Creativity Workshop: Opening day

The auditorium is packed.  Thirty-two people of all ages and nationalities are slipping through the door in ones and twos, searching for a good seat, smiling nervously at unfamiliar faces.  Most of them are clutching a sheaf of papers, or a notebook, or a binder; class information, hastily scribbled thoughts, reminder notes.

A guy from New Zealand bumps into a girl from Indiana.  They apologise, smile, decide to sit together.  Everywhere people are grouping up, settling down, preparing for the semester to come.

There’s a sense of expectation, a palpable energy in the room. Positivity, drive, enthusiasm.  These people are ready to grow.

Welcome, everyone, to the first day of the Creativity Workshop.

While the whimsical passage above may not be the literal truth, that’s what I see in my mind today.  We’re all here for the same purpose, and we’re ready.

This first week is like an orientation week.  You won’t be doing any writing, but you will be formulating your goals for the rest of the workshop.  The schedule is as follows:

• Monday: Opening day post
• Tuesday: Icebreaker
• Wednesday: Guest post by Simon C. Larter and Carolina Valdez-Miller
• Thursday: Goals example post
• Friday: A short story primer
• Saturday: Prompts and inspiration for the next week
• Sunday: Post your goals.

The rest of the workshop won’t be so post-heavy; it’s just this week. Now let’s talk about your materials list for the workshop.

Your Creativity Toolbox

Humans come readily-equipped with the tools they need to be creative.  The three items in your toolbox are:

1. Eyes
2. Ears
3. Brain

That’s it.  That’s all you need to be creative.

We all have the tools, but you must train yourself to use them effectively. Every week for the rest of the workshop, I’ll be giving you exercises to help you get better acquainted with your toolbox, and get the most out of your tools.  Even if you are already skilled with your creativity toolbox, do take the time to play along.

Next week, in my post “More ideas than you can write”, I will explain the toolbox in more detail.  For now, engage all the tools in your toolbox, and get ready to create.

Materials list

I did say originally that you didn’t need to buy anything for this course.  But I would like everyone to organise a pen and a small notebook, one small enough to fit into your bag or purse.

For the duration of the workshop, I’d like you to carry this with you everywhere, so you can jot down ideas when they come to you.  There will also be field exercises to note down.

And seriously, what writer doesn’t love an excuse to buy new stationary?

Prepping for your goals

If you haven’t already, please start thinking about what you want to achieve during this workshop, as per the Issues and Interests post and post your own list to your blog.

On Thursday, I will give a brief talk about developing effective goals and write my own goals post as an example.

I’d like everyone to have their Issues and Interests posts done by Thursday.

In the meantime, look forward.  At the end of the workshop, where do you want to be?  Let me know in the comments.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s icebreaker exercise.