Creativity seminar - easy to use tips, activities and ideas for boosting creativity.

1. CREATIVITY OR BUST 2012
KAREN DANIELS, CONTACT: KAREN@KARENDANIELS.COM
Official website: karendaniels.com
Gifted resource website: giftedresource.com
Creativity/writing blog: zencopy.com
Follow my Creativity/Writing Blog zencopy on

2. TRAPPED!
 You are trapped in a room with two doors. One leads to certain
disaster and the other leads to freedom. You don't know which
is which. There are two robots guarding the doors. They will let
you choose one door, but upon doing so you must go through
it. You can, however, ask one robot one question. The problem
is that one robot always tells the truth, the other always
lies, and you don't know which is which. What is the question
you ask?
This is an example of a Lateral Thinking Puzzle—a way of
forcing you to think creatively.

3. TODAY
 What is Creativity to you?
 Can Creativity be taught?
 Creativity is a process
 Lateral thinking question 2
 Where did your creativity go?
 How is your creativity limited?
 How do you believe society squashes creativity
 Lateral thinking question 3
 Creative listing
 Crayon activity
 3 Links for Creativity Freebies
 Lateral thinking answers
 About Karen and her books

4. WHAT IS CREATIVITY TO YOU?
• How do you define creativity?
• Do you want to be more creative?
• Do you think creativity can be taught?

5. CAN CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT?
We need our creative and critical thinking
skills to maximize opportunities and
solutions in life. But many people wonder, is
creativity really that important? Should you
bother teaching creativity? Can it even be
taught?

6. CREATIVITY IS A PROCESS
• To teach or learn creativity most effectively, one must
emphasize a process, not the “correctness” or
“incorrectness” of an end product.
• Creativity involves preparation and persistence.
• To teach or learn creativity most effectively, participants
need to feel free to express themselves as they desire.
• We need to find our way back to teaching and learning
about creative processes, tools, and skills as a way of
maximizing personal talent.

7. LATERAL THINKING
QUESTION 2
 A woman has incontrovertible proof in court that her
husband was murdered by her sister. The judge
declares, "This is the strangest case I've ever seen.
Though it's a cut-and-dried case, this woman cannot
be punished.”

8. WHERE DID
YOUR CREATIVITY GO?
 Use it, or lose it. Guess what, if you’ve gone a long time
without consciously using your creativity, it’s harder to tap
into. Look at your children – they are creative all the time.
So what happens to adults? Where does our creativity
go?
 Creativity gets blocked by fear. Fear of being different, of
being laughed at, of standing out of “Standing for
Something.” (Seth Godin)

9. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL
CREATIVITY LIMITED?
How do each of the following areas limit your creativity?
•Habits
•Rules
•Perceptions
•Emotions
•Culture
•Gender

10. HOW DO YOU BELIEVE SOCIETY
SQUASHES CREATIVITY
List the ways you can think of that society
squashes creativity, for example:
 It’s
uncomfortable to be different
 Fear of…
 Continue this list

11. LATERAL THINKING QUESTION 3
 There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each
take one egg. How can it be that one egg is left in the
basket?

12. CREATIVE LISTING
Creative listing is a fun and easy way to expand creativity. List:
 things you can hear right now
 things that crumble in your hands
 things that reflect
 things that sparkle under the evening sky
 things that live in shadows
 things that harmonize
 things you wish had that are blue
 morning things
 nonsense things that rhyme with juice
 things that are awesome about you

13. CRAYON ACTIVITY
 Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box
of crayons in kindergarten. Being hit with the
creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like
my crayons back please.”
from Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
 We never know which crayon activity we’re going to
do, until we do it!

14. 3 LINKS FOR AWESOME CREATIVITY FREEBIES
 How to be Creative by Hugh MacLeod
http://changethis.com/manifesto/6.HowToBeCreative/pdf/6.HowToBeCreative.pdf
 Your Creativity by Karen Daniels
http://zencopy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ZenCreativityEBook1.pdf
 Creativity Matters by Amanda Morgan
http://notjustcute.com/2011/05/23/creativity-matters-free-ebook/

15. LATERAL THINKING PUZZLE ANSWERS

16. About Karen Daniels karen@karendaniels.com
o Amazon.com Top 10 bestselling author (see books at
karendaniels.com)
o M.A. in Educational Psychology/Gifted Education
o Mother of 3 gifted children
o Managing editor of Gifted Education Communicator, CAG
quarterly publication
o Karen’s site www.giftedresource.com is dedicated to
providing resources for parenting and educating gifted kids as
well as living gifted
o Founder of http://zencopy.com a blog which focuses on
creativity and writing
Do you need help with your gifted site or publication?
Put Karen’s expertise to use for you!
Distribution of this material: any or all of this material may be distributed freely for educational purposes. The author would appreciate notification and links.

17. KAREN’S BOOKS, WEBSITES & BLOGS
Creativity Books Fiction
 Your Creativity: From Ordinary to Science Fiction/Adventure The Zaddack Tales
Extraordinary
 Dancing Suns, Book 1
https://www.createspace.com/3616570
https://www.createspace.com/3589033
 Mindful Creativity
 Mentor’s Lair, Book 2
https://www.createspace.com/3723368
https://www.createspace.com/3590395
 Mindspark, Book 3
Women’s Stories, Self Help and Inspiration
https://www.createspace.com/3590430
 IVF: The Ultimate Realty Game
https://www.createspace.com/3516461
 Complete Zaddack Tales Trilogy
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050KEEES
 Surviving In-Vitro Fertilization
https://www.createspace.com/3644938
 The Baby About to be Born
https://www.createspace.com/3586347

18. CREATIVITY QUESTION?
Ask me! Karen@karendaniels.com