Where does your creativity come from?

[RGame]

Is anyone else like me? My mother encouraged me to read (as most parents do), but my parents never actually wrote anything, and I don't think my father has ever even read a book. Same thing with one of my brothers. I certainly didn't inherit my desire to write, but it was there fairly early, off and on, starting around age eight or so. Is this the experience with most other people here or do you look at some family member and think you get your writing instinct from him or her?

[MacAllister]

little maggots live in my brain and whisper to me all the time.

[Mistook]

By the time I was old enough to have any idea what was going on around me, my older brother Brian was already very comitted to the dream of becoming a cartoonist for Marvel Comics. He drew his own comics, and made up his own superheroes, and had a whole circle of friends who were either in awe of his skills, or were competing with him to make better comics.

By the time I could hold a crayon and draw a crude spider man, the onus was upon me to invent my own characters and story lines.

More or less, I was raised in this very heady, competitive, creative environment. The neighborhood bullies for me were the older kids who'd come over and mercilessly criticize my drawings, my characters, my ideas. This carried on into the teen years when we were all striving to be rock stars. Writing was just another art-form I picked up along the way.

[Coco82]

I've always been creative. I've wrote stories since I was in middle school. I'm in college now and just working on refining my craft now.

[Zane Curtis]

I'll give you the short answer. My creativity comes from throwing disparate ideas together and seeing what progeny comes of their unnatural union. Just call me Dr Frankenstein.

:Lecture:

[Birol]

The voices. I would be ever so happy if they would just let me sleep.

[Rose]

I was a timid, bookish kid who read several books a week and won spelling bees. I filled dozens of sketch pads with drawings (mostly portraits) and, while studying in London, wrote multipage letters and decorated the envelopes with colored-pencil illustrations inspired by the contents of the letter.

At least until college, everyone considered me a strange aberration. I grew up in a agricultural community of 1500 people, where working the land and drinking corn whiskey constituted a good time.

My mother never went to college, but reads a book or so a day and completes New York Times crossword puzzles at the speed of light. My dad dropped out of high school, but eventually earned an AA and became a police chief. I got a master's degree in art history (well, critical art theory), my sister went to law school.

My family always encouraged my "artistic" interests. Nowadays, they always ask when I'm going to get a real job.

Rose

[Cardboard Tube Knight]

I think that my creativity comes from just being who I am, I kind of just make up things to keep myself occupied. Then one day I just up and decided that I had a good idea for a story. I planned it out as I went, it was fan fiction. But only a little while later I started doing original stuff.

[Compton]

Boredom

Boredom with society, work, education, the monotony of everything... It's refreshing to consider what could or couldn't be instead of what is.

[TashaGoddard]

I grew up in a house full of books. Almost every room in the house had about 10 book shelves, overflowing with books. We were all members of the local library and I would use both my parents' library tickets so that I could take about 12 books a week, instead of the 4 that I was supposed to be limited to. I started reading at the age of 3 and most nights would fall asleep under a pile of books - or, in later years, with a single book lying open on my face.

While neither of my parents were writers, they were both very artistic and creative. My father has a fine art degree and, although my mother didn't get a degree, she also took some classes at art college (where she met my father). They were both incredibly encouraging of any creativity, although they also made sure to provide me with practical skills as well. I learnt to touch-type at the age of seven, using a very clunky old typewriter; a skill which I have long been grateful for. My first computer was a ZX-81, at the age of eight, with which I created strange artistic programs and tried very hard to simulate AI (which basically involved my programming a bunch of rather banal responses to inputs such as 'Hello' and 'What's your name?', but which most of the time had to respond 'I'm sorry. I don't understand.').

I had an incredibly rich fantasy world, which I shared with my best friend. I even went as far as to invent a language for the people of this world (not a particularly interesting language, but it had grammar rules and stuff like that).

I always believed that my creativity was down to my upbringing and perhaps a bit of genetics. However, my husband had a very different (normal?) upbringing and has much more creativity (and talent, I believe) than I do. So, really, who knows where it comes from? I think that perhaps we all have it in us, it's just some of us use it and some don't.

[triceretops]

My creative sense was first stimulated by reading some very fantastic novels and short stories by equally fantastic authors. I admired their communication skill in having all the elements of good writing converge and keep me entertained. Irony and humor are big on my list. I look for stylists, those who have a different way with words, but nothing too remote that it reads highbrow. I wish to be able to write like these authors and capture eager readers like they did with me. I guess I need to "impress" just a little bit--to make up for some slight feelings of inadaquacies (sp?)

Triceratops

[msQTpi]

While my mother never read, my grandmother has a love of books that was passed on to me at an early age. I had a very rocky relationship with my step father and was only able to get a positive remark from him when I wrote him letters, while he was out to sea. I wrote to him in a humorous tone that allowed me to make fun of him, without him understanding it for what it truly was. My mother showed one of the letters to my grandmother who remarked that I wrote just like Erma Bombeck. I picked up one of Erma's books and eventually devoured everything she wrote. I was a very shy child and teenager and preferred to blend into the background, except when I was receiving praise in my English class for my writing. When I write I become someone else. I am no longer afraid to show my emotion or make a fool of myself. I only want to be heard and understood. The freedom I feel is like flying.

I understand that my grandfather was a writer. He had several articles published, but didn't consider himself to be a professional writer.

