“Safety first!” is a phrase that I remember hearing as a kid. I can’t remember if it came from my mother, or from some group that I was associated with, but nevertheless the opposite is the truth with creativity. Often I am asked to take a gander at some new type of product or story. Often I am as excited as a dog hearing his leash get taken off the hook for the opportunity, but more often than not, I am disappointed at the proverbial safety pins of ideas that I come to see.

Usually I am just happy that the person that is showing me this idea has enough spirit to stick their neck out. At least they are not trying to hoard their ideas like so many do until the idea is either designed or until someone else has made the idea obsolete. At least these people are communicating, but usually the idea is lacking any creativity at all.

A lot of the time you can see patches of what they wanted to say. In a recent story, I read a line about a giant baby kicking someone in the spine, the line was new… I had never heard it before and it called my attention. However, the rest of the story was written for someone else, and because of that the joy of reading the work was annihilated. It was as if this peer thought that too much creativity would bore an audience, so he calmed down and wrote a story that lacked the zip of a creative beat and the only thing I remember is the kicking baby.
One of the best stories that I have read in college came from a peer called Fred: it was about the Greek god Diogenes masturbating in Central Park as a virgin Brittney Spears talked to him about the morals of Pepsi. That is a story that stayed with me. It was not safe and it was a story that had an ending, a lively one. It took guts for a college freshman to write that and turn it in. By the way, Fred got an A, and he deserved it because he made a statement. Creativity is like the field of dreams, if you have a field and don’t like slaving over corn then build a field where fallen invisible baseball legends can play to fill the void of tourist destinations in Iowa. Just think about that next time you play it safe.

| Creativity & Brainstorming, New Concepts & Ideas | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.