Hey Scott, how do you write your books and speeches?

I’m frequently asked by audience members, readers, friends, family members and strangers alike, “Scott, how do you write your books and speeches?” (Click the image to look closer!)

It’s a method I’ve been using for about three years. Actually, I have no idea what it’s called. For the sake of this post, I’ll just call it “The Ginsberg Method.” Anyway, I’m not sure where I came up with it, but it’s a combination of about a dozen different creativity techniques I’ve picked up over the years. The meat of the process is: I scatter dozens (sometimes hundreds!) of notecards, articles, mindmaps and other pieces of content on the floor. I crank up the music, sit my butt on the carpet, stare and wait. (The multi-colored notecards are more effective than white ones because bright pinks, yellows, reds and blues stimulate the brain.)

At first it’s intimidating because everything is in complete disarry. But then I remember what I learned from Roger von Oech: “The mind is a self-organizing tool.” So, after a few minutes, the various pieces of my content to come together on their own. Usually I move around the room, stand above the cards, look at the floor from different angles and lay on my back – anything to gain new perspective. But it’s actually really cool because it always seems to work. After all, it’s worked for two books, hundreds of speeches and articles and pretty much anything else I’ve created in the past three years. What’s more, once the pieces come together, the outline of the project is set. From there, the rest is a piece of cake.

Now, this might not be the appropriate method to apply to your business projects. Your boss might think you’re crazy if he sees you working on the floor all day. But hey, this system works for me. Well, it works for my brain, I should say. So I hope you have way that works for you and your brain, too. Because there is no greater discovery than when you learn how to harness the creativity of your own mind.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What’s your creative system?

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.helllomynameisscott.com