What is Creativity?

[pdlloyd]

I've been reading The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain

Comments

[heleninwales]

You're right. Unless you use a very loose definition of "value", which it doesn't seem that Dr Flaherty is doing, it would mean whole swathes of activity are no longer to be considered creative. This can't be right.

The course I'm studying at the moment is called "Creative Writing" and yet a lot of what we're doing is just short writing exercises. Yet I think I and the other students would feel we were being creative when we do them.

I think I tend towards a wider definition of creative, namely "producing something that didn't exist before". You can then argue whether the thing created has originality or value, but I don't think you can deny that the person who made it was being creative.

[pdlloyd]

I think I tend towards a wider definition of creative, namely "producing something that didn't exist before". You can then argue whether the thing created has originality or value, but I don't think you can deny that the person who made it was being creative.

I like this, because it separates the product from the act, which feels right to me.

[mmegaera]

I think I tend towards a wider definition of creative, namely "producing something that didn't exist before". You can then argue whether the thing created has originality or value, but I don't think you can deny that the person who made it was being creative.

That makes a great deal of sense. Thanks for saying it.

[mmegaera]

Thanks for the book rec. I've been going through a mental discussion about this and my own work lately.

[pdlloyd]

I suspect that most of us who consciously and deliberately engage in the creative process wind us struggling with these kinds of issues, now and then.

[mmegaera]

True. Anyway, I've got the book on hold at the library. I hope it comes in soon.

[pdlloyd]

I hope you enjoy it. :)