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In writing, is imagination the same as creativity? If the answer were “yes”, this post wouldn’t exist. But imagination and creativity are two very different concepts, as we’ll see in more detail, and confusing them can have far-reaching repercussions in your writing.

Indeed, it’s particularly in the field of creative writing that confusing imagination and creativity can be damaging.

Imagination versus creativity. Creativity versus imagination.

Even the order is important, and so in this post I’ll refer to the pair as “imagination and creativity”. The reason? One of the major differences between these two concepts is their temporal order. Imagination comes first and creativity follows, in a different form.

But, as usual, the story doesn’t end with that; it only begins there!

The Role of Imagination in The Creative Writing Process

In my post on the role of memory in creative writing, I mentioned how “great novels materialize not because you remember what you ate last week, but because you remember how you felt on your first day at school”.

That is to say, great creative writing is a result of recalling emotions, thoughts, and states of mind; in other words, affect.

But remembering how you felt on your first day at school is only the starting point. Many people likely remember that; few of them write a novel about it.

But here’s an even sadder possibility: There are likely many people who might remember the feelings of their first day at school, might begin to write a novel, and either never finish it or feel very disappointed with the result.

One possible reason for this is a lack of imagination.

The Disconnect between Personal and Collective Experiences

In this context, lack of imagination refers to a disconnect between the recalled feelings and how they relate to the present reality.

In other words, not having imagination in devising a story signifies an inability to link between the personal experience (what you felt, there and then) and the collective experience (what one might feel, in some place, at some point).

Imagination in creative writing is your understanding of how your own experiences allow you to situate yourself in a context: other people (and their experiences), the world, life.

And so, in this sense, imagination is not so much “coming up with stuff out of nothing” – a rather persistent but fallacious concept of creative writing – but rather “coming up with ways to connect existing stuff to other existing stuff”.

Creative writing is a connection game, and that’s where imagination plays a major part; in helping you see the connections.

But just as memory is only the starting point of imagination (in a sense), imagination is not enough on its own. The next link in this chain of the creative writing process, which comes after imagination, is creativity.

After Imagination, Creativity; and You Better not Confuse the Two

Let’s take a closer look at this chain of writing process I referred to above.

Memory of Feelings → Imagination → Creativity

Now, let’s try to flesh out some more details, using a possible example – let’s take the “first day at school” theme that I used earlier.

“On the first day at school, I felt anxious. And then I felt scared when another kid who was really angry and aggressive bullied me and others”.
→
“Why would a kid be angry on the first day at school? Did he perhaps feel something else and was trying to mask it? What if people express anger instead of what they really feel? A lot of misunderstandings can occur because of that”.

Notice how with this second link – which is imagination – this prospective author connects their memories to a wider context. It’s no longer about “I, there, then”. It’s about “others, elsewhere, often”.

So far so good. But where does creativity enter the picture? And how does confusing imagination with creativity lead to problems?

Creativity Is to Build the Bridge Designed by Imagination

What this cryptic sentence means is that creativity, as the next link in this chain, needs to provide the author with the way to actually express the connection envisioned by imagination.

Let’s return to our example above. We’re at the second link in the chain, with the author (using imagination) having wondered whether people express anger to mask something else.

Notice how there is no story yet. Perhaps the author has thought “hmm, this would make a good story”, but there is no story yet.

The problem is, if you think imagination and creativity are one and the same, you don’t see that.

There are many people who, having reached this second link in the chain, believe there’s a story there and they begin writing it. “Once upon a time, there was a man who would shout to everyone when he was scared. He was angry at his children and his wife, and he became miserable. All his friends disappeared, his wife left him, and his children hated him. The End”.

It might sound as if I’m oversimplifying, and the example itself is a bit simple – for teaching purposes. But humor me and read again what I’ve said about linear narratives or narrative pacing. Most mediocre fiction out there involves a point-A-to-point-B storyline, with characters flatter than a paper sheet, and things happening to them, not because of them. (For more on this, see my note on adventuristic time).

In plain English, imagination without creativity leads to narratives without a soul.

Without creativity, there is no narrative tension. Without creativity, there is no connection. In the end, without creativity, the bridges imagination designed to connect your “existing stuff” with other “existing stuff” are ghostly.

So, How Does Creativity Work?

Or, what is the third crucial link in the chain of the writing process? How do we “translate” imagination into creativity?

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: It has nothing to do with plot. All plots have been discovered already, so forget about the plot.

To construct this bridge that will connect your “stuff” with others’ “stuff” and create a commonly shared meaning, you need to figure out how whatever you have to say will be something your audience Just to clarify, this refers to an intended audience, not any particular audience. In other words, I’m not telling you to worry about how your audience will "get it". An intended audience can be one or two specific people, your own self, an alien race, or whatever fictional entity you imagine reading your book. can relate to.

Remember the caption of the first photo accompanying this post? “Imagination is wanting to take a photo of a woman in a forest; creativity is deciding what the photo should look like”.

And so, to return to our earlier example, if the story revolves around people using anger to mask another feeling, the author needs to figure out how this idea will resonate with the intended audience.

Again, I really must stress that the plot is entirely secondary. It could be that your character is angry because of a past trauma he needs to face. Perhaps he’s angry because he was raised by a tyrannical father – who perhaps is now terminally ill, forcing the character to balance between confusing feelings.

There are endless options plot-wise. What’s more important is your authorial style, comprised of all the strategies you deploy to convey a message – and if you look for inspiration on how to be creative, here’s a handy link to all my fiction-writing tips.

Imagination and Creativity Are about Empathy

Although I spent the post pointing out the differences between imagination and creativity, it doesn’t mean the two concepts don’t share commonalities, too.

The most important such common element is empathy. Deep down, both imagination and creativity are about empathizing with other people. They’re about understanding how your experiences are similar to other people’s or, to put it in its properly empathic perspective, how other people’s experiences are also your own.

Ultimately, writing fiction is about shattering the illusion – no matter how persistent – that humans are separate from one another. We all share common fears, common dreams, common hopes and anxieties. The thoughts of an old Indian woman or of a child in the Philippines could be just like yours.

And this is an emphatically empathic attribute of writing.