The Power of Process: What Young Mozart Teaches Us About the Secret of Cultivating Genius by Maria Popova On the “powerful blend of instruction, encouragement, and constant practice.” “The trick to creativity … is to identify your own peculiar talent and then to settle down to work with it for a good long time,” observed Denise Shekerjian in reflecting on her insightful interviews with MacArthur “genius” grantees. “Success is the product of the severest kind of mental and physical application,” attested Thomas Edison. “It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider … who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree,” Alexander Graham Bell proclaimed. And yet our culture continues to perpetuate the notion that genius is a “God”-given blessing. Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold Mozart (public domain) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [was] alleged to be an instant master performer at age three and a brilliant composer at age five. Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr
The Daily Rituals Of Famous Writers Mornings: you groggily emerge from your bleary-eyed state, fumbling for the snooze button while steering well clear of that drool patch on the pillow. Then after downing your first coffee of the day, you proceed to type the final chapter to one of the best-selling novels ever written. Okay, so perhaps you play Angry Birds instead. But whatever your reason for not penning a masterpiece, you can be sure that your own daily habits don't stray too far from those used by famous authors - past and present - to trigger their creative spark. For new book Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, And Get To Work, New York-based author Mason Curry has listed 161 famous names and the 161 very different ways they approached their work. So take a look at the 10 literary examples we've exclusively taken from the new book, below, and marvel at how some of your finest books were forged... Daily Rituals is published by Picador and out on 11th September; RRP £8.99 Jane Austen Victor Hugo
Secrets of the Creative Brain As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies creativity, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many gifted and high-profile subjects over the years, but Kurt Vonnegut—dear, funny, eccentric, lovable, tormented Kurt Vonnegut—will always be one of my favorites. Kurt was a faculty member at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the 1960s, and participated in the first big study I did as a member of the university’s psychiatry department. I was examining the anecdotal link between creativity and mental illness, and Kurt was an excellent case study. He was intermittently depressed, but that was only the beginning. His mother had suffered from depression and committed suicide on Mother’s Day, when Kurt was 21 and home on military leave during World War II. His son, Mark, was originally diagnosed with schizophrenia but may actually have bipolar disorder. While mental illness clearly runs in the Vonnegut family, so, I found, does creativity. “Doing good science is … like having good sex.
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer.
10 Paradoxical Traits Of Creative People Editor's Note: This is one of the most-read leadership articles of 2013. Click here to see the full list. I frequently find myself thinking about whether I am an artist or an entrepreneur. I am simply trying my best to create my own unique path. It is safe to say that more and more entrepreneurs are artists, and artists of all kinds are entrepreneurs. And the trend is only on the rise as all things (art, science, technology, business, culture, spirituality) are increasingly converging. Creativity is the common theme that drives both entrepreneurs and artists alike. Over this past Labor Day weekend, I found myself reading excerpts from distinguished professor of psychology and management Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s (pronounced me-HIGH chick-sent-me-HIGH-ee) seminal book Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People (HarperCollins, 1996). He writes: Mihaly describes ten traits often contradictory in nature, that are frequently present in creative people. 1. 2. 3. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10.
8 Signs That You Were Meant to Be a Writer Are you meant to be a writer? Do you ever wonder if you were truly meant to be a writer? Deep down you sense that it might just be so. But then doubt creeps in, and you just aren’t sure. You look at your writing. A great writer would be further along by now, right? Wrong. If you’re reading this, chances are you were meant to be a writer. Here are 8 signs that you were meant to be a word wizard. 1. You secretly dream about writing. And if you already write, you dream about doing something bigger, like writing a novel, or scoring that big freelancing client. You dream about more, bigger, better. Deep inside you know you can do it, but that pesky little voice stops you. 2. Yes, doubt is a sign that you were meant to be a writer. If you didn’t have anything to say, you wouldn’t even think about writing, but you do have something to say, and you know it. But doubt stops you. However, doubt is just a thought popping up. Why keep moving forward? Because you were meant to be a writer. 3. Embrace this. 4. 5.
Praise versus Encouragement Most of us believe that we need to praise our children more. However, there is some controversy regarding this point. If we always reward a child with praise after a task is completed, then the child comes to expect it. However, if praise is not forthcoming, then its absence may be interpreted by the child as failure. According to Naomi Aldort, "Children who are subjected to endless commentary, acknowledgment, and praise eventually learn to do things not for their own sake, but to please others." But the avoidance of all praise is not a solution either. One of the main differences between praise and encouragement is that praise often comes paired with a judgment or evaluation, such as "best" or "highest" in these examples. According to Bolton (1979, pg 181): Evaluative praise is the expression of favorable judgment about another person or his behaviors: "Eric, you are such a good boy." According to Ginott (1965): According to Taylor (1979): "Mr. "Bravo! "Splendid! Sam: It's scary. Mr. Mr.
5 Ways to Develop a Book Idea Having an idea and developing that idea into a marketable, publishable book are two different things. I learned this early in the process when trying to decide what kind of book I wanted to write. To win one of the five autographed copies of OH BOY, YOU’RE HAVING A GIRL, simply leave a comment on this post or any of the posts related to the “How I Got OH BOY Published” series. I will pick five random winners throughout the month of June. (Winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. For an additional chance to win, click this CLICK TO TWEET button and post to Twitter. Like many writers, I’d always dreamed of writing a book—a super power all of us have. So I sat down and forced myself to develop an idea that I could turn into a book. 1. Like most writers, I come up with ideas for books daily. 2. Every genre and market already has many books associated with it. 3. Having a good idea is only half the battle. 4. How many chapters should the book have? 5.