Talk Nice to Yourself

Being yelled at can hurt your creativity.

University of Florida researchers did some workplace observation and concluded that bosses who are verbally abusive are doing harm rather than good. Both problem-solving skills and imagination take a hit when voices are raised.

The underlying principle appears to be: when you're the target of a harangue, that's all you're thinking about. And that's true even when the rudeness is fairly mild.

This would seem a no-brainer, but a lot of yelling and threatening does occur. And it's generally because somebody wants something done or done better. I think most of us could say that it doesn't work. I have an idea that it's also meant to be punitive; but whatever satisfaction might be gained by the name-caller/accuser is surely no compensation for what's lost in productivity.

I think this may also be true when we're verbally abusing ourselves. So cut out the self-berating and free your imagination.

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Building Insights. Breaking Boundaries

Discovered: another good source on creativity research books. A publisher called Elsevier has as its motto: "Building Insights. Breaking Boundaries."

The list of titles is long and diverse. The International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent. How Designers Think. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (That's one I wrestle with a lot: am I better at doing the work because I love it and it needs doing? or do I need to promise myself a Tootsie Roll Pop at the end of a new page? Right now I'm running on love, but there's a big glass candy jar not far from my desk.)

This collection of books also recognizes the creativity involved in a wide range of activities. Not only are there books on advertising but one called The Art and Soul of Midwifery.

In my view, writing fiction is midwifery. It's just helping the story to emerge.




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A Creativity House, and Rollerblading

Here's an interesting press in the UK that specializes in books on creativity: Ablex Publishing.

Some sample titles: The Person behind the Mask: Guide to Performing Arts Psychology and Improvised Dialogues: Emergence and Creativity in Conversation.

I find the idea of creativity and emergence in conversation appealing in itself. Although I can't say that I like the idea of self-conscious conversation.

I think it's also true of writing and, no doubt, any art that both free inventiveness and lack of self-consciousness are needed.

I learned this in a visceral way once while rollerblading. Every time I had a thought about how well or badly I was doing, or how I looked, then I stumbled. Otherwise, smooth sailing.

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Creativity Research

"...Interest in creativity has never been greater, with a special division within the American Psychological Association devoted to the empirical study of the arts, four different journals centered around the study of creativity, and several major annual awards given out to outstanding creativity researchers."

This nice summary of a growing field comes from a description of the ebook Creativity Across Domains: Faces of the Muse.

Increasingly, I'll be reporting here on particular bits of creativity research, and how we might apply them.



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The Fishbowl of Creativity

A study at Brandeis led by Whitney Ruscio observed 150 students working on art projects and concluded:

creative success typically comes from real interest, curiousity, and pleasure in the activity.

Working simply to complete an assignment more often results in quantity over quality.

Negative self-doubting thoughts inhibit the process.

Some useful predictors of a good outcome include attention to some aspects of the project, such as planning; the sense of playfulness in the artist's approach; moments of excited surprise; and changes in direction of thinking.

These findings are summarized in a review at www.creativeintensive.org.

The conclusions are certainly a strong argument--if one were actually needed--to stick with the sometimes weird projects that draw our passion, even if others try to discourage us.

Artist Types

A paper on measuring creativity by researchers at Arizona State cites Understanding Those Who Create by Jane Piirto in describing different personality traits predominating in different kinds of art. I'd never before seen a distinction made by field.

"Artists tend to be more impulsive and spontaneous than other creative people; writers tend to be more nonconforming than other types; architects tend to be less flexible than others; musicians are more introverted than others; and inventors and creative engineers tend to be more well adjusted on the whole than other types."

Agree? Disagree? Resist the whole notion of predominant types? What do you think?