Creative + Writer: Musings on Creativity, Writing, and the 21st Century Writer’s Life
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About this ebook
What’s the difference between imagination and creativity? Are artists creative, or are they just troublemakers? Are you sabotaging your own creativity? Is blogging worthy of your creative talent?
Follow Jack Preston King as he takes an informative and deeply personal dive into these questions and more. Discover the natural cycle of inspiration (when you fight it, you lose); learn the proper care and feeding of your muse; take your brain to the next level of creativity; explore the perils of pseudonyms, why people buy books, the dangers of blogging, and one joyous solution to the Art VS Money dilemma that plagues most successful creatives.
Not just for writers, Creative + Writer is a book of insight and inspiration for every artist who longs to more successfully court their personal, creative muse.
Jack Preston King
Jack Preston King is the author of "In Defense of Magical Thinking: Essays in Defiance of Conformity to Reason" and other books for rebels against the spiritual, creative, and cultural status quo. He writes unruly poems, short stories and novels, too. Visit him on the web at jackprestonking.com. He's also on Twitter, Medium and Facebook.
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Creative + Writer - Jack Preston King
Creative + Writer
Musings on Creativity, Writing, and the 21st Century Writer’s Life
Copyright © 2019 by Jack Preston King
Published by New Paradigm Press
All Rights Reserved
License Notes:
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Brief quotes from books and websites used throughout this book are reproduced under Fair Use guidelines of US Copyright law. Questions or concerns? Email the author at jackprestonking@gmail.com.
Cover Art via Pixabay.com/CC0 License.
Cover design by Jack Preston King
Contents
CREATIVE:
The Difference Between Imagination and Creativity
We’re born with imagination. Creativity is learned.
Are You Creative? Or a Troublemaker?
To stay creative, refuse to choose
To Nurture Creativity – and Your Life – Plant Your Grove
Judge a tree by its fruit,
right? Wrong.
Stop Sabotaging Your Creativity
Your muse has a natural cycle. When you fight it, you lose.
To Boost Your Creativity, Embrace Your Inner Scientist
What your brain needs to reach the next level
WRITER:
Writers Beware! AI Wants Your Job!
Rise of the robot authors
Wake Up Indie Authors! Free EBook Promotions are Killing Us!
Fellow Indie author, has this happened to you?
Build Better Poems
Four essential tools for your poet’s toolbox
What’s in a (Pseudo) Name?
The weirdest writer dilemma ever. Bet you haven’t heard this one before.
I Am Not a Writer
I’m a guy who writes. That’s not the same thing. Not by a longshot.
Talent is Treasure (and Blogging is a Sweatshop)
How writing success on Medium.com almost cost me my muse
Dance Your Crazy Joy in Front of the World
And never mistake the gravy for the potatoes.
Bibliography
Connect with Jack Preston King
CREATIVE
The Difference Between Imagination and Creativity
We’re born with imagination. Creativity is learned.
Imagining Stories VS Telling Stories
I remember the exact moment I discovered that imagination was a thing I could do, consciously, and not just something that happens. I was six or seven years old. Like all kids, I’d moved naturally in and out of a state of imaginative play since birth, but this moment was different.
I’d just watched my favorite TV show, a rerun of the old Adam West live action Batman series from the ‘60s. Bam! Pow! As the end music swelled I was practically hyperventilating with superpowered kid excitement. I closed my eyes, and as clearly as if he was standing in front of me, I could see Batman.
I knew I wasn’t seeing him with my physical eyes because they were closed. But I could still see him. I willed him to throw a punch, and he did. I called Cesar Romero’s pink-suited Joker onto the scene, and Kapow! Batman’s gloved fist sent him flying.
I was thrilled. It was magic. This was a step beyond watching TV or even reading books. I was in control. I had the power to imagine anything I wanted, any time I wanted – on purpose!
A few years later, when I was ten, I announced to my family that I wanted to be a writer. My mother bought me a vintage Underwood manual typewriter at a yard sale, and with all the pomp I could muster I set it up in my room and scooted my chair in behind it. I imagined myself writing, just as I’d imagined Batman decking the Joker. I willed my fingers to fly confidently over the keys, envisioned Mom’s pride as she shared my first novel with her friends. I’d been building a story in my imagination for weeks about an astronaut whose space capsule gets knocked off course by a meteor. He wakes up aboard an alien spaceship and has a telepathic conversation with the physically terrifying but wise and kind Saturnian who rescued him. I could see it so clearly. All I had to do now was channel my story into the typewriter…
Nothing. No words would come. I could so vividly imagine the story, but I had no idea how to create it.
What Is Creativity?
In The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius, Nancy C. Andreasen identifies three factors that must be