I think my creativity comes from a combination of an inborn ability, the need to express myself in a safe manner and a true hunger for acceptance.

-----------------------

or maybe it's just that I like my crayons

[Moondancer]

Is anyone else like me? My mother encouraged me to read (as most parents do), but my parents never actually wrote anything, and I don't think my father has ever even read a book. Same thing with one of my brothers. I certainly didn't inherit my desire to write, but it was there fairly early, off and on, starting around age eight or so. Is this the experience with most other people here or do you look at some family member and think you get your writing instinct from him or her?

You might be surprised how creativity manifests itself in your parents. My father is a musician. He could also have been an architect had he finished school and gone to college. He finished the 9th grade. My mother could have designed for Vogue or been a reknowned chef. My grandmother was a quilter. She could make some fantastic quilts which usually sold for hundreds of dollars each.

I'm really a shy person so any small bit of creativity I have comes through less public public pursuits. I paint a bit, work with computer graphics, and write. Once done, I don't have to show anything to anybody unless I want to. As a very young child, I was also mischief prone and liked to tinker with things... well, this continued until I learned that some things I couldn't fix back and managed some self control over of always wanting to take things apart... My mother, in self and household defense, taught me how to read and write by age 3. It did help to some extent... for a few hours a days, she got some peace. I was reading Greek Mythology and Shakespeare by age 7. A love of books and writing were ingrained from a very early age. I grew up in a very isolated rural community. No one in my family really encouraged or valued creativity. It was just there as something to pass time if there was time left over from the day's chores... There was very little television although we had one... some days we had reception; some days we didn't.

So, where does creativity come from? From places where you least expect it because it is an underated, undervalued talent.

[maestrowork]

Shhhh... that's my secret. The Mothership won't like it if I tell.

Hush now.

[aka eraser]

I think my creativity stems from the fact that I've always had a slightly askew view of things.

[SRHowen]

Loathing of cleaning up my own brain after my head explodes because I didn't tell the story that the voices want me to.

Seriously: The stories are in my head and have been all my life. I used to pain and draw, I used to play keyboard and violin. I used to do all sorts of arts and crafts stuff--from my own designs. Now, I put most of it into my writing.

My dad did bead work, as a child I didn't realize how wonderful his work was. My mom did needle work and knitting. Genetics, I am sure, play a role.

But the main source of why I write, where it comes from, is to honestly--shut the dang characters up!

Shawn

[Azure Skye]

I come from a very musical family but I never had the patience to learn an instrument like my siblings did. So, I wrote. Words are my music.

[johnnycannuk]

'What if...'

These are my two favourite words in the English language. I sorta let them lead me.

Oh and the drugs, they help too. ;)

Mike

[Birol]

You might be surprised how creativity manifests itself in your parents.

This is so true.

There were always books in our house and my brother and I were never told we were too young to read anything. Everyone in the house had the habit of just picking up whatever book someone else had left lying around.

Officially, I'm the only creative type in the family, but last fall I was traveling and my mother came into my house to take care of my cat. When I came home, there was a page and a half letter on the table from my cat (in my mother's handwriting, of course -- I guess he dictated it) letting me know everything that had happened around the house while I was gone. It was one of the funniest things I'd read in a long time. Thinking back, my mother was always writing notes and coming up with scenarios like that.

[JSBulldog89]

I don't know where I got my creativity from. I guess it could be from reading so many books over the past few years. I started reading when I was a small kid, and my mother encouraged me to do so. She bought me books all the time, and now she can get them at reduced prices because she works at a HarperCollins book factory. :D Yeah, I think I get my creativity from reading other books. My parents are in no way creative.

[Elizabeth]

I've just always loved stories, really. I think this whole writing thing is just one big addiction to narrative.

Bring it on...

[JohnLynch]

Where my creativity comes from and what influence my family has had are two different things ;)

My creativity comes from my early childhood and asking one simple question "what next?" I had Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory read to me, and I said "that's good, what happened after that?" I couldn't find out (I didn't realise there was a sequel until later ;)) so I began a sequel I never finished. But I wrote 1 page with a picture and intended to finish it. I discovered that books often don't cover "What next?" so I began to daydream my own situations, but I didn't limit myself to books I'd read, I made up my own, just like the stories I read and tv shows I watched.

Sometimes I'd try to put it to paper, other times I'd act it out, other times I'd just think it up, entertain myself before forgetting it.

Now I seive everything I read and ask "could this be used for a story idea? Could this be used in an existing idea?" One example is I wanted to write a sci-fi/mystery set on a space-station orbiting Jupiter. But I couldn't think of a plot, only that I wanted to set it there. Possibly involving a son. Eventually I remembered about Europa and Io. Europa could be used to get water while Io could be harnessed to get thermal energy or something like that (still need to read a bit more). Eventually I remembered there's an asteroid belt in our solar system, so Jupiter station could be a pit-stop for miners working in the belt. I read this article today (http://www.livescience.com/othernews/050223_arctic_life.html) from slashdot (which I visit daily). I saw a mention of Europa possibly having the life in it. I did a yahoo search while wikipedia was loading (it was running extremely slow) and saw an article on why Europa is the most likely place to have life outside of Earth. I saw Callisto (another Jupiter moon) has a liquid salt sea, but I saw that it's unlikely to have life. I read a wikipedia article and it mentioned something was crashed into Jupiter because there was fear as it's orbit decayed it would crash into Europa, so we'd never know if life on Europa was from Earth. And then I thought "hang on, what if my story idea has Jupiter station getting water from Callisto, and have Europa be preserved?" Later I was thinking in an imaginary conversation how I don't consider myself an Australian (completely unrelated to my story), I considered myself an Earthling. Then I thought well if we ever live outside such as on Mars I'd have to consider myself a citizen of Sol. I laughed as I realised that sounded like some crazy cult. I then thought back to my story idea and went "hey! What if there is such a terrorist organization/cult that wants to gain access to Europa, so it crashes Jupiter station into Europa, thus contaminating it? The cult's motivation would be to scour for life that may be a threat to Earth and neutralise it."

