A famous cartoonist said he beat "cartoonist's block" by sitting at his drawing board with one foot in a bucket of hot water and the other in a bucket of cold water. Not coincidentally, perhaps, many people say they get their best ideas in the shower. How about you?

I'm big on notebooks. I heard Anne Lamotte say something on the radio a while back along the lines of God [she's pretty spiritually oriented] gives ideas to people who have notebooks. When I'm well-behaved, I usually have a small note book stashed somewhere to capture the little things that spark.

I also like walking/driving. A lot of times I'll get the line or the thought I've been looking for on the drive home from the coffee shop, rather than when I demanding the muse appear. And I'm a huge fan of creative deadlines. Deadlines rock.

What do other folks do?

Yes! I have a sack full of pocket-size notebooks going back 20 years; I really need to look back through them. These days, I carry a digital voice recorder everywhere. It's nice because it automatically adds the date and time and it's easier to back up, but browsing thoughts is harder and sketching is right out. Maybe I'll whip up a PocketMod and have both.



For musicians, the rhythm of walking can lead to lots of ideas — another reason to carry a voice recorder.

I find that a lot of solutions to problems that boggle me appear after a good nights rest. I'll wake to find that the answer to my woes was just under my nose.

Additionally a vauge search on google will give me an idea of possible answers, and good concept on what isn't an answer. Putting my problems into context with others really gives me a place to jump into things.

I like walking.

Darwin Grosse has some clever tips over in our audio section, where he relates a story about having to compose four hours of music in five days:

A Ghoulish Deadline

His approach includes:

• Surrounding yourself with familiar tools
• Working backwards
• Turning off your internal editor
• Starting with the simplest task

Well for starters I just let myself be as whacky as I can but a lot of my ideas come up in conversation when I get random thoughts of terrible things "that would be so funny in a movie". Otherwise inspiration hits at times when I'm listening to music or watching tv and imagining something better than what I'm watching. I also try to work my creations in a way where they write themselves. A certain amount of rules to your creation can make it easier to come up with ideas. When overused this is no better than template carbon copy style shows and movies but on it's own it's fabulous. When I create a character I have an inherent need to explain why that character is the way he is - for the most part there must be some rational reason unless 'he's just like that'. By the time I'm done outlining that character I have another 20 things to explain and write about. The more I define them - the more they write themselves when I put them into a story (whether a game or a movie). If I'm stuck, I talk to friends. Some days talking to them gives me great new ideas and other days it forces me to improve and explain my old ideas. The more explaining I have to do the more real and precise the characters and the creation get. That's my method anyway.

It seems like my most creative ideas come the day after I try to come up with a new idea. I'll eventually see that I'm getting nowhere so I "hang it up" for the day. Then later that night or the next day it just comes to me with no effort at all.

Maybe the brain needs a little rest to think things over subconsciously, huh?

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Articles by Rick