Disruptive Writing: Experimentation to Innovation
It’s been quite a few years since the term disruptive innovation was coined by Clayton M. Christensen in his book The Innovator’s Solution
Sustaining vs. Disruptive Innovation
A sustaining innovation takes an existing market and makes it better.
A disruptive innovation transforms existing markets and creates new ones by bringing simple, convenient, affordable and accessible changes.
Disruptive Markets
Scott Anthony, author of the Innovation Insights blog at HarvardBusiness.org participated in a discussion where he spoke about a recent player in the disruptive innovation game - the Nintendo Wii. The battle for the next-gen gaming console was hot and while Sony’s focus was on producing a top of the line system, and most definitely achieved that goal, with a graphics chip that’s proven to be top of its class and a built in Blue-ray player that just recently was crowned king, Nintendo had a different focus entirely. They took themselves out of the next-gen race all together and opted for market expansion instead. What they got was not only expansion, but dominance as well.
They maintained the interest of the hardcore gamer who will buy anything so long as it has a Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo stamp on it, the casual gamer who will join up because of the low barrier to entry the system provides, and a swell of new gamers that find the obvious team play aspect appealing which gives the gaming world a refreshing social charm rather than a reputation for being a solitary diversion targeted toward children and college students. Not to mention the hands-on, physically active style of game play that surely peaks the interest of the whole gamut.
Mr. Anthony sums up Nintendo’s strategy:
“Not winning by doing it better, but winning by doing it differently.”
That, I think, is a very significant distinction that deserves revisiting throughout the creative process.
Disruptive Writing: Experimentation
Instead of delivering the same, tired bit of information though your writing — dressed up with fancy words and smart ass rhetoric — why not try and put a spin on an old idea? Make it new. Make it fresh.
Try writing on one side of the spectrum — whatever that spectrum may be. If you’re making one person happy, chances are you’re making someone else grind their teeth. Get out of the neutral zone. Speed along the highway of disruption and stick your head out of the window and howl at the moon.
Make up words. Create quotable dialog - pretend it’s older than dirt and act as if it’s something your great grandmother used to say.
Try everything. Some things will stick and some will crash, but, that’s the name of the game. It is the only way to…
Innovation
With experimentation at the forefront, innovation in your writing naturally follows. This is how you mark yourself out from a crowd.
Granted we can’t always be wildly new, imaginative and innovative but if we keep these ideas close to the tip of the pen, it’s easier for them to spill forth when they do develop.
Get to it!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Nintendo essentially created its own monopoly. Doing things differently does that and catapults you into a new, lucrative area. The same goes with writing. Writing about making money online is overdone unless you can spin things differently or offer people new and innovative ideas.
Flimjo’s last blog post..Win $6,000+ in Prizes From Winning The Web
Jay,
Ahhh…innovation. Several months ago I decided not to read my feeds anymore. There was just far too much of the same old same old all over the place. I was tired of it. I made a promise to myself to try to come up with topics no one else was discussing. Or, if I had to write on a topic that’s been done to death, I would find a way to put a unique spin on it.
This experiment helped me come up with some of the best series I’ve ever written ( The Way of Writing for one). More recently, we’ve begun a long-term series on fiction writing. It was a step out on the edge for us, but we’ve been receiving an amazing response.
Innovation may be difficult work when you first start, but the effort is definitely worth it.
Harrison McLeod’s last blog post..Get Your Nose Out of The Air and Relax
You touched on both innovation and Nintendo Wii, two of my favorite topics.
Good stuff, Jay!
Now if I can only apply innovation to my own blog writing…
Rudy’s last blog post..My Blogosphere
Speed along the highway of disruption and stick your head out of the window and howl at the moon.
I am not ashamed to say that I have literally done this more than once in my life. In the daytime. In public.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens’s last blog post..Get Your Nose Out of The Air and Relax
@Flimjo - Too true, 2 true.
