Boosting Writer Creativity

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Creativity is a crucial tool for every writer, whether you’re trying to dream up a new angle on business branding or to draft potent dialogue. Unfortunately, we also write in a world that places very real mental, physical, and emotional demands on us. I know that I find it much more difficult to when I’m tired or after an argument or when some unexpected expense comes along. Fortunately, you can help train your mind to stay creative with some basic techniques and tactics.

Random Fusing

I picked this one up from The Iron Writer Challenge. Select a few random items or people and design a scenario or story around them. Just writing out a couple of paragraphs can help to cement the fusing process. The point here is not to achieve greatness, though kudos if you do, but simply to train your brain to make connections between seemingly unrelated things. If you can get your brain into the habit, you’ll likely get find it easier to be creative when you need to be.

Be Curious

There is deep link between curiosity and creativity. For a good overview of some contemporary thinking on the link between the two, David Silverstein has done a roundup on his blog here that is worth the read. On a different note, but no less compelling, is this TED Talk by physicist Brian Cox where he draws a link between the curiosity-based research and creative advancements, such as transistors and silicon chips, as well as some very cool information about the origins of life in the universe. I recommend watching the whole video. It’s a very well spent 15 minutes.

 

Develop Expertise

Expertise in a given subject or topic can serve as a springboard for creativity. In-depth knowledge enables you to see the path not taken and arms you to explore it. This doesn’t mean you need a PhD in Renaissance History or Biophysics; you’re a writer after all. What it means is reading and watching everything you can get your hands on in an area that is at your level of understanding. Start at the broad level and work in from there. For example, I’m fascinated by the Medici family, but I didn’t start by reading a biography of Catherine de’Medici. My fascination with them started when I was reading about Florentine history in the 1400’s and 1500’s to give me some context for Machiavelli’s political treatise, The Prince. Fast forward several years and I’m reading books about specific incidents in the lives of specific member of the Medici family. While I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on the level of professional scholars, I know the material well enough for it to serve as background and fertile soil for my fiction.

While everyone is going to have an off day, creatively speaking, developing expertise, being curious, and sometimes just plain random fusing can help to keep the creative juices flowing.