Cultivate & Corral Creativity

Built by beauty, but revealed by boredom.

This past week, my wife and I were in LA. We live in the suburbs of Texas, so obviously, this was a change of scenery for the better. At the time, I was developing a concept for a new content campaign but had some serious difficulty covering any ground.

You would think that flying alongside a lightning-lit canyon of clouds, watching a sea lion thrash through a school of fish, or clawing through the thicket surrounding the Manson family cave would have sparked some inspiration in me. But it didn’t.

The catalyst for creativity ultimately ended up being the night that I sat bored and alone in my father-in-law’s guest room. It’s dull moments like those when your mind has the opportunity not just to drift, but to enter another world altogether. The beauty that we experience in this world actually serves as a distraction from the infinite world that exists in our minds.

I’m not saying that experiencing real-world beauty doesn’t aid in the creative process. It plays a pivotal role. Moments like those are what give us the clay to work with when crafting a story. Without experiencing beauty, pain, and humor, you have nothing to build from when entering into the world within your mind.

I haven’t written much in the way of good scripts, but when it is good, I pull from past adventures while staring at a blank suburban wall.