She works for a company that designs and builds high-performance vehicles. When she heard that Lexus redesigned a lot of tools and process to create their LFA, a cutting-edge supercar, she realised there are processes her company uses that are out of date and can be improved. So instead of spending a lot of time using antiquated equipment to create a car, she created new tools to do the job better allowing better perfection with each vehicle.

Ideas are literally flying all around you. Grab some and use them!

The Past Is Full Of Great Examples

Everyone succeeding now is inspired - at least in part - by those before them. Everyone that succeeded before now was inspired - at least in part - by those before them. So on. And so forth.

There are many great examples in the past of innovation, success, stability, ideas, and so much more that you really shouldn't ignore it. Take a hint from history for a bit!

• ,Music has classical composers.
• Film has classic play-writes.
• Authors, of course, have classic authors.
• Modern dancers have ballerinas and ethnic dancers.

Turn back the clock and bring in a bit of class from the older days.

Contradictions Are Great Combinations

Things that are seemingly complete opposites are often a great way to create something new.

Many people view different genres in their industry as "the enemy." For instance, rap versus metal; action versus comedy; cars versus motorcycles; etc. Instead of dividing the industry, bridge gaps and stand out from those who confine themselves to one style.

Let me give you an example:
Brad is a fine-artist who does oil paintings on canvas. Brad detests Photoshop and anime because he sees them as very commercial and impersonal. But Brad is not stubbourn and knows that he can learn a thing or two from both and apply it to what he does. With Photoshop, many people tend to work in layers that are laid on top of each other. Brad brings this idea into his work by painting on clear film and creating a real-life version of the Photoshop layers.
Brad then examines anime and realises that so much of it involves extraordinary situations and ordinary people being thrust into these events. Brad decides to reverse this in his paintings and creates a series of extraordinary people in everyday situations; like Superman vacuuming, the President of the United States eating at McDonald's, etc.

Go out and be a contradiction in YOUR industry.

Innovators Are Those Who Go Against The Norm

Innovations in technology, business, living, or anything else is created by people who do things differently than anyone else working for the same goal. Being different is pretty key in innovating and being more creative.

If you're a filmmaker, one possibility of being different could be as simple as a comedy in the film noir style, or as extreme as creating whole new technologies (as James Cameron did for Avatar.) The ways in which you can innovate your industry are endless, so try all of them that come to mind.

My 101+ Best Creative Ideas

#1: For every success, there is 1000 failures. Fail 1000 times and get your BIG success.

A lot of people feel like because they fail that it means they can't succeed. But the people who DO succeed are those who know that failure is inevitable. As with walking, you're going to fall down before you can even stand, let alone run.

I like to keep this in mind: every time I make a failed piece of art, or every time a guitar riff just doesn't work, I remind myself that these failures are all a part of the process.

So if you're wishing to be great and successful with their creative endeavours and possibly live on their creativity, don't be afraid to fail. Just remember to keep on keepin' on!