On Creativity

"Where do you get your ideas?" is one of the questions all writers and most artists hear at one point or another.

I was listening to an interesting podcast from ABC National Radio the other day called "Creativity and the mind" where writer Sue Woolfe and Professor Russell Meares delve into the mystical world of creative thinking. It's worth a listen if you have the time and the interest. Sue Woolfe starts her talk with an anecdote with her tax accountant. The accountant is helping her fill in her tax return, he notes she has made some money selling her book so is thus a writer. He asks her about how one goes about writing a novel. To which she replies (in short), very typically of anyone who is writing, it all comes in dribs and drabs and you don't really write it yourself the characters do that for you, you're just the person taking all of this down for them. Later she overhears the accountant having a good old laugh with his colleagues about this answer. His reaction is not so surprising because I imagine most accountants live their lives in the world of linear non-creative left-brain thinking and have all but forgotten what it's like to view the world differently.


Which brings up the other point, creative thinking and how this differs from the favoured thinking of the every day. Every day thinking is the logical conclusions one draws to go about their day to day business, such as getting to work, doing laundry etc etc. It's very functional and linear. People who are habitually creative recognise the "other way of thinking" it makes abstract connections, it's non-linear, almost unconscious and certainly meditative. I know once I get into a writing mind set I end up in a trance-like state not really thinking about what I am writing, just typing it all out then at the end of it re-reading it back and thinking "Where on earth did all of this come from?" It's the ability to tune into some sort of subconscious process. The minute the inner-critic or the inner-planner come into play your work is done for the day. If I try to go into my writing, or anything I am working on, with a plan or any idea at all it almost always ends up sounding totally forced, contrived, wooden and not at all authentic. If I go into what I am doing with a free mind and let the world around me recede I end up with something I never expected but totally authentic and often interesting. That's not to say I don't write a lot of crap sometimes. That's when the other way of thinking is useful, to filter out the bad from the good.

What is your experience On Creativity?