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So what is creativity? Creativity is the ability to come up
with original work.
It is the journey from an idea to a final work, it is not one act, but a process.
The process moves from producing a germ of an idea to fleshing it out to outlining it to
writing various drafts of it to finally getting it out there.
Along the way, you'll work and wait and struggle. Everything will flow for a bit, and then
you'll wait again and you'll work some more. And then ideas will come, and later, they won't come.
It sounds haphazzard and chaotic. It is. But it also has discipline and predictability and clarity. As you move through
the process, you'll encounter some stages a number of times. It's not a neat, linear flow - the process circles around, repeating
each step a number of times.
Useful Sources of Ideas
Ideas are everywhere. Some of them come naturally but it's worth knowing where to look for that extra piece of inspiration.
Newspapers - especially the news-in-brief columns
Magazines - especially letters to the editor or agony aunts
Other people's conversations - eavesdrop shamelessly
Other stories - remember, there's no copyright on an idea, just the finished product. That said, don't go 'borrowing'
characters or large wads of print from other people's work.
Jokes - most
of them are mini stories in themselves
Making the Most of an Idea
Once something catches your fancy, interrogate it. For example, if you see a young girl running for the bus in the
rain, ask yourself plenty of why's. Why is she running, why is she catching a bus, why does she look sad/ angry/ happy, why
doesn't she have an umbrella, why is she carrying a suitcase, why is she alone? Then you can go on to ask yourself; Who is
she? Where is she from and where is she going? What is she planning
to do once she gets there?Approach the idea from all perspectives and let your imagination run riot with the what if's...
What makes a good story?
Literature
gives order to human experience.
Literature
explores cultural values.
Literature
demands an emotional response from the reader.
Like a great journey,
literature can show you things you have never seen before and will never forget.
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