Back-of-the-Book Indexer
Ideas and resources for understanding and increasing creativity
“Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Think of the last time you were fully engaged with your writing. You were working to meet the challenge at hand, but you didn’t feel as though you were working. Rather, you were playing intensely. Your skills were perfectly matched to what was expected …
Do you avoid having a daily routine for fear that it will stifle your creativity? As someone who enjoys—almost craves—flexibility, I used to avoid routine, well, routinely. Then I discovered the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who argues that people who use their creativity successfully often have strict, daily routines that free their minds to do …
Today I begin teaching one of my favorite courses: Creative Thinking. What does it mean to be creative? That might seem like a simple question, but it’s one worth asking because the answer may be more complex than we first realize. Is it just coloring outside the lines (or coloring prettily inside the lines)? Is …
“[Writing] is the place where the things that make you weird, the things about yourself that you know are different and even difficult, count the most.” ~ Linda LaPlante, The Making of a Story Before we dive into weirdness, I must say how blown away I am by the response to yesterday’s post after it …
“[N]otice what you noticed. No, go further: tell yourself the audacious thing that because you noticed, it matters.” ~ Linda LaPlante The conversation occurred during those minutes before class when students wait with varying degrees of patience for the teacher—in this case, me—to begin. “I think parts of my brain are missing.” This came from …