In Creativity for Entertainers Volume One: The Creative Process, I describe two phases to the creative process. They are the imaginative phase and the practical phase. During the imaginative phase your goal is to think of something different. During the practical phase your goal is to get something done. You have to be able to complete both phases to be effective. I'll use some recent examples from my life that aren't performance related. However, the principles are the same. The creative process is identical. Exercising your creativity in any part of your life will improve your ability to be a more creative entertainer.

A game called "What Is It?" is often used in creativity classes and improvisational shows. The group is given an object and then each person has to use it as if it is a different object. That type of thinking helps in being creative. For example, last spring my Cub Scout Pack was having a model rocket rodeo. I wanted to build a creative rocket. The first thing I did was start to consider other long slender objects. Being from the Pacific Northwest one of the things I thought of was a totem pole. Then I began thinking about things on a totem pole. Poles frequently include bear, beaver, orca, eagle, and raven images. There is a story about Raven stealing the light and fleeing into the sky. When Eagle chased him, Raven broke chunks off the light to throw at Eagle. Those chunks became the sun, moon, and stars. Raven is often shown on totem poles with a circle of light held in his beak. So, I built a rocket that was a flying totem pole depicting Eagle chasing Raven into the sky. (In Creativity for Entertainers Volume One: The Creative Process I describe how I have used this technique to create props for performance.)

Sometimes the imaginative phase requires research. I am currently working on a car to enter the sibling and adult heat at my Cub Scout Pack's Pineword Derby. I decided that I wanted to turn it into a circus wagon. So I studied pictures and models that I have of circus wagons. I decided to make it a cage wagon and found examples of how those wagons were decorated. Then I based my wagon on that knowledge.

The practical phase requires planning. I started building my Pinewood Derby car by drawing a possible design. I discovered that the way I was thinking about doing the decorations on the side would have interfered with the rotation of the wheels. I needed to change the pattern to move the decorations further away from the wheels. I didn't want to start over in making the drawing so I used tracing paper to copy the parts I liked and made my changes. I eventually made four drawings before I was satisfied with the appearance. Then I used tracing paper to make a drawing of how the pieces would fit together. For example, I wanted the floor to be a solid piece with the ends sitting on top of it. So I decided how thick to make the floor, drew that in, and then drew the ends on top. I drew all of the pieces I would need to fit together. I was able to spot flaws in my design and correct them before I actually began cutting anything out. I made the drawings actual size so by the time I was finished I could measure the exact size I needed for each piece. In some cases I traced the pattern directly on the wood.

Sometimes entertainers praise a routine somebody has performed as being artistic because it is different. But just being different is not enough. At a minimum it has to be pleasing to the audience. The practical phase requires judging your ideas. First, is it worth while? Is it an improvement? Does it achieve what you want to accomplish? Is there a better way to do it?

Do you actively seek new ideas? What techniques do you use to generate ideas? How can you come up with more ideas? Do you evaluate your ideas? Are they useful? Are they the best choice? Once you have an idea how can you execute it? What planning will help make it a reality? What steps do you need to take to develop a final product? What is the first step that you need to take? How can you get started on that step?

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Creativity For Entertainers Volume One