@Harrison - LOL@ how long it took me to reply to this, I was busy pecking away at my phone keys over at dudeswithwritingutensils. It’s been about a week and a half since I’ve opened my feed reader. Sometimes I just need a break. The flood tires me out. BTW, I love the series posts, especially the fiction stuff — weak spot.
@Rudy - Dude, that post with the song…great innovative stuff. :o)
@James - It’s like a prerequisite to “badass”
Never be ashamed of displaying your primal self to fellow humans. ;o)
Great convo @MWP today.
@ Jay - It was good to have you around. I enjoy your company and you have some interesting insight into stuff that I don’t always see… in some odd, strange way. But it always makes sense
As for being badass, does that mean I have to relinquish Comment King, or do I just become a Badass Ruler?
James Chartrand - Men with Pens’s last blog post..Get Your Nose Out of The Air and Relax
Let me preface this by saying I haven’t seen a Nintendo since the original Legend of Zelda (which I proudly stayed up all night at age nine to beat).
I’ve always been a big fan of making up words. And I’m pretty good at pissing people off unintentionally. I was always picked last in dodge ball. Maybe I’m more innovative than I thought?
This from the chick who thought James already was the Badass Ruler.
Amy Derby’s last blog post..Do You Check Your Ethics at the Door?
My pleasure. I just think you didn’t have much time to think about the topic, seeing as how it so recently took place. You should really read this post for some pointers. ;o)
Comment King is your day to day obligation. Badass is how you walk amongst the peasants.
“I enjoy long walks to the coffee maker”
Hilarious. :oD
Maybe you need to practice not being innovative to be innovative. %-)
By the way, I just saw this post at copyblogger — seeing as how you do lawyerish writing I thought you might be interested. Probably too low pay, but maybe you could use some of that innovation to talk them up. ;o)
Thanks for stopping by Amy.
Ha. Glad you liked that. I always feel like I’m filling out a personal ad when I fill one of those things out. But seriously, the coffee maker is the longest distance I walk each day, aside from that daily dash to the mailbox.
I’ll have to check out that ad; thanks for the tip. You’re a handy guy.
Amy Derby’s last blog post..Do You Check Your Ethics at the Door?
Rudy, I think it comes down to thinking about problems and coming up with a solution. What is a problem that you encounter on a daily or weekly basis, either on the Internet or in the real world? Then, how would you do it differently, or what could you come up with to solve that problem? That’s how I go about blogging.
Flimjo’s last blog post..The Triviality of Hard Work
P.S. My innovative skills succeeded. Thanks again for the lead.
Amy Derby’s last blog post..Do You Check Your Ethics at the Door?
@Flimjo
Well I’m lucky, my problems are both on the internet and the real world. The two worlds can almost blur together since I work on both on a daily basis. Solving both problems mostly, at least for me, a lot of logic and common sense.
Now innovation in blogging is the tricky part. It’s not really solving a problem, and common sense should be thrown out the window. Jay mentioned a post that I did, and a few people liked it. The idea hit me fast, but it took weeks of mulling over - should I post or not?
I also found another “innovation” that helped me generate ideas: tumble logging. Quick 2 minute posts about anything and everything, with little or no rules. Just pull the trigger, shoot from the hip. Bang Bang. Some will hit the target; those are the ones I promote to my main blog.
Rudy’s last blog post..My Blogosphere
The only thing I’d add to that Flimjo, is - it’s also about looking at solutions — pulling new problems, and then solving those. Hit the “market” with solutions to problems they never even thought they had. ;o)
@Amy - Really!? That’s awesome.
@Rudy - So tumble logging is somewhere between blogging and twitter? It seems kind of like free association writing or stream of consciousness writing, which is fun as hell!
@Jay
Yeah, something like that. I also tumblelog to keep notes. My memory is not as good as it used to be.
Rudy’s last blog post..Smashingly Good
Really and truly. You rock.
Amy Derby’s last blog post..Why We Write
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