Jammin' Out to Ideas

I'm reading a book right now called, "The Imagineering Workout." In it, a bunch of imagineers offer exercises to bolster your creativity, or different ways to brainstorm.

One piece of advice that I thought was really neat (and really well-phrased) was this: "When in the car, don't jam out to tunes. Jam out to ideas!"

Our right-brains love driving. It involves so many meticulous details: check your speed, look in your mirrors, make sure you're not wandering from your line into the car next to you, check your speed again, switch lanes, etc. and so forth. And when our right-brains get so engaged in driving, it allows our left-brain (our creative brain) to drift.

On my drive home from the conference I decided to decompress with a 5 hour Idea Jam-Out, and drove almost the whole way home in silence. And it was awesome! I set my thoughts first on my novel, and my mind drifted all over my plot and the details of my world that I need to get straight before I query again. And then I let my mind just wander wherever it decided to take me. I reflected on the weekend, and where I would go next with all the motivation I absorbed from it. I thought about business school coming up (just found out I'm officially accepted...woo!), and my plan of action for becoming an imagineer.

It really was one of the best drives home from Southern California I've had (and I've made that drive a lot), and was kind of cathartic...who knew silence could be so much fun!

Does anyone else drive in silence, or have any other creative-idea tricks they'd care to share?

Books I Officially and Publicly Recommend: The Last Lecture

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture for the third time, and thought I should Officially and Publicly recommend it to everyone.

For those of you who have never heard of the book, and the story behind it, I'll give you some background. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 46, and given just months to live.  In September of 2007 he gave a lecture called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," so that his kids (ages one, five, and six) could have something to be proud of their dad and reference when they grew up with no memories of him. It immediately became a Youtube sensation--with good reason--and a reporter who had attended the lecture contacted him about doing a book.

The book is packed full of really great life advice, and is also an inspirational story of one man's battle with one of the deadliest cancers there is.  I just loaned my copy to a friend, and she sped through it in two days and asked if she could keep it to listen through again.  If you have any childhood dreams (considering most people reading this write for children, you probably do), then this book will remind you of what it takes to make those dreams a reality.