In case you’ve missed what’s been happening here on TVWriter™, the most clicked-on blog posts by TVWriter™ visitors last week, (yeah, Christmas, it’s okay, we know) were:
Category: Productivity
Why We Tell Stories
Forget psychological and anthropological studies. Never mind Joseph Campbell. Right here, right now, a genuine storyteller gives us the whole truth and nothing but the truth, from a real storyteller’s POV:
by Henry Sheppard
A question I’ve been asked from time to time is, Why do you write?
Giving Up Is the Enemy of Creativity
And now a few words to give us comfort when our careers seem stuck at – gulp – the bottom:
by Brian J. Lucas and Loran Nordgren
What determines whether the ideas we generate are truly creative? Recent research of ours finds that one common factor often gets in the way: we tend to undervalue the benefits of persistence.
In a series of experiments we observed that people consistently underestimated the number of ideas they could generate while solving a creative challenge. In one, we brought 24 university students into the laboratory during the week leading up to Thanksgiving and asked them to spend ten minutes coming up with as many ideas of dishes to serve at Thanksgiving dinner as they could. Then we had them predict how many more ideas they could generate if they persisted on the task for an additional ten minutes. After that, they actually persisted for ten minutes.
The Dark Side of Creativity
Creatives and their demons! Inseparable? Essential? A bullshit stereotype? Let’s see:
by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Few psychological traits are as desirable as creativity — the ability to come up with ideas that are both novel and useful. Yet it is also true that creativity has been associated with a wide range of counterproductive, rarely discussed qualities. Being aware of these tendencies is important for anyone trying to better understand their own creativity, or that of other people.
First, research has established a link between creativity and negative moods. You don’t have to be depressed to be creative — and it’s important to note that crippling depression is more destructive than generative — but it is true that there is some empirical backing for the stereotype that artists tend to be depressive or suffer from mood swings. As Nietzsche once noted: “One must have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” On average, people who are very emotionally stable may be too happy to feel the need to create. After all, if the status quo is fine, why change it?
Why You Should Edit Your Writing When You’re Hungover
At last, some practical advice on editing your own work:
by Patrick Allan
You may have heard the old quote “write drunk, edit sober,” but it might actually be better to edit when you’re still hungover.
Knocking back a few beers can be good for your creativity, but you’ll usually pay for it the next morning. While you might feel like you’re dying, Frank Kelly Rich, the Editor of Modern Drunkard Magazine, explains that hangovers might be pretty useful after all: