Ideas to Boost Creativity - a Comics 101 Supplement Feature

So you want to become more creative? Well, you’re in luck! I’ve got a list of ideas for you here and some explanations as well that will help strengthen your creativity muscle

1)      Give yourself an Obstacle

This seems counterproductive, but I’d like to cite the Comics Code Authority. The CCA was an organization that was invented by comic publishers and spurred by the government to censor American comic books. This led to the near death of the comic book industry in America. Some of the restrictions that were set on creators were that crime was never allowed to win, no drugs or sex references (this included kissing, cuddling, and even hugs were rare in this time), and even criminals were not allowed to be presented in a way that made you feel sympathy for the criminal.

The solution? Well, we couldn’t find one. Like I said, the CCA ended up killing most of the comic book publishers. It wasn’t until Stan Lee decided to take a swing at Superheroes again with the Fantastic Four that we got Superheroes to work again. Rather than create drama through the action sequences of everything we started creating drama through the lives of the Superhero outside of costume. Spider-man is all fine and dandy, but without the massive amounts of teenage angst and growing pains the character would just be another throwaway idea.

When you give yourself an obstacle to beat, quite possibly you can come up with something no one has thought of before.

2)      Good, quality playtime.

This is kind of the same thing that we get with giving yourself a limit/ goal. When you are engaged in playtime you find yourself not just creating the solutions but also the problems. As far as story telling goes I have found this to be one of the more effective ideas I have tried. I suggest you invest in some toys (the can’t do much. Try to go basic with these) and just spend a little bit of time each day playing around. Try finding a child 6 and under to play with. That makes for some really fun times.

3)      Build something physically

Have you ever seen a craft project and thought “I could do that”? Well now is your chance to try it out. Doing something with your hands may just be the distraction you need to overcome a creativity block and move on to the important stuff!

4)      Dream big and often

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This includes night and day dreaming, but only attempt this after a project has been completed. I would also recommend that you write down the stuff that you were dreaming about soon after you snap back to reality. This keeps track of your mind. Granted some ideas would be really dumb and you don’t know what your mind was thinking at the time of conception, but amongst all the data are little gold nuggets of genius. I guarantee that!

What are some creativity boosters that you have found to be effective? Let me know in the comments and let me know if any of these ideas work for you! Be sure to like my Facebook page and follow me on twitter @SupermanLegion so you never miss any other ideas, articles, stories or anything else I post here!