Greetings, writers—
When you’re being creative there is no such thing as a mistake.
One of the things you might discover when you haunt particular aisles of your local library (Good Ideas keeps me partial to the low 800s) is that the indefatigable John Cleese (Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, A Fish Called Wanda, etc. etc.) has written a book on creativity. It’s called Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide.
It is indeed very cheerful and very short—we’re talking about a hundred pages and a lot of white space. It’s also (unsurprisingly) witty and reasonably insightful. Much of its advice is familiar, but if you’re anything like me, you find being reminded about things you know you should be doing (e.g. carrying a notepad, writing daily, drinking enough water) reassuring rather than annoying.
Your subconscious, Cleese says, is where all the good ideas come from, and the thoughts bubbling up from that dark and nearly wordless well are the secret to your particular genius. But:
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