The Ebb and Flow of Kick-Starting Creativity

PROLOGUE

Wow! Just wow!

EBB

Today I participated in the Digital Storyteller: Creative Bootcamp at Gangplank in Chandler, Arizona. Whilst I've spun a few digital stories in my day I wanted to learn this new Drafting and Crafting process. While similar in some ways to Design Thinking it differs in some significant ways.

How do I craft thee? Let me count the ways.

1. Plan
2. Checklist
3. Brainstorming
4. Drafting
5. Crafting
6. Measures

FLOW

The drafting and crafting process I learned today begins with a statement that says this is where I am. Whether brainstorming, drafting, or crafting each ends with this is what I made. It's apparent right away what happened. In the bootcamp session, facilitated by Ita Udo-Ema, there is also a timer set to count down from 45 minutes. Before and after each round there is a question: What well did you do? This is followed up with advice. Afterwards there is feedback.

KICK-STARTING

I tend to work digitally throughout my workflow. I liked filling out a checklist where I noted what I would do, what I did, and what I would do next. I did use apps. After the brainstorming I had this stack of stickies. I scanned these using 3M's Post-It Plus for archiving in Evernote.

I was reminded by how similar brainstorm, drafting, and crafting is to Design Thinking's define, ideate, and prototype.

CREATIVITY

An EdCampAwesome session encouraged me to give video blogging a try. After each iteration I recorded a few observations. They're viewable at:

1. Brainstorming
2. Drafting
3. Crafting

There were several times during the process where I felt energized. These coincided with feelings of being on the edge of my seat. It was fun. If this is creativity then I want more.

EPILOGUE

Inspired by Saturday's #WebComicChat I planned to create a comic of my own. I think I accomplished my goal. At the end of the bootcamp i noted two feelings. One, that my cartoon character looked a little like a sketchnote character. I could feel something well up in me at this point. This is the second feeling: What makes me think I can draw? The fact is, I can.

This takeaway was straight out of what I learned through EdCamp. Making really drives learning home. It makes learning visible.