Saying that inspiration is everywhere sounds like a cliché. Surely, not everything we come across can be inspiring, right? Unless we read the word differently.
In the context of creativity, inspiration is nothing more than a trigger. Any such trigger can spark a creative idea when fused with other ingredients.
The Sphere Story exercise is a perfect way to experience that firsthand and practice your ability to take the simplest ingredients out of their everyday context and turn them into something new.
It starts with mindfully looking around you for something spherical. It can be anything: from an object that happens to be on your desk, or something you find on the street. Perhaps it’s part of a building or something small enough to fit in your hand.
As you do that, you observe the world with the intention of collecting ingredients. You are likely to notice things you typically ignore, even if they were always there. While this is a great creative experience you can play with for the rest of the day, this time, we will use the first spherical object you find.
Now, focus on this object. Explore its details. Place it in a different context or connect it to a personal memory. Visualize a character interacting with it. See it as a part of a story.
When the narrative takes shape in your mind, take a few minutes to write and refine your story.
By using something you accidentally see as a trigger for imagining a story, we practice a complete creative flow: from gathering ingredients, observing them, and wondering at them, to fusion with things already in our mind and creating a different reality.
