improvarama

  The imagination likes to dare you to go deeper. Go ahead, but buckle-up. -- doug smith

  Improv Activity: Draw a map. Pay no attention to accuracy, simply represent some area with your own original map. Write three lines describing your map. Next Level: Improvise a scene based on your map, or, write a short piece (poem, story, description) based on your map. Materials Needed: Paper and pen or something else to construct your map.

Challenges? Of course! Problems? Everywhere! Improvisation gives you and advantage: you can think on your feet in the moment, fearlessly. Creativity gives you an edge -- what you try that doesn't fly shows you a better way to get by. Don't stop creating until you stop breathing.  Don't stop improvising until you die. Keep the fun alive. -- doug smith  

It's awkward to experience a creative block when you need to create on the spot. It feels like driving an old country winding road on a dark night when your headlights suddenly go out. Not fun. Scary, even.  Ah, but sometimes creativity feels like that. Sometimes improvisation feels less than automatic. Should we keep driving, or stop in our tracks? Maybe coast? What drives you, what guides you is still there. As long as we put in the hours and work the practice, our practice will kick in and get us going. Don't knock the blocks, they are there to build on. Creative break-thru come after creative blocks. And -- those creative break-thru are sweet indeed. -- doug smith  

Some people fear the creative impulse because it might produce work that breaks something.  I think that we can relax on that. Creativity never breaks anything. Breaking creativity breaks everything. -- doug smith 

One of my favorite questions is "how do you develop creativity?" because there are so many answers. Here's my favorite answer:  Developing creativity is easy -- just start creating and never stop. Make sense? Feel right? Try it! -- doug smith

  "Madness likes to call itself creative, but that doesn't mean that it is." -- doug smith OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: 1. Draw a picture. Keep drawing until you fill the page, no matter what develops. 2. Say something about it in one sentence.

Do you still doodle? You can probably remember a time in your life when you doodled a lot. Sometimes we draw less as we get older. It happens, but it doesn't HAVE to happen. We can keep drawing. We can keep sketching. And, when we do it fuels our creativity. Try bringing that same spirit of improvisation to some random, spontaneous drawing. it doesn't have to be good (although it might be!) -- it just has to flow. This is sa drawing I made in 1976. I'm fairly certain, although that was a long time ago, that I drew it in one sitting, without doing anything else.  Remember, it doesn't need to be great art to help your creativity.  -- doug smith