So for an idea that I've got in my head, it started out as "Something involving Jupiter station" to several weeks later an entire plot involving politics, extra-terrestial life and family relationships. And I'm working on a completely different short story before I even begin it (I also have many other ideas ;)).

The benefit to putting everything through my mental seive, is I'm finding a lot of information that justifies what I've decided for stories. For instance I wanted to have mars begun to be colonised, but have some of the colonists suffer from mutations. I decided why that was the case wasn't important, that isn't a focus of the story. I read today that Mars doesn't have a magentic-sphere (or something like that) in it's atmosphere, making Mars very prone to solar radiation. I fit it into my story, that's what causes the mutations. Is it important to the reader? No. Is it important to me? Yes, it makes the story more beleivable for me.

As for family influences, I could say my Dad wrote short stories for us kids that he read to us. But I believe creativity is a non-physical attribute and therefore isn't passed down from parent to child. I could say my Dad's a naturally great drawer, but I'm a pathetic one. I also am not naturally a writer, I work at my stories ;) I'm good at creating ideas, putting it to paper in an enjoyable format takes work for me though.

No my parents encouraged it by reading a Roald Dahl book to me when I was 8 (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). I loved it and having more of his books read to me. My parents got sick of it so I began reading books myself. My Dad recommended other authors to me, and I continued to expand from fantasy eventually to sci-fi. I enjoyed it a lot, it's only natural for me to want to create my own ;)

[BlueTexas]

I was an only child, and we moved from state to state every 3 years or so. I spent a lot of time alone in my own head, and eventually, it had to come out somewhere. I read a lot a child. Going to seven different schools gives you a lot of character bits to distort into fiction. And I have warped family members. That helps. But don't tell them that!

[Shiny_Penguin]

I've often wondered this. I had a horrible time learning to read as a child. I was always in the lowest reading book and struggling to do that. Then in 9th grade I did a creative writing assignment. When the teacher handed it back she said, "You like to write don't you?" I thought about it and I did. I was teased mercilessly by my brother for writing. He would secretly read my stuff then tease me about it.

I do wonder where it came from. My parent don't really read. As far as I know my siblings don't read often. My brother is a commercial artist, so there must be that gene somewhere. My dad's family has a lot of "forced" musicians (meaning my grandfather made them all take lessons). I know that's where I get the musical ability from. I've always picked up different instruments very easily. ANd I have a cousin who is a newpaper reporter. He's the favorite, so I know anything I manage to get published will never be as "good" as his work.

[Spookster]

I've noticed that the majority of writers here didn't grow up in a house full of bookworms. My mom is a casual reader and I can't recall my dad ever reading anything but the local newspaper. Neither of my sisters are heavy readers either. So, where does it come from?

I don't feel that avid reading/writing is learned as much as it's a passion. True, all writers had to learn the basic tools of the craft and we have to continue education. But, writers are driven to create "the perfect story". The drive stems from passion, which cannot be learned.

[tjwriter]

My mother and father both read quite a great bit, and my mother worked for some time as a journalist (she went to college for it). Reading from a very early age, I promptly read everything I could get my hands on. I remember reading everything the library had on horses in the children's section. I even remember trying to read Stephen King somewhere between 8-10.

At lunch, I would take a book to read after I finished eating, and perfected the art of walking with a book stuck to my nose. I always enjoyed writing assignments in school and even have some of the stories I started on when I was young.

The creativity was always there. My imagination runs wild constantly, and my husband laughs at all the wild things I come up with. Every minute of it is a blessing to me.

[Galoot]

Mom was crafty (in both senses of the word) and read a lot of fiction. Her books were always available to me. Dad was no more creative than a root vegetable, but he loved learning and had a huge collection of reference books which were also available to me. Neither of them actively encouraged or discouraged my creative urges, but through them I had access to the right combination of tools--fiction and reference books---at the right time. Stories followed.

Later...

I spent a few years in commisioned sales. No time to think, but good training for a professional liar... Oops, sorry. Storyteller.
I've mainly worked as a gardener, a carpenter, a trucker, a cabbie and an assemby line drone for too many years to count. Lots of time to think.

I've got decades worth of plot and character stored up. Now I'm working part time and will probably be able to do so for the next few years without starving. I'm looking forward to spending the remaining four extra hours each day getting the stories out.

[black winged fighter]

I was always moving, and being 'the new girl' so often made me take refuge in books. When I began to read fantasy, it was as if a crack opened up in my mind, and all my ideas came spilling out.

My creativity was (and is) encouraged, but I think I would still have discovered writing even if my creative ability had been suppressed.

