How Cascading Ideas can lead to a Breakthrough in Creativity

The Apetala1 gene, scientist-like people have figured out, triggers flowers to bloom. Once Apetala1 is expressed, it sends out chemicals to up to one thousand other genes (depending on the species of flowering plant) launching a cascading effect resulting in the display of beautiful flowers, the release of an attractive scent, and the production of pollen that continues each plant’s circle of life.

Wouldn’t you like to do that for yourself, perhaps with creative writing or drawing?

All living things have similar genetic processes. When we are young, for example, and reach a certain age (puberty), "changes" happen in your body. If you have survived middle-school reproductive health class, you know how our hormones kick in, our genitals grow or sprout hair, and we become attracted to each other (depending on preferences) and may even have sex (at some point).

Our creativity may have similar triggering events. We learn about stuff for a while, we are exposed to something in our environment, and an idea sends out signals in the brain, launching a cascading effect of new ideas. Maybe we figure out how to solve a problem, or we see how to approach a creative project that stumped us.

We may see a story in our mind that we are compelled to write down. Or we may see an image that we simply have to draw.

For more mundane things, such as solving problems we encounter, we might have a dozen or more triggering events helping us find solutions but we hardly notice. The shame is that it's an amazing phenomenon we don't celebrate enough.

When we say something funny, for example, we had one of those triggering moments resulting in the funny idea. If someone else laughs, we've triggered within their brain a similar cascading event of ideas.

If you've ever said something funny with friends, and they riff on the idea, they are absolutely experiencing a cascading idea. Thousands or maybe millions of neurons are firing, activating associated memories, which race along neural pathways to be processed. As you pile on the jokes, the cascading effect keeps happening.

Maybe the saddest thing in the world is when you're out of the meeting, or maybe driving home already, the perfect—and hilarious—response to something said in the meeting pops into your head. The cascading effect gave you one more blooming flower, but the timing was off and you were the only one to see it.

I went deep on the humor example, but let's bring it back to creative projects. Specifically, I send out a newsletter about my novels but I was tentative and reluctant. I felt like I wasn't doing it right and that no one would want to read it.

When you don't like your own writing, it's a sure thing no one else will, either.

In 2021, I read The Situation and the Story (a book about writing personal essays and memoir) and suddenly a bunch of things popped into place. I felt the cascading ideas rush back and forth. When next I sat down to write a newsletter, I was able to take a low-stakes situation and infuse it with the associated emotions and turn it into a meaningful story. Writing the newsletter became easier and more fun.

My open rates more than doubled, and have stayed that way ever since.

Had I not read that book at a time when I was ready for its ideas, I'm not sure it would have had the same profound effect. That is, maybe that flower wouldn't have bloomed.

I have also blogged for quite a while but it's been a sketchy effort at best. It has frustrated me because I have a vast store of knowledge about computers, web publishing, creativity and productivity (the two big "ities"). For years I've assumed I could write a bunch of stuff about a bunch of topics, but I couldn't figure out how to connect my knowledge with something I'd enjoy writing well enough that someone else would enjoy reading it.

Two weeks ago I came across a Medium article I bookmarked in 2017. It was about the book A Process to Generate Ideas, and when I chased down the book I had another moment. Suddenly it made sense how I could relate situations from my everyday life to topics I'd like to blog about. The ideas rushed through my mind.

One of the principles of the technique is to have a list of topics. That was well covered by me already because I'd been making a list of topics annually for years trying to spark my blogging.

Another principle for generating ideas is to pay attention to your day-to-day activities and start a list of experiences, events, or stories. That wasn't difficult for me as I'm a dedicated diarist and reflect on each day.

I was doing a couple of things right but the cascading effect didn’t happen until I read that book about generating ideas. The conditions were right and the book triggered the event.

I've enjoyed great success with the writing. (Well, maybe not commercial success, but artistic success, in that I’m now very confident about my writing.) When I start my blogging or newsletter routine, it's simple, now, to think about experiences, events or stories from the day and connect one of those with a topic of interest. The blogging has never been easier.

We all have ideas and solve problems each day. But how do you do it in an area you care about, so that the plants you desperately want to bloom grow and sprout buds that flower?

First, read in the area of your interest. Read as much as possible; everything, if you can. Chase interesting thoughts to their source, and take a few tangents. You don't know which book, article, or essay will spark the idea you need.

Yes, that takes time. Foster a curiosity in that area of interest and at least you'll be part of that world while you're gathering the nourishment you need.

Second, spend time each day reflecting on what you accomplished (or didn't accomplish). Reflect on how any of it relates to your area of interest. Do this quietly, preferably journaling, but just thinking may be enough.

Finally, make the routines of reading and reflecting a part of your daily life.

Just as plants need a solid foundation of nutrient-rich soil, sunshine, and rain to allow the growth that will trigger the Apetala1 gene, and set off the bloom chain reaction, you need ideas from reading, and quiet time to reflect, in order to have an exciting idea of your own.