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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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A JavaScript Random Text Generator

June 6, 2020

Programming

computer, javascript, literature, programming, writing

Virtually all of my coding revolves around text, one way or another. Just to name two examples, see my rhyming anapest generator or my Gothic analyzer program. In this post, I decided to make something a bit mad, so I came up with a very simple (but very funny!) JavaScript random text generator.

But this isn’t just any random… random text generator like, say, my random quote generator. This little program – in only 10 lines of code – combines text from different sources and returns a set of randomized sentences.

If this sounds somewhat familiar, it’s very similar to my Ghostwriter Android app.

The difference is, this time I decided to i) code it in JavaScript (rather than Java); ii) use the first two chapters of two of my novels, Illiterary Fiction and The Other Side of Dreams to generate the results.

Why write a text with a pen, when you can write it with a JavaScript random text generator [/tongue-in-cheek]

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Write Drunk, Edit Sober: Fiction Editing Tips and Tricks

May 24, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

editing, fiction, writing

I hate editing my fiction. I hate everything about it; the way it sucks life out of a text, the way it’s a clinical, passionless process. But you gotta do what you gotta do. In my long, sometimes painful writing career, I’ve learned a thing or two about editing. Today, I’m sharing these fiction editing tips and tricks that will hopefully spare you some frustration.

As you might remember from earlier posts, the phrase “write drunk, edit sober” is attributed to Ernest Hemingway. It’s quite probable that Hemingway never said such a thing, but that’s irrelevant. The quote is memorable, and its advice solid – though there is a twist in the plot, as we will see. You do need to write with emotion (“drunk”) and you do need to edit without it (“sober”).

Fiction editing is a diverse process, and there are more than one right ways to do it. I certainly don’t claim that my fiction editing tips are the best for you, let alone the only ones.

I’m only sharing these fiction editing tips – perhaps one day I’ll share my nonfiction editing tips, too – to inspire you and give you a head start. Take what you can use, discard the rest – there’s a meta-editing tip there, if you’re perceptive 😉

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