Oh...A Curiosity:

Most of my writer friends have deep attachments to creating visual art as well as crafting the written word. How many of you draw/have an interest in art?

If you do, do you feel it helps you find/focus your creativity?

[cwfgal]

I was always moving, and being 'the new girl' so often made me take refuge in books.

This was true for me, too. I also think that those of us from the early TV era grew used to having books as a primary form of entertainment. I'm not sure that would be the case today. Everyone in my immediately family is/was a reader although my father almost never read fiction and the rest of us read mostly that. I am the only one of my siblings that has exercised any serious "creative" side and neither of my parents indulged in that either. My son has a strong creative side both for writing and art (and a strong talent for the art stuff that I don't have--he got that from his father) but isn't doing much with either at this point in his life.

I recently taught myself how to work with stained glass and discovered I have a knack for it. It now competes with my writing time to some degree but writing is, and will probably always be, my first passion. It almost always wins out.

Beth

[Mistook]

Most of my writer friends have deep attachments to creating visual art as well as crafting the written word. How many of you draw/have an interest in art?

If you do, do you feel it helps you find/focus your creativity?


It seems to me, creativity comes as a skill set, and most artists of one kind have talents in another arenas. I write, draw, and compose music. DaVinci was the same way. We know him as a painter, but he considered himself a scientist doing paintings as a living. He was also a musician, who even invented his own instruments.

These days, most creative people pick one discipline or another and focus on that. Many writers have latent drawing or musical skills, but let them lie dormant. Many musicians can write... and you get the idea.

I'm kind of a "Renaissance Man". At various points of my life, the primary focus has shifted between writing, music, or illustration, but at all points, I've kept all three skills alive and in practice. If you asked me to, I could design the cover for my book, draw the story board for the screenplay, and compose the movie soundtrack.

[SeanDSchaffer]

I think I get my creativity from a lot of different places. Some think I might have inherited it from my Dad; he loved to write and had a very creative mind. But more often than not I think personally that I've always gotten it from reading, watching TV, and listening to music. That last part, the music, really gets me going. Give me the right song at the right time, and inspiration really begins to flow.

But I think the one hinderance to my creativity is the computer. Sometimes I decide I'd like to write my inspiration down on the word processor. Big mistake, especially if the computer isn't on. Waiting several minutes for the Operating System to boot up and for all the Internet Weather stuff to come and go, can really be a hamper on my creativity, and could turn what was a fresh, wonderful idea, into just another discarded bundle of words best left in the circular file.

If there's anything that ever helped me when it comes to typing, though, it was the Manual Typewriter. In fact, I'm planning on getting one pretty soon if only so I can type stuff down and then transcribe it onto the Word Processor at a later time. Why a Manual Typewriter? There's just something about the sound that an old beat-up Manual makes that further drives me to write even more. And it's easy to turn on, since it doesn't have a power switch. And also I have a tendency to plunk the keys a tad bit too hard.

Anyway, that's where my creativity comes from, at least partially. If I think of anything else, I might just come back to this thread and divulge any further info I might have on that.

[Vipersniper]

:LilLove: My mother encouraged me to read everything that I could and that including comic books. My creativity comes from things that I see advertized for example I did a poem after seeing a particular ring in Parade. I am inspired by the things kids say. I also am inspired by nature. I am often asked to write a poem to send to someone sick. Sometimes in the middle of the night an idea hits me or I have a dream about something. Creativity comes from just being a careful observer of what is around you. Another habit that I developed after being raped to pay attention to what is around me. Plus I go down to the courtroom and watch the trials and I am amazed at the people who are victims of crime simply because they did not pay attention to what was around them. Sam Walton whom I met had this to say and you can apply it to creativity. Retail is detail and detail is retail. So Creativity is pay attention to detains in order for you to do a book that is going to be sold for retail. Okay I am off my box.

[Writing Again]

My mother read to me: My mother taught me to read. I wasn't allowed to read in class so I started writing -- When the teachers finally realized I was not jotting down thier words of eternal wisdom they took my stories away and threw them in the trash -- But they never took away my paper and pencil.

[Kudra]

Both my parents wanted to be writers. Both of them got too busy in their jobs to ever try. My mom was also a keen artist, and my dad is a very good singer.

My mom can spend hours in a bookstore, just like I can, and she always had books in the house for us to read. Each week she'd take us to the library and let us choose which books we wanted to read. And when we moved from London to India, we brought a truckload of books with us. :D

[johnnycannuk]

My mother read to me: My mother taught me to read. I wasn't allowed to read in class so I started writing -- When the teachers finally realized I was not jotting down thier words of eternal wisdom they took my stories away and threw them in the trash -- But they never took away my paper and pencil.

"Poems? Look, the boy fancies himself a poet!" - the Teacher

Cue David Gilmour...


Mike

[jdkiggins]

Is anyone else like me? My mother encouraged me to read (as most parents do), but my parents never actually wrote anything, and I don't think my father has ever even read a book. Same thing with one of my brothers. I certainly didn't inherit my desire to write, but it was there fairly early, off and on, starting around age eight or so. Is this the experience with most other people here or do you look at some family member and think you get your writing instinct from him or her?



My creativity came from growing up on a farm and being a very bored little girl who had to rely on her imagination to keep her occupied. I read everything I could get my hands on and wrote whatever came to mind.

