Mitch Ditkoff: "14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas"

Due to a lack of inspiration on a particular project of my own, I found “14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas,” an article by Mitch Ditkoff, to give a lot of great solutions to a creative road block. He even provides some prompting questions to give a little nudge in the right direction for each approach. I think many of these ideas are used by people everyday, just not quite to extent needed to really latch on to any breakthroughs. From some being pretty complex, like tapping in to that slippery subconscious of ours, to simply taking a break to open up the mind a bit; Ditkoff breaks down some ways to grab a hold of those fleeting, shower time, day dreaming ideas. I thought all the suggestions could greatly help with the whole idea creation process, but here are a few examples that were mentioned, on which I elaborated, that I personally use.

 Listen To Your Subconscious (#7)

Most of our great breakthrough ideas come when we least expect them, but the problem is that we don’t listen to them. The trick is to be ready to record your ideas at any time. I try to do this by carrying a little pocket notebook in my jacket, so I can write down any fleeting thoughts that come to mind. Usually those fleeters turn out to that missing piece to the 1000 piece puzzle that was bugging me. Also, Ditkoff did not mention this, but because dreams are strongly influenced by the subconscious, keeping a notebook next to your bed to jot down dreams can help out a lot. On the same note, dreams usually stretch the boundaries of reality a little more than our conscious thought process, so they could provide some pretty wild ideas.

Hang Out With Diverse Groups Of People(#10)

This is one approach that could be a little difficult, but effective. My current project, being a screenplay, needs to have the diversity within the characters of the story, which it was lacking in the first draft. Being around people, regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree on certain ideas, can provide you with different outlooks on any number of issues, and lead you in a direction you wouldn’t have stumbled upon on your own. Specifically for my project, the characters lacked personality, all speaking the same, just talking to move the story along. By surrounding myself with different people every once in a while, I gathered prototypes I suppose, or blueprints for different the personalities of each character.

Suspend Logic(#14)

I really enjoyed this one, but I tend to do it more than I probably should. Ditkoff mentions how, as adults, we are constantly abating our innate creative state of mind in saying, “kids live in this place.” Though you’ll get the stink eye or the occasional finger-point, but doing things that don’t particularly fall in to the logical realm can be quite liberating, no matter how simple. One thing I like to do is to climb trees. If I see a real gangly monster from The Lord of the Rings on my way to class, I’ll swing by afterwards to conquer it. It might not be the most important thing on my agenda, but it lets me get away for a bit and not think about work, class, papers, or my history mid-term tomorrow morning.  Ditkoff also said that this is why we go to the movies; in search of an altered state of mind, away from our normal everyday occurrences. One of my biggest pet peeves is when that beefcake in the front row of the theater yells, “yeah right!” when the person on screen does a back flip from one moving car to the next, then kicks the driver out the passenger door. If both cars stopped and had a nice conversation about their rough childhoods, and apologized for the whole misunderstanding, it would be boring, and no one would go see the movie.

            This next approach, for which I completed the prompt, I found very interesting. Ditkoff explains how a lot of people struggle with finding the answer to the wrong questions instead of asking the right ones.

Define the Right Challenge(#6)

State your most inspired challenge or opportunity as a question beginning with the words “How can I?”

            How can I expand on a screenplay with a flat storyline and characters?”

Then write it five different ways.

1)   How can I give the characters more depth and personality?

2)   How can I make the dialogue more provocative and realistic?

3)   How can I make the story and characters relatable to the audience?

4)   How can I get more ideas for powerful scenes in which the plot-line is thickened?

5)   How can I relieve the story of certain details that may drag it down?

Which is the real question?

            I think the first question really gets to the core of my current problem. If I add more realistic personality traits to the characters, I believe more ideas and events will come more naturally. Also, by adding to the characters personality, while also keeping them diverse in their traits, the audience will be more likely to engage themselves to the story. 

The following link will take to this particular article.14 Ways