Creativity is considered a gift from above; some people have it, some don't. My goal is to help people rethink what creativity is, how it works, and how you can apply it to writing your books.
1. Creativity is not just a gift. It is an acquired skill. The sooner that you accept this the better. Creativity is something you can work at and achieve. Very few people are born with an innate creativity that flows from their fingertips as paintings, books, or music. Most of the time the most creative people are the most determined, those who push through failures to find success.
2. Creativity not something you think up. It is something you do. Steven Pressfield has a great book on creativity for authors called The War of Art. While his underlying philosophy is wrong, he has some excellent advice for all of those trying to actually do something creative. One of the first lines in his book states, "There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write."
3. Creative ideas do not come from nothing. You have to work at it. Ideas fuel creativity. If sitting down is the the hard part for writers, staring at a blank page is not any easier. Ideas fuel our thoughts, and when they are put into words they produce books that can be great. One of my all time favorite books is a guide to creative thinking. This book has about 40 concrete tools you use to fuel creativity. Just using one of the techniques this book teaches will give you more ideas then you can possibly use. Read my review of Thinkertoys here.
So true. I like this post. When I tell new friends that I'm a writer they often say, "I wish I could write!" and my response is, "Anyone can write. It just takes practice, practice, and more practice."
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