Back during my freshman year of college when I was under the delusion that I might someday become a successful Hollywood screenwriter, I was enrolled in an introductory screenwriting class. My professor was really cool and easygoing about the class. He knew that we weren't going to turn into Robert Towne overnight, but he was still able to stoke our creativity enough for everyone in the class to at least give a solid effort which, when you're dealing with film students is surprisingly difficult.
Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is because one of the assigned books for the class was Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury, in case you don't know, is a very famous science-fiction writer responsible for such classics as Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. The book is a collection of essays about the craft of writing and it contains a lot of really useful techniques to help inspire creative thinking. It's wonderfully written and something that can be read over and over. So, even though it couldn't help me get beyond the first act of my Vietnam War screenplay, I held onto it anyway in case I needed to get the creative juices flowing.
As it turns out, when you're working as a copywriter, creative juices need to be flowing at all times. Because advertising writing, even more so than television or film, can so easily dip into cliché I find that Bradbury's exercises can be a helpful way to clear the palette so to speak and start fresh. Since I want you all to go buy your own copy of this book, I'm not going to go into every trick, but I'll share a couple of my favorites.
Image from http://mindhacks.org/wp-content/uploads/CreativityExercises_100A3/IdeaDrawingXSmall4.jpgSomeday simply sit down and begin writing down a long list of nouns in a stream of consciousness. Bradbury did this and discovered that upon review he was able to spot certain words which jumped out at him, or, perhaps reflected some kind of hidden truth about himself. After settling on a particular word, he would begin writing in poem and prose until he found that the story began to shape itself. Even though as marketers we're not setting out to write stories or novels, this technique is still useful because it gives the brain a chance to run around a little bit. By the time you've returned to the slogan or call to action you were working on, your synapses will still be firing and you might come up with something unexpected.
Read Poetry Every Day
"Read poetry everyday of your life. Poetry is good because it flexes muscles you don't use often enough. Poetry expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition." Page 39
I'll be the first to admit that I don't read poetry everyday. But, there was a time that I did and Bradbury is 100% right about it. Seeing words written in poetic form stirs something inside of you. It's the rhythm of the words or the structure. It's the way that poetry appeals to all of your senses. A steady diet of poetry is an excellent way to keep your mind limber and your writing dynamic.
