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creativity

Why Imagination and Creativity Are not the Same (and why It Matters)

June 30, 2020

creativity, fiction, imagination, memory, writing

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!

imagination vs creativity in writing — **Imagination** is wanting to take a photo of a woman in a forest; **creativity** is deciding what the photo should look like

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Do You Need a Degree to Be a Writer?

March 17, 2020

Writing

academia, creativity, writing

This question is silly – ironically enough, you maybe found this post googling that very same thing… Do you need a degree to be a writer?

As I’ve often mentioned, the answer to any headline ending with a question mark is “no”. This is the case here, too. No, you don’t need a degree to be a writer (as I said, the question is so silly that I feel stupid just answering it).

However (here it comes)…

This isn’t the entire story, either. No, you don’t “need” a degree to be a writer, in the sense there have been many writers who didn’t have a college degree and produced some stunning works of art.

Yet, I’d be a liar not to admit my PhD has made me a better writer – though probably not quite for the reasons you might suspect.

In today’s post I’ll take a closer look at what getting a college degree (say, in creative writing or English literature) does for you as a fiction author. Is it better? Could it be worse?

Ultimately, the proper question isn’t whether you need a degree to be a writer, but whether going through a (relevant) degree makes you a better writer.

do you need a degree to be a writer — A college degree relevant to writing can open a hole in the wall. But you still need eyes to see

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When Books Write Themselves: Perspectives on Creativity

February 13, 2020

Writing

book, creativity, literature, writing

The key to writing good literature is understanding subtlety and gradation. When it comes to good fiction and great books, things are rarely binary. In other words, you can’t answer some questions with a simple yes or no. And the question do books write themselves? is precisely such a question.

On the surface, the answer appears to be “no, you idiot, how could books write themselves? You need a person to write them.” That’s (self-evidently) true, but it’s not the whole truth.

Because, as we will see in today’s post, not only do books write themselves – in some way which we’ll analyze – but you shouldn’t interfere with the process, either.

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