My very first story Chucky the Chipmunk won me four tickets to the circus when I was fifteen. The story was about a seven-year-old girl (me) grieving over the death of a chipmunk she'd fed daily for two years before she found it frozen to the ground. Sort of tells you how bored I was as a child. LOL
Might explain why the horror genre is my favorite, too. :scared:

Joanne

[shugar]

My very first story Chucky the Chipmunk won me four tickets to the circus when I was fifteen. The story was about a seven-year-old girl (me) grieving over the death of a chipmunk she'd fed daily for two years before she found it frozen to the ground. Sort of tells you how bored I was as a child. LOL
Might explain why the horror genre is my favorite, too. :scared:

Joanne

:ROFL: Choking on my tea..... sorry....that's pretty funny/morbid..lol!

My parents were big readers. Dad had his war books, my mother read self help type books. I will never forget On Death and Dying on her shelf. She was always trying to find the answer to life in a book. Or I guess in this case, death. I never picked that one up.

After my parents divorced, whenever I spent time with either, we'd just immerse ourselves in our books (or in Dads case, booze) to avoid talking. We seldom communicated much other than to ask "Read any good books lately?"

I was a big horror fan as well. Got into true crime and haven't been able to get back much into horror.. what a drag!

[alaskamatt17]

My creativity comes from my dreams. When I was younger, before I even started reading, I would have these amazing dreams where I was on other worlds, and there were non-human creatures that showed me how everything in their world worked. The dreams were very vivid, and were episodic in such a manner that I might be in one world every night for weeks, sometimes more than a month.

Sadly, I started being able to figure out that I was in a dream and that none of it was real. That took away most of the magic, but I've regained some of it through writing.

Another big help for me was that my elementary school had a program for children who showed talent in the creative arts. The teacher was wonderful, and she introduced us to so many forms of creativity early on: writing, sculpture, drawing, painting (acrylic and watercolor), beadwork, architecture (we built towers twice our height out of nothing but plastic straws), computer-aided design, animation, acting, etc. It was such a great class. Unfortunately, the teacher retired, and the school shut down the program.

[Jamesaritchie]

I'm not sure there really is an answer for where creativity comes from, but if I had to give sources, I'd give three.

1. Aunt Pearl. She was fourteen when I was born, and for the next seven years seemed to have nothng better to do that teach me to read and write and explore. I learned to read and write two years before I started first grade, thanks to Aunt Pearl and a bazillion books. It's the Grimm Brothers in the original text I remember best. Oddly, she taught me to write cursive before teaching me to print, and I still have a devil of a time printing anything.

Aunt Pearle was the only real reader in the house, but her parents made certain there were books, books, and more books there for the kids.

2. My Grandma Solomon. She was a hillbilly in every sense of the word, and proud of it. She chewed Kentucky Twist tobacco, and her mother was a McCoy who was part of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. She spent thousands of hours telling me stories about her youth, and about the Appalachian Mountains where she grew up.

3. Living far out in the country, and growing up poor. We had to hunt for most of our meat, and when we had any sort of a problem, we had to create a solution. Even most of the toys we owned and the games we played were build/created from our own imagination. The old saying, "make do, or do without" played a major role in our lives, and it does tend to make one very creative.

The first real example of "creative" thinking I remember was the year I turned eight. We had one of those big, floor model radios, and I had a wind up alarm clock. I fastened the alwarm clock to the top of the radio, removed the clapper that rang the bell on the alarm clock, then wound one end of a piece of twine around the winder on the alarm clock, and wound the other end around the knob that turned the radio on.

When the alarm went off in the morning, instead of the bell sounding, the winder wound up the twine, which turned the knob on the radio, so I woke up to blaring music instead of that horrible alarm. A very early and primitive version of a radio alarm clock, but it worked perfectly.

As you might tell from this, my childhood hero wasn't a writer, it was Thomas Alva Edison.

[skyi001]

I was one of those kids that always had a book in her hands...I would walk to and from school reading. (How many times did I almost get hit by a car or train because I was so immersed in my book? That's another story.) I'm the youngest of 11 kids and we were all avid readers, as were my parents. None, as far as I know, consider themselves writers or artists, though they all are fantastically weird and wonderful. My sister, for instance, makes up her own jokes which usually are pretty funny even if you DO have to be a member of the family to come even close to getting it. And everyone usually does get it. Except me. 'Cause I, of course, am the only normal one in my family.

What was the question again?

[preyer]

i was (well, i reckon i still am) an only child whose parents divorced when i was in third grade. mom decided she liked to move around a bit, but usually just far enough to throw me into a new school within the same town and put me just out of reach of my old friends sans an hour-long trek through the woods and over some major highways. i never did and still don't make real friends easily, so i relied on entertaining myself for a large part of the day. i was rather spoiled, so i had plenty of toys to play with, star wars figures and such, so i created places and situations with the toys that i'm sure has a lot to do with whatever imagination i've got. otherwise, i've grown up in no particularly dire circumstances or knowing many pivotal plot points in my life that's made me the way i am.

i just get bored easily. though i've got a modicum of spacial recognition neurons firing in my brain that i suppose gives me a natural drawing ability and with plenty of hours practice i can still play a guitar halfway decently, i always enjoyed reading and, ya know, i just enjoy thinking about stories (though the actual writing part of it doesn't thrill me in the least). people have always been very encouraging about my writing, but i'd probably otherwise pretend to be a filmmaker were i not pretending to be a writer.

