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Get Started In Creative Writing: When nothing is working, try something outrageous

by Stephen May

John Cleese once said, ‘High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought.’ In other words creativity is about play. It is about mischief. It is about surprises.

As a writer you are bound to feel blocked sometimes, and one way to free yourself up is to do something drastic. Kill off a main character. Strike out every other line. If it’s a third-person narrative, try it in the first person, or even the second person. If it’s in the past tense, put it in the present. Or vice versa. Read a poem, look at a picture, phone a friend and then take something from that and try and use it as the solution to your problem.

All writing is rewriting, and the process of drafting, changing and playing with your text is the fun part of the job. Writing is not meant to be a slog, it’s meant to be a joy, and anything you can use to keep yourself fresh and interested will benefit your work. Your outrageous ideas may not turn out to be the answer, but they might help you get there sooner and in a better humour than staring at the paper or the screen, trying to squeeze new solutions from the same old ingredients.


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Get Started In Creative Writing: Teach Yourself

Get Started In Creative Writing: Teach Yourself
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