Hack Clarity From Chaos (Tools to Free Your Process)

STASH: Creative cheat codes to help you bring your ideas to life 🔥

nowayjermaine
March 31, 2025

Sometimes great ideas flow like magic, right?

Other times, it's a mess.

And you think templates, rules, and clarity will set you free.

Nope. Ditch the clarity, celebrate the mess.

Sometimes it's chaos that makes magic, which allows you to craft worlds that defy logic.

In today's newsletter, I've got 3 process tools to help facilitate your flow.

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Define your project as a physical object (a rusty knife)
Storyboard using backwards logic >>> Sketch your climax first. Let details bubble up.

Replace “goals” with felt impact
Write your vision as a demand to your future self: “Make readers drop their phones in their ramen.”
Translate abstractions into sensory verbs: Make depression taste like burnt toast

Put your premise on trial. Be judge, jury, arsonist.
Cross-examine your idea -> if it thrills you, you’re onto something. (*if it doesn't...*🔥)

Blade Runner

The iconic world of Blade Runner dripped with details of decay and dystopia that spoke for themselves.

Foreboding...and mesmerizing.

Spirited Away

Miyazaki architects a fairy tale world for Chihiro to feel the weight shifting from childhood innocence to adult responsibility.

The bathhouse swallows childhood whole.

GenAI has released its newest obsession = Studio Ghibli Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

I figured I share insights from the mind of the true master.

(And maybe his original hot take on the matter 🙃)

Your art can be a wild beast at times, so loosen the reins. Let it roar. Let it scamper. Let it roam.

Blade Runner thrived on shadows, Spirited Away on playful mischief.

Resist the tidiness.

Follow where the beast leads.

Anyway, that’s it for the stash this week.

Hope you found something useful.

Talk to you soon,

🔍🐇⛳

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