Mark, the Broadcasting Brain, has simple needs: he does his best work at the kitchen table with papers spread out around him.

I do too.

Bill finds there’s an astonishing lot of physical movement in the apparently sedentary act of writing, and a good hike with his dog can shake out the ideas.

Same here.

Susan’s muse is best courted by a morning ritual of just the right balance of distractions and peace, in just the right workspace.

Me too.

Kat says the key to doing great creative work is simply starting, though possibly with the aid of a kayak and a glass of wine.

Ditto!

So what’s the real bottom line here?  How do I do my best creative work?

Tough question. And the specifics depend on what kind of creating we’re talking about: building a website, writing a book, constructing a blog tutorial, plotting a film treatment, sketching for a painting, planning a lesson… And what do we mean by “best,” anyhow? Most satisfying, most lucrative, most original, or most critically acclaimed?

(A terrific way to avoid creative productivity, by the way, is to keep answering questions with more questions instead of forcing yourself to find an answer – even if the answer might change or be tossed aside, later, as you continue to explore and refine your work!)

I do my best creative work in a two-step process:

1. Channel the Romantic poets
2. Do the Hokey-Pokey

Bear with me here – there’s a chance this may not be quite as lunatic as it sounds...

... or maybe it is?