Creativity is latent in almost everyone. In creativity the emotional and the non-rational parts of our mind are as important as the logical and the rational. Just as we can train our national and logical mind to work better by educating it, so we can train our non-rational mind to be more creative by practice and education.
Creativity is often sparked by problem solving. For the journalist, the problem is “How do I find stories that will excite readers or viewers and how do I present the story in a way that will attract them to buy my newspapers/broadcasts and enjoy the experience of reading to the end.”
One of the things that often blocks our creativity is our own inhibitions. Psychologists believe we have a built- in censor that limits the information we are prepared to accept from the preconscious in order to protect ourselves from being overwhelmed by the information we contain in our brain. Filters appropriate to our situation ensure appropriate recollection. If we are in a leisure situation, leisure links are used and work recollections are unwelcome. If we are at work we do the opposite. This could well be the reason why an idea will come to us out of context. We might have been wracking our brain to consider how to extend a particular story, but as soon as we settle into a different activity, socialising with friends of watching TV, the idea comes to us. It seems that during the incubation phase of the idea, because we have adjusted the parameters of the censor, an association that we otherwise would not have considered will be delivered to our subconscious and our conscious mind will suddenly recognise it as appropriate for the problem we were dealing with before.
The way we work and are trained often seems to limit creativity. We come to feare expressing the weird and unusual because of peer pressure. If we are concerned that others will laugh at our ideas, we will not put our ideas forward, and if we never put ideas forward, we will probably stop having them at all. Creativity, imagination and good ideas are essential for success, particularly in journalism, although of course none of these is any good unless supported by hard work. And creativity thinking is the hardest work of all, requiring intense discipline, concentration and planning.
Much of the creative thinking required of journalists is idea development. You’ve got a story idea but you need to develop it further – produce it as a series, perhaps, or build some background features. There are several techniques you can use.
Spider diagrams
These can be very useful for developing ideas. Write down the orginal idea and then spin out spider’s legs to new ideas which then themselves spin out new ideas and so on. The disadvantage of spider diagrams is that after a few spiders have been drawn it is tempting to end the process before all the elements are thought through and you need to “Beware the dangers of early commitment to an idea or strategy (Raudsepp 1971: 114). There is an example of a spider diagram in Figure 12.1. Here I have chosen the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday and expanded out from there with a number of ideas, each of which has spawned new ideas. See how I’ve included the concept of past, present and future as these often help develop ideas. I’m sure you could continue to develop further ideas of your own.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming was invented by Edward de Bono and given substance in his book, Lateral Thinking (De Bono 1977). He says we should always challenge assumptions. We often say we can’t do something because that is the way it has always been. But technology can change things and what we want can change and that allows us to rethink and do the unthinkable. De Bono says we need to suspend judgement. Often we will discard an idea before we have thought it through because it sounds silly at first. Often developing the idea can change that view. Boring or cliched ideas might be safe, but challenging, unusual and exciting ideas are what newsdesks really want – and are prepared to pay for.
De Bono says that : “The four rules of brainstorming in a group are: (1) Adverse criticism is taboo; (2) freewheeling is welcomed; (3) quantity is wanted; and (4) combination and improvement are sought’ (Barron 1969; 132). Despite working best as a group activity, brainstorming can work even when you are on your own – provided you take it seriously and suspend judgement. You need to note down all your ideas in a formal session. In other words, you have to say to yourself that you will think about this idea for a solid ten minutes, writing down every idea you have. Ten minutes may not seem like a long time, but to concentrate on one idea for that length of time and brainstorm other ideas is very hard work. Ten minutes can seem like an age as you struggle to write down more and more bizarre ideas. But, provided you concentrate completely for this time you should come up with some excellent ideas based around the original spark to the story.
