Ten Rules for Third Layer Creativity
The first rule of Creativity Club is that rules are weirdly helpful for creativity. The second rule of CC is to learn the rules. The third rule is to then break those rules.
Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. - Picasso
If the word ‘rules’ freaks you out, feel free to mentally switch it out. Guidelines? Maps? Bumper rails?
As I’ve mentioned before, fostering your creative brain is like dog training. We just adopted the cutest rescue dog in the history of sentient lifeforms, but even he has to follow the house rules. But the more he follows the rules, the more he gets to break them.
Same with creativity rules. Once you grandfather some in, feel free to break them all you want.
Our brains are wired for survival, not creativity. Survival brain is what keeps us going; what we create with it makes it worthwhile. But we need a way to communicate with our survival brain, to let it know creativity isn’t going to hurt us. These rules are the way I’ve found to learn our brains’ language so we can convince it to, say, let us buy canvases to paint a series of nudes, start that scary business idea, or write poetry.
Here are ten rules for Third Layer creativity:
Rate your creative preferences between a 0 and 10. What do you love?
Rate where you are on your creativity ladder between a 0 and a 10.
There are no 10s. (Wanna guess why?)
Try to be wrong at least once.
No ‘noping’. ‘No’ is fine, ‘fuck this shit’ is fabulous; just no ‘nope’.
When in doubt, start with ten true statements.
What comes next? (I.e., if you’re at a 2, what’s your 3? Not what’s the 8 or 9 you dream about, but the next step? If a 3 seems like too big a leap, what’s your 2.5?)
Are you stuck? Climb back down the ladder, reassess, and start up again. (I.e., if you think you’re at a 4 but you can’t get to a 5, then you’re probably at a 3. Look again with that perspective.)
Are you still stuck? Go horizontal before you go vertical.
Look at your creative process for ten hours. Take notes. Then create your own rules.