There’s an old adage which goes like this: What’s the best camera there is? Answer: The one you have with you. It’s quite true. You could spend a fortune on a sexy DSLR setup with interchangeable lenses and wifi connectivity and all that, and yet it does you absolutely no good when your kid takes her first steps or that goldfinch alights on your railing, if it's not in your hands just then. Timing, in other words, is everything. People who don’t work in the creative field might not understand what we’re about to describe, because they’re not under the same pressure to create: Creative inspirations are usually fleeting. Think of that killer concept or idea you recently came up with. It likely came in a flash (with the way there paved by a lot of good old-fashioned brainstorming techniques), and if you didn’t jot it down right then and there, it would’ve been gone forever. Yes. Gone forever. Think about that. It’s really kind of mind-bending. As a creative pro, you’re counting on earning a living (and others are counting on you, too) based on fleeting little synapses firing somewhere inside your skull. The right combination wins you awards and accolades. The wrong combination... and you’re just like everyone else. Fixation The U.S. Copyright Office has a good definition of something that can be protected by copyright. It’s the fixation of a novel idea into a medium. Let’s repeat that. You need to “fix” the idea. Not as in “fix it because it was broken,” but more like affix it to some kind of medium that’s durable and effectively tangible. In other words, write it down. You’ve surely heard the countless stories of some poor slob who “had the idea for Star Wars before Star Wars,” or whatever. We have no sympathy for these people. And neither does the Copyright Office. These “claimants” have no ground to stand on. You cannot copyright an idea. It’s like dividing by zero: It’s undefined. You need to fix it in a medium. Such as a written document (novel, screenplay, sheet music, brochure copy), or photo or artwork or layout or recording or movie. So where are we going with this? What does this have to do with our headline of “old and new tech”? We’re certainly not intellectual property, or IP, attorneys here at Copel Communications. Snatch it out of the ether Just as an idea is worthless to the Copyright Office if it’s not fixed in a medium, it’s also worthless to you if it’s not, well, fixed in a medium! The synapse fires. You get this great idea. The phone rings. And then... you lost it. What was that idea? You never wrote it down. And, tragedy: You’ll never get it back. We know about these tragedies because we’ve experienced them firsthand. And done our best to learn from them. Hence these lessons:
There’s a common thread in these stories. It’s the element of relaxation. When you can effectively let go of your daily distractions, you’re infinitely freer to create. So whether you’re “in the zone” at your desk, snuggling under the sheets, or luxuriating in the the steam of a hot shower, you’re naturally more predisposed to ideate incredible amounts of astonishingly good creative content. The whole idea of “being in the zone” is the topic of one of our most popular blog articles, “On Self-Hypnosis and Finding ‘The Voice,’” which you should read. It’s a fun article. And you’ll profit from it. There’s an app for that All of this gets back to “the camera that you have.” It’s why, not terribly long ago, all the major camera manufacturers stopped making point-and-shoot cameras. How insane is that? Camera makers stopped making cameras. You know why. It’s the iPhone. In its first few years of existence, more photos were taken by the camera on the iPhone than had been taken in the entire history of photography. Timing, as we said, is everything. So you need to “iPhone your life,” in terms of the ability to capture creative inspiration on the fly. The iPhone (or any smartphone), by the way, is one of the very best tools for this. Indeed, when we got the idea for this blog topic, we were out on the road somewhere, and simply launched the Voice Memos app and recorded the basic idea for this article. There: Fixed in a medium. Here, then, are some other ways you can keep tools handy, and never lose another idea again:
Have some others to suggest? Send them our way. We’d love to hear them. And if you need help with that next creative challenge, contact us. We practice what we preach, so we never let good ideas go to waste.
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