I wasn't talking about the majority of people - the majority of people are not writers. I have never sat and watched rubbish. However I don't have a tv, so I buy dvd's and use catch up services which means I don't watch adverts. Which maybe mind ruining. Although I seriously doubt how you watch dictats the use that can be gathered. I personally find the tv series format the best way to tell a story, and the best stories give you the best ideas. A lot of novels I find are too caught up with being novels to deliver the immediacy that a tv show can. I don't find that with a well worked series that character development is any worse than a novel, but there are less guidelines and less indulgences with tv than novel.
This is as close as anyone in this thread has come to explaining why reading is a more creative activity than watching TV, but it still stops short. The act of reading, interpreting symbols into words, interpreting words into sentences, and so on, is almost entirely intellectual - there is nothing there on the page that appeals directly to any of our senses. So our minds have to take the very limited amount of information on the page - mere words, after all - and from that, CREATE the entire world of the story, all of the visuals, the sounds, smells, tastes, all of the characters and the settings and the bite of the icy wind and the sweat of the fetid swamps. Plus all of the emotional content that arises from this. TV, on the other hand, provides the visuals and the sounds, along with music to influence our emotions. TV provides far more information; therefore, we create far less in our imaginations. Our capacity for creativity is exercised much less while watching TV or movies than it is in reading stories. As exercise strengthens our muscles, reading strengthens our creativity.
I can watch movies or watch television shows, as well as read. I can even just be sitting and do nothing when an idea pops into my head. I have no natural filter that stops the random thoughts from flowing in. So I always always have ideas. To many in fact. They just get around and float around. Its a double edge sword. I'm cursed with this need to read and write. But then what happens is, how do you finish projects? When random ideas keep bombarding your mental processes. I think television and reading are great creative teaching tools. Sure television not so much if people just watch television as television. I on the other hand, always want to discover the meaning. I always want to interpret what is going on behind the scenes. What's happening behind the curtains. During commercial time, I'm exploring the depths and the inner workings of the character. I'm easily influenced by ideas and its easy for me to flesh them out. I think its kind of wrong to state that television is less creatively challenging than books. Its just the way you watch television that really matters.
Less guidelines with TV? How can that be? TV is a very controlled medium. Shows have to fit into a half-hour or an hour, with commercial breaks at predetermined times, requiring cliffhangers at those times, and strict rules as to content (some of these rules depend on the sponsors). Scripts have to fit predefined limits in terms of time and where the beats go and where the jokes go and so on and so forth. Actors, if they become big stars, begin meddling in the writing, fighting for more screen time and better lines for their characters. And less indulgences in TV than in a novel? A story is, almost by definition, an indulgence. Indulgence is what makes novels great. At least the indulgences in novels are the writer's own, whereas in TV, indulgences come from executives, sponsors, actors, directors, producers, and anybody else involved who has an ego and a point they want to make. The more successful a TV series is, the less input the writers seem to have. TV is a huge mess when it comes to telling stories. Novels - or prose works generally - are much better.
HUH? Is it just me or is there something strange with that statement? doesn't the 'visual imagination' go through the eyes?
Reading poetry or looking at photos helps me be creative or get my ideas flowing, too. Sometimes you just need to look at pretty things, I guess.
Most of what has been written here deals with inspiration rather than creativity. Creativity is the ability -- inate or learned -- to form unique relationships between two, or more concepts and then to communicate those relationships through some tangible medium (ie. paint, sculpture, music, or, in our case, words). The idea of stimulating creativity by watching movies, or reading books, is really just adding more concepts to the pot you will draw from within your imagination. Unless you hone your ability to make some connection between, say, an orange and a space shuttle (and then run with it), no amount of in-put will help.
I'm not sure how one becomes more creative, other than constantly practicing and exploring their art. It has more to do with the way you perceive the world around you, and what you do with that perception, rather than subjecting yourself to the work of others. It helps to have a foundation, but the entire purpose of creativity is in creating what no one else has created before, to become inherently unique, so to speak.
Everyone who knows how to write can write a story, poem etc as we all know. But will I find something for myself in it? Yes, if we had something common in our lives, I will become one of your reader. What makes a person good writer is his/her life which includes everything he sees, hears, tastes, touches, and so on. I don't believe the magic/gift. Everything derived from something. In other words, we derived from each other. Creating something needs other things. You can't invent something out of zero. So, if you have a lot of things going through your mind, your writing will be that much reach. In short, for me, creativity means invention and invention means discovery. One of the hardest parts of life is to discover your talent, to get to know yourself. And the best way of doing it is taking a chance (practicing). It is time consuming, sometimes disappointing and boring. At the end, in spite of everything it must have a great pleasure to find out who you are; actor, writer, artist or somebody else... So it is worthy to try.