FOLLOWING UP A STORY
Once the initial story has been written that is not the end of it. Some stories obviously require following up. At the start of the Paddington rail crash for instance, it was clear that any reporter working on the story would be filing copy for each edition until the news editor decided otherwise and many reporters would have worked on nothing else for several weeks. Inevitably, though, the story would die away and the reporters were moved on to something else. In all such stories it is important to note likely key dates for follow ups in the diary. The anniversary and even ten – year anniversary are two obvious dates to pop into the diary for follow – up stories.
Thinking about the timeline in a story is a good way of developing further story ideas. What happened in the past to lead to this story? What is likely to happen in the future – what are the consequences? In the case of the Paddington rail crash this would lead to a series of features and new stories about the fitting (or non – fitting) of train safety devices, other train crashes and how they link to this crash, and whether the government, the rail companies and other associated authorities have done enough in the past to prevent such accidents. The future brings us stories about the inquiry, how the survivors are coping, campaigns to improve rail safety and the effect such a major disaster has had on those working for the emergency services. Just a quick glance at this list shows the wealth of good story material available after this one incident and helps explain why you read so much about the Paddington rail disaster, its causes and its effects.
Pictures
It is also important that a good reporter thinks of picture ideas. When working with photographers, it is important to fully brief them about the story on which you are working. Photographers are the experts when it comes to pictures, but they can only be as good as the brief they receive. It also does no harm to suggest ideas to the photograper, so it is important that you think of picture ideas while you are working on the story. Not only can you then see if the photographer agrees with your idea, but you can also pass on other picture ideas to the newsdesk so that library or archive pictures can be included in the final package.
Using library pictures can be extremely useful, but there are potential problems. If you get a chance, check your library’s picture file of the interviewer before you go on the interview. This means when you meet the person you can quickly tell if the photograph is recent or very dated. There is nothing worse than interviewing a fifty-year-old man about the death of his grandaughter in tragic circumstances and then illustrating it with a picture of a sneering twenty-two-year-old protester with long hair and wildly unfashionable clothes. Finding out before makes it easy to alert the picture desk, or at least gives you a chance to ask the interviewee for an up-to-date picture. On the other hand, interviewing a couple on their golden wedding and finding you have a picture of their marriage day fifty years before can add a charming memory to a feel – good story.
Freelances
Freelances have particular requirements when it comes to developing stories. Not only do they need to think of good ideas for stories in the first place, but they also need to consider where they are going to sell the story. Some freelances specialise in an area of reporting and already have key markets linde up. This can be a good way to earn a freelance living. Perhaps you specialise in social work. This means finding news and feature stories in this field and sending them to the specialist publications often have specialist pages. The Guardian for instance has its weekly education supplement and the editor of this will publish appropriate education pieces and will also come to trust regular freelances with suitable expertise.
General freelances have more opportunities for a wider range of writing but will often have to deal with news editors they don’t know. Having written a story, it is even more important for such freelances to ensure that the story is written in a way that suits the market of the target paper, magazine or broadcast station. This could mean writing the same story in a dozen different ways. A woman protester fined for criminal damage after breaking into a local Army base and painting a tank bright pink in protest at arms sales to Indonesia would allow a good freelance to sell the basic news story to a number of outles – the BBC,all the nationals, the local dailies and some of the foreign agencies. An interview with the protester would also be of interest to some of the women’s agencies. An interview with the protester would also be of interest to some of the women’s magazines:’How I stood up to be counted of “Women in the front line”. Some alternative lifesyle magazines might also be interested in the story on the basis of why she did it. It’s probably stretching things a bit to try to sell the story to trade mags such as Paint World, but only because their budget’s not big enough to pay for ‘Dulux puts tank in the pink’. Stories about how she broke into an Army base or the practical problems of painting a tank might also appeal to some specialist mags (although probably too specialist to be able to pay much). They would need to be handled with care because of the security implications ,but it would certainly be possible to build the story into a fun feature on ’Five crazy things to do after a night, of lager’for FHM or Loaded.
A different approach, a new intro and new writing style can change an idea radically enough to allow the thinking freelance to sell the same basic story to a dozen different markets.
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