creativity

Book Project – Day Four

February 3, 2012

Everybody dreams.
I’ll give you that not everybody remembers their dreams, but dream they do.
Some few of us are blessed with vivid dreams.  Some fewer of us have what are called Lucid Dreams.
A lucid dream is one wherein you can control your own actions.  It is a dream where you can make decisions, or make the [...]

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Does Human Nature Change?

January 4, 2012

Silly question (the title).
No.  Human nature doesn’t change.  What DOES change is the way we look at things.  Aye, and there’s the rub, when it comes to being (or at least appearing to be) original in your writing.  In the book “Writing the Breakout Novel”, Donald Maass suggests that the most bizarre story you could come [...]

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How to Throw Away Some of Your Best Work

December 30, 2011

What if I told you that there is a way to shut out the inner editor.  You know what I mean, right?  That niggling, nagging voice that serves as a constant reminder that your work “…just ain’t good enough.”
In an earlier entry post, I wrote about the horror that is the Inner Editor.

This time I’d like [...]

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Creativity

December 26, 2011

It has been a struggle, pinning down creativity, that is.  Just when we think we know what it is, the definition slips a bit.
We’ve looked at ways we can enhance whatever it is we’re calling creativity.  Some of you may have concluded along with me, that absolute creativity—the creation of something wholly and singularly new, if possible [...]

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Challenge: Brainstorm or Native Creativity?

December 16, 2011

What is the Opposite of Creativity?
Quick-witted that you are, you might say something like, un-creativity, (not very creative, so, maybe that works), or as we’re talking, as always, about writing, perhaps you would say “Writer’s Block”.
But that isn’t what I’m talking about.  No, in this case I’m actually edging over to the idea of Brainstorming, what it [...]

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Mindset: The Best NaNoWriMo Trick

November 1, 2011

 
Writing is more than a discipline, it is a way of thinking.  Finding a “tune”, a mental melody, a way of living your story, can make all the difference.  It can transform a duty to a joy.
How can you tell if you’ve found your “tune”?  Are you straining to get to your next writing session?  [...]

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Pre-Writing Brainstorming – Part 2

October 15, 2011

Continued from Pre-Writing Brainstorming – Part 1
Last time we looked at some of the “naturally occurring” forms of inspiration.  Ways that ideas come to you without the conscious aid of others.
Today, let’s look at actual brainstorming.  By definition, Brainstorming is, a conference technique of solving specific problems, amassing information, stimulating creative thinking, developing new ideas, [...]

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All The Time, Pushing

October 7, 2011

Bloggers who post on a regular schedule, whether it be once a month, or week, once a day, or many times a day, all face the same issue.  What next?
Sometimes the ideas come easily.  But sometimes the brain strains, you find yourself sweating blood, with nervous fingers, and a feeling of dread as the deadline [...]

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Originality: What a Notion

October 5, 2011

A question was put up for discussion in the forum for a group I belong to. Paraphrased, it went like this:
“…is it possible to come up with a truly innovative idea? As a writer, can you be inspired by something to create something completely new, or is it always going to be a rehash of [...]

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Is Creativity a Lie?

September 23, 2011

A commentor to one of my posts, in her well-considered opinion, wrote that there can be no new thoughts, no new ideas.  Ironically, there is nothing new in thinking that there is nothing new.  Still, as there was a sadness, a resignation in that statement, I wanted to address the notion.
Here is my reply:
There are times [...]

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