Creative Strategies

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. 
- Leonardo da Vinci

Choreographer Twyla Tharp starts a project by collecting items that inspire her. What she calls her magpie impulses might include a toy, photograph, quotations, passages from books read, or a CD. The items placed in a cardboard file box spark her creativity.  

First she places a message with a stated goal. She's written: Keep it simple. Something Perfect or Tell a story.

Everything is raw material,” she says. “Everything is relevant.  Everything is usable.  Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.”  

Tharp used to worry that writing would drain her of ideas. She discovered that the more she created the more she wanted to create.

Creative Write:  What strategies spur your creativity?