You might want to take a look at Thomas Frank’s article at Salon on the banality and misleading character of discussions of creativity. What all of them miss is that for every Swiffer, Post-It, and “Like a Rolling Stone†there are a thousand new, innovative products that were developed but never came to market or that came to market and flopped. Forget creativity. Sales is king.
Interesting. The single most common question asked of writers is “where did you get your idea?” I used to offer a version of the same b.s. answer most writers have: you cite a book you read or a moment of insight or something heard at granny’s feet. But lately I’ve started telling the truth, which is that no one knows where an idea comes from. One minute there’s no idea, and then there’s an idea. Keep doing that, type it all up, and you have a book.
But at the same time I never forget marketing. I just pitched a new series last night (and got universal expressions of interest this morning) and right after the section explaining the basic concept, I go into marketing: Here’s our target audience, here’s why this concept will work with this audience, here’s our position in the market, etc…
In this case it actually was someone’s book that kicked things off, but only to a degree. I’d read plenty of other histories and this one just for whatever reason set me off and meshed with my personal desires and abilities, my current obligations, and my guess as to the market.
That said, I hate ever feeling like I’m following someone else so I obsess over originality which often hurts me in sales. The clones often do very well.
“Forget creativity. Sales is king.”
Well, maybe, but then I think of Cervantes. If Cervantes had died before he had written Don Quixote (Part I, 1605), he might merit a few paragraphs in a history of Spanish literature, for nothing in what he had written before Don Quixote would have prepared you for Don Quixote. (And, most importantly, nothing written by anyone else, either.) The book was truly novel, and was almost immediately translated into a number of foreign languages, English being one. (Shakespeare was so impressed, that he wrote a — now-lost — play based on an episode in Don Quixote.) The book was a roaring success because people in the business, writers, saw immediately that something new and wonderous had occurred. Something that would forever change Western literature.
I suppose that one can read that as an affirmation of Frank when he writes (following Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi): “[W]hat we call creativity is simply an expression of professional consensus.” Perhaps, but things did change forever after Don Quixote.
Oh, and Michael, “That said, I hate ever feeling like I’m following someone else so I obsess over originality” — I’d stop obsessing, if I were you (easy to say, I know…). All artists borrow, etc. Dickens lifted the entire Fagin architecture from Cervantes (see, “Rinconete and Cortedillo”, in The Exemplary Novels).
If there is any justice in the world, in the future people will view the Floridas and Laniers and Gladwells in the same fashion as peasant-ride-tractor art during the first Five Year Plan.
Michael,
I would say that many people have ideas that come out of nowhere. What makes a person is ‘creative’ is that they have adapted their minds and lives so that something is done with these ideas.
Everyone is creative, everyone can create. But we’re beaten down from day one, told our lot in life is to be a good little automaton in the office or factory and that pursuing creativity is irresponsible and weird: unless of course we become “successful” at it. Then the same people who told us dreams were stupid are suddenly vomiting forth about how they knew we could always do it. Most are never given the opportunity to express their creative aspect.
Creativity is good. Execution and judgment are paramount. As of mid-afternoon Dave is aware of a rather personal confrontation when the former sounded good, but the latter triumphed.
Ben:
I absolutely agree. When kids ask me for advice one of the items I mention is to not listen to their writing teachers in middle school and HS. And to keep their imaginations alive. No imagination and you’re done as a “creative.”
Drew:
Tease much, dude?
@Michael,
Did you experience a lot of negative reaction when people learned you wanted to be a writer?