Is Deliberate Creativity better than Inspiration?

Inspiration is exciting and marvelous. I’ve had many a morning walk end in ideas so inspired I was sure to be the next Elizabeth Strout, or Anne Tyler, Don DeLillo, Fannie Flagg or for that matter, Rachel Bloom or Tina Fey. (Just a few of my favorite writers. And I have to now add: Martin McDonaugh, writer of the brilliant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and update! Liz Holdman writer and showrunner for Dead to Me)

Inspiration is like a song coming on. Unsolicited, unstoppable. It can lead us directly into “flow” a state of working without awareness of time, hunger or other worldly distractions. Flow is to your brain as sex is to your body. Awesome. And we want it. More of it. (There’s probably a Woody Allen joke here…)

But inspiration is not the only road to flow. Deliberate Creativity can be a steady, well-worn path in your life that leads you to flow, over and over again.

If inspiration is like a mad love affair, Deliberate Creativity is like marriage.

Do you want to wait for the bolt of lightening? Or get it on the regular? Guess what? Deliberate Creativity does not expect fidelity. When that bolt of brilliance strikes, go for it, tiger. You can have both.

Deliberate Creativity is applying the observed Creative Process to your life and writing. It is model, map and language that can help you understand how your creative brain works – and sometimes doesn’t. When you’re stuck, get back on track by using the right tool for the phase.

I have my Masters in Science in this process of Deliberate Creativity – the experimentation and research that brought us to this understanding and the tools and methods that can help anyone improve their creativity and smooth out their process. I’ve adapted the information and tools specifically to help writers.