Creativity

A Writer’s View: System Thinking

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

This Tweet got me thinking:

Neat idea for a creative person, right?  Tracking their creative stages?  It’s a good example of a creative person finding a way to work with their inspiration and habits.  It’s a system.

Good creatives, successful creatives, have systems.  You can hear about the Snowflake Method, or the “X Habits of Whatever,” or endless ideas of how to write novels, or best ways to do art.  You doubtlessly have your own way of organizing your creativity – even if you’re not aware of it.  For all our raging imaginations, it seems we creative people often make ways to organize that fire that burns inside of us.

There are several reasons we do this – reasons we’re not always aware of, but by bringing it into awareness I hope it helps you make your own.

We organize our creativity to ensure things get done.  Being creative is nice, but if there’s no end result, there’s little point unless you’re doing something freeform.

We organize our creativity to provide focus.  So we make sure we don’t loose track, so we can bring projects to completion, so we don’t start anything new.

We organize our creativity to speed time to completion.  We get structure and organization, milestones and ways to track progress – so that creative dream sees the light of day.

We organize our creativity to embody our principles.  We take ideas of what matters, our mad methods, our special tricks and make them formal so we can use them that much easier.

Finally, an an oft missed benefit, is that by organizing our creativity we can find ways to improve.  When you build a system of ideas, of tracking, of documenting you can use that to find new ways to do better.  That organization of imagination can inspire you to think up new ways to get better.

So, go on, take a look at your creativity.  What systems and methods do you have?  What could you build?  How can you provide enough structure to your dreaming to make you dream better?

 

(Remember I do all sorts of books on creativity to help you out!)

– Steve

It’s Out – Way With Worlds Book 2!

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

It’s here!  The second book in the Way With Worlds series – in both Print and Kindle! Go get it now!

To celebrate, here’s what I’m doing this weekend!

So now you’ve got two books on worldbuilding to help you out.  Spread the word!

But there’s more coming!  I’m working on a series of smaller, more focused, more personal worldbuilding books – small, 99-cent ebooks to help you focus on specific subjects in more of a coaching manner.  Those will start coming out this summer, so stay tuned!

 

Meanwhile, keep writing, keep gaming, and keep creating new worlds!

– Steve

Creativity And Rebellion

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

A simple work of fiction with a different hero or heroine can inspire legions of people to realize they can change the world.  A few dull economic statistics, presented in a new format, can reveal powerful truths and shake a business’. An eloquent speech creates an uprising that brings down a dictator. Creativity breaks us out of traps of ruts and changes the world; Creativity is rebellion.

All creativity is rebellion.  Creativity challenges and makes things anew – it is different, if only minutely, from what is known, a rebellion against what is.  Because creativity is change from the known, that is why it has such an impact.  It’s why we are enthralled by some new thing; creativity lets you see the world differently, experience possibilities that are new, think that which you never thought.

Every creative act is a bit of rebellion – perhaps a friendly one – but a rebellion nonetheless.  The power of creativity is not just in its differences, however, but because creativity is about connection.

Creativity is connection.  Even if it shocks or is unexpected, creativity relies on known ideas for context and meaning, much as a book relies on known words, or a tale shocks as it is different than familiar ones.  Creativity is a change grounded in known reality, with other concepts and ideas as signposts and guides to its meaning.

This is why Creativity shocks and delights – it is new yet is relatable.  The newness becomes part of the familiar.

Creativity builds new connections.  The creative is the idea seen in a new light, the religion reformed, a mirror-image of an old story.  It is accessible, but because it lets one see things differently, it creates whole new ways to understand the world.  New connections between ideas, new associations among people, new feelings occur when we’re exposed to the creative.

Creativity draws people deeper into the world with what it shows us. These new connections can make a new, creative idea even more true than past truths.  Because it connects to the known, yet looks at things differently, it creates a powerful web of understanding.  Truth is based on how ideas align together, and a creative thought or work can align powerfully, moreso than old, worn-out, smaller truths.

Creativity lasts. Because it is so connected yet new, creativity creates powerful changes, and these changes echo throughout time. The most powerful creative acts start with the known, introduce the new, and provide seed and soil for even greater connections and associations.

A rebel is a truly creative person, and rightly feared as the dictator and despot never know what they may do or where they’re coming from.  For all they know, the creative person has planted seeds unseen, maybe in the heads of those that hate them and would control them.  For all they know people are thinking in new ways, ways they can’t control.

To keep creating is to keep rebelling.

– Steve