[Ivonia]

Oh...A Curiosity:

Most of my writer friends have deep attachments to creating visual art as well as crafting the written word. How many of you draw/have an interest in art?

If you do, do you feel it helps you find/focus your creativity?

You know, now that you mention it, I do like to draw from time to time. It really helps me visualize what I want to do. Granted, my drawings aren't the greatest, but they are good enough that peeps know what I'm trying to convey.

Hmm, where does my creativity come from. Last I recall, I usually have to be sitting in a cave or something like that. Seriously though, I get my ideas almost anywhere, in class, on the bus, or sometimes even just while writing/surfing the web in front of my computer. The secret mostly is "how motivated am I to develop ideas today?" and if it's high, I get a ton of ideas. If it's low that day, I don't think about it much. Heck, I remember drawing a map in the 2nd grade that charted how to maneuver around the classroom to reach the "enchanted shelf of books". I had a fun time drawing that map, which has since been lost (I think I threw it in a bottle into a big body of water. Maybe a pirate or a person stranded on a little island can put it to use lol).

A big factor in that motivation is music. Not just any kind of music (and this is where I'm probably weirder than all of you hehe), but video game music, particularly tracks where it's just straight music (lyrics are too distracting for me, although I can tolerate vocals which are used in conjunction with the music to make an even cooler sounding track). Movie soundtracks work from time to time, but lately I've been finding myself listening to VG music more (some of it is really good actually. If any of you are interested in recommendations, I personally suggest Chrono Cross, Front Mission 4, or anything by Nobuo Uematsu, the guy behind the Final Fantasy music).

I guess this stems from when I was younger. I used to read a ton of books, but then came the era of video games. I found them to be extremely entertaining (especially a game series called Final Fantasy. I was interested in this game before it became mostly about graphics due to a compelling storyline, one that I got to participate in), and they've given me a ton of ideas for my own stories (although I tried copying some of the game concepts, I largely created my own characters back then. Luckily for me, those original characters are now helping me create a story of my own :) ).

I guess I sound silly right now, but I suppose we'll see in a few years if any of that was worth it. I don't read as much as I used to, mainly because I haven't had much time due to school (12 relatively thick books or so for 6 classes blah), and the fact that I'm still brewing ideas for my own stories, and those things really detract me from reading (it really sucks too, because I buy a ton of books and can never seem to find time to read them anymore bleh).

[three seven]

i was (well, i reckon i still am) an only child whose parents divorced when i was in third grade. mom decided she liked to move around a bit, but usually just far enough to throw me into a new school within the same town and put me just out of reach of my old friends sans an hour-long trek through the woods and over some major highways. i never did and still don't make real friends easily, so i relied on entertaining myself for a large part of the day. i was rather spoiled, so i had plenty of toys to play with, star wars figures and such, so i created places and situations with the toys that i'm sure has a lot to do with whatever imagination i've got. otherwise, i've grown up in no particularly dire circumstances or knowing many pivotal plot points in my life that's made me the way i am.

i just get bored easily. though i've got a modicum of spacial recognition neurons firing in my brain that i suppose gives me a natural drawing ability and with plenty of hours practice i can still play a guitar halfway decently, i always enjoyed reading and, ya know, i just enjoy thinking about stories (though the actual writing part of it doesn't thrill me in the least). people have always been very encouraging about my writing, but i'd probably otherwise pretend to be a filmmaker were i not pretending to be a writer.

Take out 'Star Wars' and insert 'Action Man.'

Change 'woods' to 'open fields' and 'mom' to 'mum.'

Insert capital letters ;)

That's me.

[Vipersniper]

;) Well one person said he got his creativity from dreams and I agree that many times I write about a dream that I have had. I too have gone to other planets and I did not stop writing because the dreams still come. I suppose some could say that creativity comes from a desire to leave something of ourselves behind when we are deleted from this earth. So we create to show that we once were. Does this make sense?

[preyer]

Spoiler alert! ~ For Mr. 3-7, this post will contain capital letters.

I should probably mention that I'm like a sponge in that I tend to take a lot of influences in whatever they may be at the moment. Much of my 'creativity' is just fictionalizing real-life events. Maybe that's why I married a drama queen (though she'd deny it vehemonently, only proving it that much more) who's part of a family of drama queens, with a prince or two tossed in. Because I'm really quite boring all around, I tend to surround myself with, ah, 'interesting' people. 'Creativity' in this sense is derived purely from getting people to talk, then the challenge is to get them to shut up about themselves.

Creativity for me is also derived from particular stock interests. I'll never get bored with ghosts and pirates. I'm also a visual person, so when I listen to a song I'll start daydreaming about the accompanying 'video' which invariably doesn't exist, but it's really those images music invokes that I try to convey into words. Generally, classical music, the kind with canons and drums that justs go POW ten minutes into the ditty, gets me most, otherwise it's rock 'n fockin' roll, bay-bee! (How it's possible to derive anything from country or rap is beyond me.) As an aside, one of the best songs I need to pick up is from the soundtrack for the movie 'Backdraft.' I think it's the main theme. It's also the opening song for the Japanese t.v. series 'Iron Chef.' (Yes, I literally can't boil water (honestly, no joke there), but I watch this dumb show and can't wait for the American version to introduce the first female Iron Chef next week.)

