Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 211
July 14, 2011
Creativity Isn't Magic
Building on a
guest post earlier this week by Todd Henry, I wanted to share a recent discovery, Everything
Is a Remix. I particularly love part 3, which starts out by saying this:
The act of creation is surrounded by a fog of myths—mythsIf
that creativity comes via inspiration, that original creations break the mold, that
they're the products of geniuses and appear as quickly as electricity can heat a filament.
But creativity isn't magic. It happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing
materials. And the soil from which we grow our creations is something we scorn and
misunderstand even though it gives us so much … And that is copying.
you prefer not to watch the video, but just read the transcript, click here.
Click here to visit the homepage for Everything
Is a Remix.
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Creativity Isn't Magic
July 13, 2011
5 Factors to Help You Evaluate Blogs & Online Authorities
Today, over at
Courage 2 Create, I'm the featured interviewee. I discuss online authority, and
how to decide which people and organizations you should trust.
Here's a small snippet:
Authority comes in a variety of forms, and we eachI discuss 5 factors that contribute to authority (industry relationships,
have different values that can lead us to disagree on who an "authority" might be.
Given that there's nothing to stop someone from dubbing themselves an "authority,"
you have to look for other factors.
experience, commercial success, social currency, traditional media coverage), and
also identify red flags.
Click here to
read the full Q&A.
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3 Great Blogs for Children's Writers
But here are the 3 sources I frequently recommend when asked:
Alice Pope's SCBWI blog . Alice is
a longtime industry expert on the children's/YA market.
KidLit.com . Agent Mary Kole runs this excellent
blog for readers and writers of children's literature.
Adventures in Children's Publishing .
This blog is run by a group of writers. I particularly love the worksheets featured
here (great for all writers).
Please add in the comments your favorites!
Also, this month, Writer's Digest is offering a premium product collection, Writing
for Children & YA , which offers a range of resources for writing better
and getting published in this specialized market. Click
here to check it out!
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5 Factors to Help You Evaluate Blogs & Online Authorities
3 Great Blogs for Children's Writers
July 12, 2011
Seeking Qualified Judges for Writer's Digest Competition
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The Writer's Digest competitions department
is seeking first-round judges for the Self-Published Book Awards. Judges are responsible
for completing critiques due the first week of August.
Judges are sought in the following categories:
Genre fiction
Mainstream fiction
Inspirational works (fiction and nonfiction)
Qualified judges include agents, editors, and published authors. If you'd like to
be considered, please e-mail your credentials, plus a link to your website, to Writer's
Digest editor Melissa Wuske, no later
than this Thursday afternoon (July 14).
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Seeking Qualified Judges for Writer's Digest Competition
July 11, 2011
When Mom Was My Age (#38)
Chiko McCormac (in 1960s & in 2006 in Okinawa)
"When Mom Was My Age" is an interview series between daughters and mothers. New interviews appear every Monday. If you would like to participate, contact Jane.
The following interview is with Chiko McCormac (age 77), reflecting on her life at age 42, interviewed by daughter Susan Hamaker.
From Susan
I was hesitant to ask my mom, Chiko McCormac, to participate in this interview because I thought she would say no. A 77-year-old native of Okinawa, Japan, my mom rarely discusses the details of her childhood during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II and the subsequent U.S. military occupation. But she said yes to talking about her life at my age, 42, and was surprisingly enthusiastic.
When you were 42, the year was 1976. Where did you live?
We were in Germany, then Daddy retired from the Army. We flew from Frankfort to South Carolina. Then we stayed at Uncle Doug's house or two months and moved to Fayetteville, NC.
What did you do for work, and what was your typical day like?
I was a housewife. You guys would go to school, and I cooked breakfast, lunch, dinner. I did laundry and cleaned the house. Same thing over and over. That's about it. Nothing special, no work; that's about all.
Was that what you wanted? Were you bored with that?
Well, that's what I do. I enjoy it. I did sewing and made quilts, that kind of thing. And ceramics. That kind of stuff. Your friend would come over and say she likes my tempura. Everybody likes my cooking.
What did you worry about the most?
