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The other night at the dinner table Sawyer was playing with his broccoli, teetering it on the edge of his plate while singing 'Humpty Dumpty' to himself. I know he's seen at least a dozen poorly animated flash versions of it on YouTube, and he's read different versions in a handful of Nursery Rhyme books we have. He knows Humpty is an egg--we all know that--so what made it okay in his mind that Humpty could be a piece of broccoli?
I scoured the text.
I couldn't find the word 'egg' anywhere.
So, cool. Humpty Dumpty is a sprig of broccoli in Sawyer's version. Yeah. Why not?
It was just a toddler having some fun at the dinner table, but it turned into a cool lesson in creative thought for me. By changing the central premise of Humpty Dumpty, a two year old effectively rewrote the nursery rhyme on a whim--and it became instantly more interesting to me. Now that he's a sprig of broccoli, Humpty's story can go in a million new directions--all different from the premise we're familiar with.
Anyway, it was a cue to me not to let ANYTHING get in the way of the creative process--all ideas are okay, just let them come and sort them later.
So, what are your thoughts on creative process? I wanna know.