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make time to think

C. Create a grid. Return with me now to those thrilling days
of yesteryear, when the resourceful masked man and his
faithful Indian companion rode the range, bringing law
and order to the Old West.

Fran Striker wrote a fresh script for the Lone Ranger radio
dramas every week for years. He had great characters to work with
and a durable myth of good and evil to develop each week.

But there are only so many pretexts for sending Tonto into town
to get beat up, and only so many disguises for the Lone Ranger to
don; after a time Striker began to run dry.

He didn’t panic. Instead, he made lists—lists of weapons, lists
of disguises, lists of settings, lists of bad guys, lists of all of the
elements that went into his half-hour morality tales. He would then
combine items from his lists, playing with combinations until he
got something that seemed promising. This system kept the Lone
Ranger riding for years.

This grid or matrix system works because inspiration often
occurs when an idea or image from one frame of reference collides
with an idea or image from a totally different context, creating
something new, surprising, and original.

“Fellow dies and goes to heaven. There’s St. Peter, guard-
ing the pearly gates and eyeing him suspiciously. St. Pete checks
his scroll, scowls, then squints down at the supplicant and says,
‘Smoking or non-smoking?’”

One context, heaven, collides with another context, restaurant
seating arrangements.

Inspiration “strikes” when the collision occurs spontaneously,
which is to say without your consciously willing it to happen. But you
can create the combinations consciously through the grid system.

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