Splash Pond

Choose one or more of the prompts below and have fun splashing around! The more you play and experiment with your writing, the more the seeds of Creativity will grow.

1. Explain your research problem to someone from a completely different field and ask what they find most interesting.

2. Write about your topic from the perspective of someone living 100 years ago or 100 years in the future.

3. Apply the methods or questions from your favorite hobby to your academic work.

4. Imagine your research as a detective story—what are the clues and mysteries?

5. Write about your topic as if you were explaining it to an intelligent alien visitor.

1. Find five random objects around you and connect each one to your research metaphorically.

2. Create analogies between your research and different art forms (music, painting, dance).

3. Connect your current project to three books, movies, or songs that have nothing to do with your field.

4. Write your research question as a recipe, a travel guide, or a user manual.

5. Find patterns between your research and something in nature—weather, seasons, ecosystems.

1. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write down every question you can think of related to your topic.

2. Create a mind map with your main research question in the center and see how far you can extend the branches.

3. Write three "what if" scenarios about your research area and explore their implications.

4. List 20 different ways you could approach your research problem (even impractical ones).

5. Write your research proposal as if it were for three different audiences (children, policymakers, artists).

1. Try explaining your most complex idea using only images, diagrams, or visual metaphors.

2. Write the same argument in three different formats: academic paper, blog post, personal letter.

3. Create a timeline, flowchart, or visual representation of your key concepts.

4. Write a dialogue between two scholars debating your main thesis.

5. Try "constraint writing"—explain your research using only questions, or without using any abstract nouns.

1. Identify three assumptions in your field and write about what happens if they're wrong.

2. Combine two unrelated theories or frameworks and see what new insights emerge.

3. Write about the most controversial or risky idea related to your research.

4. Find three ways your work could be applied in completely different contexts.

5. Design an impossible experiment—one that would perfectly answer your research question if you could do it.

Do you have a Splash Pond experiment to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email your ideas for splashing with Creativity to writespace@helensword.com.