I didn't worry about anything. (Chuckles) There was no extra money, but everything was okay. I didn't worry about anything.
What did you think the future held for you?
(Long pause) I have no idea. (Laughs) I lived day by day, and I still do now. I was so busy doing housework that taking care of the family was what I thought about.
But did you want to work? Did you think you'd have a job eventually?
Well, I worked before I married Daddy. I told him I could work if he wanted, but he didn't want that. I said, okay. And I became a housewife.
How do you look back at age 42 now?
You know, when I was young and working in Okinawa—I was hairdresser, then a waitress—I always thought someday I would marry an American. So, when I think about age 42, I think hmm, I did that. I married an American, I was an American citizen, and I had two beautiful children. So, I'm proud of that.
From Susan
While interviewing my mom for this entry, I was struck by how completely different she and I are. When she was my age, she was a housewife with two young daughters and no aspirations for work outside the home. At 42, I'm married but steadfastly childfree, with a busy life and career in New York City, a place the total opposite of my sleepy hometown in North Carolina. My mom is my hero. She left her family, country, and everything that was familiar to marry an old-fashioned man from the South and raise two children in a lower-middle-class household. A widow for almost two decades, my mom still calls Hope Mills home and continues to sew quilts and cook tempura (and the most amazing egg rolls ever).
Be Strategic in What You Consume to Boost Productivity
Today's guest post is from Todd Henry, founder and CEO of Accidental Creative, a consulting
firm that helps organizations like P&G, Mattel, and State Farm generate creative
ideas. He has one of the top
business podcasts, The Accidental Creative. This post is an excerpt from his recently
released book, The
Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice.
With the ever-increasing deluge of information we all face, the task for each of us
is to discern which inputs are relevant to our work and which are simply noise.
But it's not just the sheer amount of information that's the problem; if it were that
simple, we could just shut it off. The real challenge is that some of this onslaught
of information is necessary for us to perform our jobs. We must somehow engage with
the information that enters our daily lives, process it, and turn it into something
meaningful.
While our minds are unparalleled in their capacity to experience and assimilate information,
they also have a limited bandwidth for doing so. As a matter of survival, they tend
to weed out information that is deemed irrelevant to our immediate needs.
However, our minds are also capable of taking random bits of input and forging brilliant
connections that are not apparent on the surface. This is essentially how the creative
process works—it's the connection of multiple preexisting patterns into new solutions.
One pathway to creating more effectively and consistently
is to be strategic about our inputs.
I call the information and experiences we absorb "stimuli." Here are 3 characteristics
of a high-quality diet of stimuli.
1. It's challenging.
We want stimuli that will help us grow in our capacity to comprehend complex things.
Pop culture is helpful for keeping up with trends, but we also need to commune with
great minds and experience mind-stretching concepts and ideas that challenge our existing
view of the world. This helps us break through mental ruts and consider new options
that were previously obscured by our assumptions.
2. It's relevant.
This doesn't mean that we should be looking only for stimuli that offer specific solutions
to the creative problems we are facing, but it does mean that when we are working
on highly intense projects, we should somewhat limit our stimuli to materials that
will help our minds focus more effectively on those problems. A good rule of thumb
is that every single day should include some kind of stimuli that is directed at your
personal growth, and some kind of stimuli that you've sought out for purposes of advancing
your work.
3. It's diverse.
While carrots are healthy for me, if I eat nothing but carrots for a few months I
will probably find my body in serious disrepair. Similarly, we must diversify our
diet of stimuli by exploring divergent topics of interest, varying forms of media,
and by ingesting the opinions of others we may be inclined to disagree with. This
will expand our capacity to process information, help us form new and interesting
thought patterns, and stimulate different parts of our brain than would be triggered
if we continue in the same stimulus rut.
Another thing to consider is that often our next great breakthrough is more likely
to come from outside our industry or area of expertise than from within it. When we
diversify our base of stimuli, it forces us to approach problems from a new perspective.
--
If you're loo[image error]king
for a guide to stay inspired and experience greater creative productivity, check out The
Accidental Creative. Or visit
the author's website to find out more.
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Jane Friedman
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