How Altruism Enhances Creativity

From Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness

“Insight does not always come to order, and there will certainly be no renaissance if you are merely trying to ‘get' something for yourself. As soon as I stopped trying to exploit my literary skills to advance my career or enhance my reputation, I found that I was opening myself to the text, could lose myself in the beauty of the words and in the wisdom of the writer. It was a kind of ekstasis…a going beyond the self.”

I ran across the quote in Gaining: The Truth about Life after Eating Disorders by Aimee Liu.


It dovetails with the philosophy of a book I co-wrote a few years ago with Allan Luks: The Healing Power of Doing Good.


I never thought until now about how that principle of expanding my focus beyond myself could lead to better reading and writing, as well as better physical and mental health.

Writing simply to say what needs to be said can lift the heavy restrictions of self-consciousness.

What's Your Book ABOUT?

From Design Your Writing Life, which credits Copyblogger:


"It's not uncommon for writers to get 5, 10, 20,000 words down the road and bump up against the thought, "What in the heck am I writing about?" If this is where you find yourself now, here are six starting points for doing the back cover writing exercise:


Title your book. Go ahead, just make one up.


Write a headline. This should be a grabber, and a great place to start is to pose a question, the million dollar question.


Paragraph One: Answer the question. Provide a thumbnail of the plot through the eyes of your main characters, and their core conflicts. What are they up against? What's in their way?


Paragraph Two: Describe the outer world. Give us some context. Create the bigger world your characters live in--time, place, sensibility.


Write in the language and feel of your novel. Think of yourself as an actor trying on a costume. As a writer, your costume is the nature and feel of the language.


Write a closing sentence. This sentence can allude to the resolution of the book. Because this is an exercise and not the actual back cover copy, don't worry about giving away the store."

Put Your Mug Where Your Mouth Is

If you'd like the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq, here's a step you can take to lobby Congress for this. Send a picture of yourself with some symbol showing your support of ending the war to Americans for Exit. America's political leaders will soon see the many and various faces of those of us who want peace.