Last night I taught an online comedy writing workshop and introduced the group to one of my favorite writing exercises.
It comes from James Altucher, and it’s dead simple: write down ten ideas and be amazed at what happens. That’s it.
Ideas about what? Doesn’t matter.
It’s confusing and disorienting and vague. And the results… well, they’re usually not great. In fact, most, if not all of your ideas will be dumb, ridiculous, stupid, random, weird, embarrassing, certainly unviable, and pointless.
The importance of pointlessness
But that pointlessness is the point: when you do this exercise you’re training yourself to trust your own imagination. To output. To create. And no matter what field you work in, or how creative you think you are (or aren’t), you’ll get better at the act of creating.
Plus, you’ll start recognizing what might actually one day be viable—as a business, as a short story, as a stand-up bit.
And at the same time, you’ll be building up an incredible library of half-baked ideas that may find their way into your work and reference bank. Over time, those ideas will also get better, more useful, and you’ll become a more creative thinker and a stronger brainstormer.
As double Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling said, “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
Go ahead and try it – not just today, but half a dozen times over the next couple weeks. I promise you’ll thank me.
10 Excellently weird ideas
By the way, here are my 10 ideas from this morning:
- Computerized vinyl
- Delivering the mail in pneumatic tubes, again
- A swear jar that tells you which swears you can use
- A tone deaf musician (not a drummer)
- Larry David’s etiquette guide
- A spaceship that automatically returns to Earth when it drops the astronauts off
- Carrying a wheelbarrow, piggyback style
- Losing your religion, on kazoos
- Burying the hatchet in the back of your enemy
- Kpop Demon Hunters 5 breaks the internet
Most of these are completely ridiculous. But some of them are pretty funny, or at least have the germ of a funny or surprising idea. That’s how you know it’s working.
Go on, give it a try, what do you have to lose?
