Ideation & Inspired Storytelling
I came across a photo the other day of one my boys (in high school) all tucked cozy in my bed, reading his homework. A memory was instantly triggered for me: I used to LOVE to take naps in my mom’s room—especially if I was sick—her bed felt safe and the blankets smelled good. My parents had blinds on their window, so you could make the room dark-ish and I loved to drift off to sleep to the sound of rain on that same window. This is how my latest idea for a scrapbook page was sparked. AND, because I have a new Ideation File I know exactly how to capture this idea and grow it into a story …
Week 12 of Photo Freedom is about ideas and inspiration and keeping track of both!
I’m so excited to continue setting up and then using and refining the ideation file you saw in the video. Ideation is ultimately about sharing stories, but it is also about planning—so for me, it is the link that turns our otherwise linear 5 principles or steps to Photo Freedom into an ongoing circle of storytelling!
“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.”
➡️ Weekly Tasks
This week I hope you will create intentional mental space to reflect back to our beginning in this course. I’ve asked you to re-answer the same questions I gave you in Week 1, with the hope that you’ll recognize how far you’ve come. I invite you to put pen to paper and write what photo freedom means to you AND to really think about the kinds of stories you want to focus on moving forward.
Using the 4 general categories of US, PEOPLE, PLACES and THINGS as a spring board, I’ve created a list of 12 kinds of stories that I’m excited about—of course you can use some or all of these story types as well—but you can also create your own list.
Your most important task this week is to draft steps in a personal ideation process so that you can begin testing this process. Please also set an initial EQ for this lesson. What will success in the process of moving ideas to stories look like for you?