Anyway, I'm a hack, so I don't even pretend to be imaginative or creative. I think my best ideas are riffs off of other people's work. For example, I felt pretty good about the scenes I'd come up with for an Aquaman story several years ago until I ran it by some real fans of the character and they loathed it in much the same way some Spider-man fans loathe the idea of Peter Parker shooting organic webs from his wrists rather than a contraption he made up. The entire thing had up to the point of quitting the thing been taken from classical music. That's how I operate a story: I get hot on a subject, then let the music dictate how that story plays out. (I understand there's a Green Lantern movie in the works, which is good news ~ he's one of the underrated characters, like Aquaman, who deserves better treatment than he's gotten, and mainstream recognition is certainly due. It's a convoluted story, though, so it should be interesting to see if Hollywood screws it up.)

If you were to give me a genre, a place, a detail or two for general direction, and a year, I could easily 'create' a story. With a sub-genre and a character you want to see, well, that just writes itself, eh? Were I actually prolific and learned to write a proper script, oh, man, I could crank 'em out.

I think in terms of epic storytelling, too, which is another template. With all the elements in a framework, it's usually not too difficult to be 'creative.' The hard part is the prose and finding an idea I'm confident enough to invest the time in.

'Creativity' for me comes from being observant, too. If I get ahold of a decent book, that spurs all sorts of ideas. I feel any strengths I have lies entirely in being a good rip-off artist and taking divergent ideas and re-combining them. So, to me that's not creative... but there's a skill involved, sure.

Well, I hope people have enjoyed capital letters. I know I sure didn't, lol.

[Jamesaritchie]

(How it's possible to derive anything from country or rap is beyond me.) As an aside, one of the best songs I need to pick up is from the soundtrack for the movie 'Backdraft.' I think it's the main theme. It's also the opening song for the Japanese t.v. series 'Iron Chef.' (Yes, I literally can't boil water (honestly, no joke there), but I watch this dumb show and can't wait for the American version to introduce the first female Iron Chef next week.)



Hey, don't be dissing my country music. I loves my country music, and it always inspires me.

Of course, I love The Iron Chef, as well, so we have that in common. But I love to cook, and I'm definitely on the gourmet side of things. Outside of writing, cooking is probably the most creative thing I do. If I couldn't be a writer, chef would be high on my list of runner up occupations. I think it falls second, right behind hit man for the CIA.

[preyer]

james, you write westerns, don't you? i figured *someone* would run to country music's defense, lol. hey, i like a country song, too. johnny cash's 'ring of fire.' and... well, i'm sure there's another, i just can't think of it right now. porter wagoner's outfits rule, though.

when i said i can't boil water, i meant that. i'll spare y'all the story. you're welcome. what scares me is here in about a month or so, my wife and i are buying a convenience store, a small mom-and-pop deal that's been around since 1950. anyway, it's got a pizza oven in there we plan on firing up. yeah, that scares me. so, jr, if'n ye got a good recipe for pizza sauce, give it up, hoss. ironically, had not i fallen in love years ago, i'd right now be in australian as owner of a bagle shop (aussies are clueless as to what bagels are, but being junk-food junkies like us, i'd have hooked them perthians). i'd also have gone to school for massage. i mean, a single guy in another country where *i've* got the accent who owns a business *and* does massage? fugetabowdit.

i've been watching too much food network. all those 'food challenge' shows makes me think, hey, i could do that. hey, right.

i always thought i'd have made a great criminal, so maybe you'd have been chasing me down in another life, lol.

[Jamesaritchie]

james, you write westerns, don't you? i figured *someone* would run to country music's defense, lol. hey, i like a country song, too. johnny cash's 'ring of fire.' and... well, i'm sure there's another, i just can't think of it right now. porter wagoner's outfits rule, though.

when i said i can't boil water, i meant that. i'll spare y'all the story. you're welcome. what scares me is here in about a month or so, my wife and i are buying a convenience store, a small mom-and-pop deal that's been around since 1950. anyway, it's got a pizza oven in there we plan on firing up. yeah, that scares me. so, jr, if'n ye got a good recipe for pizza sauce, give it up, hoss. ironically, had not i fallen in love years ago, i'd right now be in australian as owner of a bagle shop (aussies are clueless as to what bagels are, but being junk-food junkies like us, i'd have hooked them perthians). i'd also have gone to school for massage. i mean, a single guy in another country where *i've* got the accent who owns a business *and* does massage? fugetabowdit.

i've been watching too much food network. all those 'food challenge' shows makes me think, hey, i could do that. hey, right.

i always thought i'd have made a great criminal, so maybe you'd have been chasing me down in another life, lol.

I do write westerns, along with mysteries and a couple of other things. The truth is, I like darned near every kind of music there is except for rap. But I grew up on country music and bluegrass, and still love both. Reba, Dolly, Toby, Willie, Waylon, I loves 'em all.

I suspect being a country boy taught me how to cook. Just about all the food we ate when I was growing up was either in the garden, or running around somewhere in the woods. It all had to be prepared from scratch, and I had to learn how to cook it, right along with everyone else. Found out I liked cooking, and I was better at it that most. You should taste my venison and bell pepper steak. Or my stuffed grouse, or quail breast and bacon. And if you want biscuits from scratch, or southern style cornbread, I'm your man.

