I'm an artist. Most of my methods have clear analogs in what's already been mentioned. But here's something I've done that nobody else has mentioned:
I constructed an imaginary goddess and offered my skills to her.
A couple weeks later, I found myself drawing a Tarot deck completely out of the blue, spent a year on it, and was able to find a publisher for it who's distributed it internationally. I basically consider it my masterpiece (in the old sense of "this is the piece of work during which my skill went from 'journeywoman' to 'master'", not the modern sense of "a totally awesome pinnacle of the art that will survive for the ages").
Another artist friend of mine did a comic that was in part an offering to Ganesh - a statue of that diety figures prominently in the plot. It helped her work get noticed, an agent just sort of appeared in her life and now she's amidst a multi-book publishing deal with a major publishing house.
So, yeah, I know this is kind of wild for the technical atheistic crowd here. But... pray. Maybe to a well-known diety. Maybe one you made up yourself. It doesn't matter who as long as you can whole-heartedly believe in him/her/it/them for the duration of the ritual where you offer yourself and your skills up to Do Whatever. (I would however advise putting some care into your choice as this may result in a long-term working relationship.)
Then pretty much forget about it, just go about your business. You'll find a major project manifesting itself shortly. Consider it carefully as you do the initial doodles; ask yourself "do I want to spend the next year on this?" And if the answer is yes, then DO IT. You will no doubt gain a level in your primary skill and pick up some secondary ones as well.
(I don't know what happens if you turn down the first idea - I didn't.)
NOTE: This is NOT, IMHO, a route for the total novice. You HAVE to have pro-quality in at least one arena, because you need to be able to just crank on the core work of whatever the project is. Success is not guaranteed but it will be really interesting.
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Less esoterically, I will just repeat what others are saying: keep notebooks where you record every halfway-interesting idea you have, broaden your input to include fiction (how much of the modern age is inspired by sci-fi?) and technical work outside your field (like an artist reading HN!), help out on brainstorming other people's projects.
I constructed an imaginary goddess and offered my skills to her.
A couple weeks later, I found myself drawing a Tarot deck completely out of the blue, spent a year on it, and was able to find a publisher for it who's distributed it internationally. I basically consider it my masterpiece (in the old sense of "this is the piece of work during which my skill went from 'journeywoman' to 'master'", not the modern sense of "a totally awesome pinnacle of the art that will survive for the ages").
Another artist friend of mine did a comic that was in part an offering to Ganesh - a statue of that diety figures prominently in the plot. It helped her work get noticed, an agent just sort of appeared in her life and now she's amidst a multi-book publishing deal with a major publishing house.
So, yeah, I know this is kind of wild for the technical atheistic crowd here. But... pray. Maybe to a well-known diety. Maybe one you made up yourself. It doesn't matter who as long as you can whole-heartedly believe in him/her/it/them for the duration of the ritual where you offer yourself and your skills up to Do Whatever. (I would however advise putting some care into your choice as this may result in a long-term working relationship.)
Then pretty much forget about it, just go about your business. You'll find a major project manifesting itself shortly. Consider it carefully as you do the initial doodles; ask yourself "do I want to spend the next year on this?" And if the answer is yes, then DO IT. You will no doubt gain a level in your primary skill and pick up some secondary ones as well.
(I don't know what happens if you turn down the first idea - I didn't.)
NOTE: This is NOT, IMHO, a route for the total novice. You HAVE to have pro-quality in at least one arena, because you need to be able to just crank on the core work of whatever the project is. Success is not guaranteed but it will be really interesting.
---
Less esoterically, I will just repeat what others are saying: keep notebooks where you record every halfway-interesting idea you have, broaden your input to include fiction (how much of the modern age is inspired by sci-fi?) and technical work outside your field (like an artist reading HN!), help out on brainstorming other people's projects.