Have a better idea?

You'll have to wait. Inspiration strikes when it wants to. But some creative people know how to ignite the first spark. A comedian, artist, novelist, musician, and filmmaker show us how it's done

- Christalle Fernandes

If you were to stumble upon filmmaker Koval Bhatia in the morning hours, you'd be surprised to find her staring at the blue wall in front of the writing-desk in her Goa home, doing seemingly nothing for hours. Bhatia, who made the awardwinning documentary Against The Tide (2023) and the TV show Postcards from Arunachal (2021), had the wall specially painted the colour of the sky. "I wanted a feeling of openness, but without the distraction of a view," she says. Staring at it allows her mind to wander. And if all else fails, it is a reminder that every day is a fresh start.

Creative thinking is practically a cottage industry these days. Jeff Bezos, former Amazon CEO, says he swears by the power of wandering - for him, that's when the best ideas occur. Singersongwriter Patti Smith, in her 2015 I Worked in radio. We had to figure it all out ourselves. It's where I learnt to come up with content on the fly memoir, M Train, says that she prefers to write in bed, "as if I'm a convalescent in a Robert Louis Stevenson poem". Every naive, aspiring writer has, at some point, tried to follow Haruki Murakami's infamous 4am writing routine.

Creativity isn't magic. It's not a limitededition drop from the gods. There's no 10-step plan to becoming creative. It's not something to become, anyway. "It's a bit of a paradox," says Vinita Mungi, Mumbai-based artist and sculptor. "Creativity is something we're all born with, and yet it's something we have to work on developing." You can't summon a flash of insight, but it's possible to get better at coming up with good ideas. Here's how artists do it.

Getting in the zone