I own more cookbooks than anyone in the family, including one on ancient Roman cooking.

Don't think I can help you with pizza sauce, though. I prefer barbecue sauce on my pizza, along with a double helping of anchovies.

[MacAllister]

preyer said: they loathed it in much the same way some Spider-man fans loathe the idea of Peter Parker shooting organic webs from his wrists rather than a contraption

Oh GOD I hated that! Mostly, liked both movies. Hated, hated, HATED that decision. Wrongheaded, bad bad bad.

Pffffttthhhooooey!!!!

[rich]

I matched my thought

To what was taught

And found that what

Was said was not

In that same way

As I would say

[WVWriterGirl]

I didn't read much until I was around 13 or so - a friend's boyfriend introduced me to the fantasy genre and I couldn't put it down. I can't blame my drive to write or my creativity on genetics - at least any genetics that I know about - because I'm adopted. My house had one bookshelf; it was the one that held the obligatory set of World Book Encyclopedias. When my parents began leaving me home alone for a couple of hours at a time, I would pick a letter and settle into my favorite chair, all in an effort to KNOW. I had an insane curiosity about STUFF, and the television just couldn't satisfy my need for facts.

I think that later translated to my view of the places I've visited. When in Europe (which is a big deal for a little hillbilly from WV) I took the time to feel the historical places I visited. I couldn't help but think, when walking through the Tower of London, things like "kings and queens have walked here for nearly a thousand years, and now I'm doing it, too." I have to touch everything, just so I know what it feels like.

I think, most of all, my creativity springs from my need to know stuff. I find out about what I'm curious about, and then fold myself and my imagination around the information.

Oh, and the voices help, too. :crazy:

WVWG

[watcher]

It's my danged imagination... it just won't rest!

[Fictionalizer]

The voices. I would be ever so happy if they would just let me sleep.

Hm, I can so much relate. Sometimes mine do allow me to sleep. Maybe tonight? ;)

[zornhau]

There's this dissonance between the inside of my head and the modern, civilised world.

To me, historical places feel like home, and historical people are real. I grew up with William Marshal (The Best Knight, Ever) as a role model and still admire the great knights and warriors of the past, such as King Robert de Bruce.

However, most of my professional life involves being nice to difficult people, negotiating, placating etc etc. My inner knight doesn't like this very much.

My inner knight wants to walk away with dignity, or settle matters with cold steel. But my inner knight doesn't have to worry about the mortgage, so I tell him to shut up. In return for his compliance, I let him go walk about in my fiction, (and during martial arts and battle reenactment).

This probably, boringly, fits into the whole "crisis of masculinity" thing the pundits bring up once in a while. However, it fuels much of my current writing.

[Fictionalizer]

Oh...A Curiosity:

Most of my writer friends have deep attachments to creating visual art as well as crafting the written word. How many of you draw/have an interest in art?

If you do, do you feel it helps you find/focus your creativity?
I am a graphic designer/signmaker and colored pencil artist. I've put the colored pencil artwork on the back burner for now. However I plan to use my artwork for my book covers. At least that is my goal. They fit the titles.

I have a scrapbook of specific nature scenes which I plan to use for future projects. There is a type of artwork which takes pictures and forms them into new abstract ones. The new ones take on a new shape. So that a rectangular scene becomes an irregular scene. My best project was an abstract of a river in the shape of a river. I won first place in an art show in 1985. The piece took over 200 hours to complete for a 9 X 12 board with one third of the space used.

[Jamesaritchie]

Oh...A Curiosity:

Most of my writer friends have deep attachments to creating visual art as well as crafting the written word. How many of you draw/have an interest in art?

If you do, do you feel it helps you find/focus your creativity?

You know, I think/suspect most writers have other areas of creative interest, even if they don't necessarily express them. I've always loved fine art, and while I'm not very talented in the area, I've taken several courses on sketching, painting, and photography. I love water color and oil.

I can't sing a lick, though my wife says I could learn, if I applied myself. But my wife and my kids all sing very well, and that's enough for me. I'm content to listen. . .except when no one else is home, and then I sing along with whatever music I have on.

But I prefer the quieter arts of writing, sketching, and painting. I've also tried my hand at sculpture, but it takes more room than I currently have to spare. I do sometimes carve, and that's a pure joy. To ever so slightly change Shakespeare, "Small things, but mine own."

I love watching a painting, a sculture, or a carving slowly take shape, and then suddenly becoming something more than paint or marble or wood.

Sadly, I have so many problems with my hands now, primarily neuropathy and arthritis, that I can't do these things nearly as often as I would like, but I still love them.

[RGame]

Nice to see this thread still going. I'd originally started it because I used to wonder on and off why I was the only one in my family who wanted to create stuff. I remember writing a short story (probably only a page or two) when I was eight or so, and I used to make little four-minute movies back with my parents' old 16mm movie camera from the ages of about 10 to 15. I wondered if it was genetics, but apparently not. At least not always.

[Hummingbird]

I think I get my creativity from my mom. She can write, garden, and paint. When I was eight, I loved reading books. Mainly R.L. Stine and non-fiction animal books. I was talking to my mom about it and she suggested I should try writing something some time. Mua ha ha... My teacher asked for a short story the next week. I've been writing ever since.
Other things that give me ideas are daydreaming out the car window when we're in the country (I'm not the one driving when I do this!), and listening to my favorite music.