This entry is part 2 of 33 in the series General Writing Related.

Creative Thinking versus Criticism

By Xoic · Apr 22, 2020 · 736 · 9

In his book Writing With Power, Peter Elbow maintains that critical thinking, which includes correcting typos and grammar as you work, is the direct enemy of creativity and must be kept separate from the creative process.

His approach is what he calls Freewriting, a session where you write basically stream-of-consciousness for a certain period of time (at least, longer if it spurs you on) and absolutely DO NOT correct anything or try to make literal sense of anything you write. Nonsense is ok, puns and jokes, misspellings, anything and everything that we normally correct.

He says people who tend to correct themselves as they go, or think about correct grammar and spelling and sentence structure etc also have a tendency to self-censor as they go, which squelches creativity dead in its tracks. Kills it dead, Fred.

On the other hand, having fun, making jokes, silly little nonsense ditties etc all open up the creativity and get the juices flowing.

It's ok to stop every now and then and gather your thoughts, but should be brief and only to get yourself back on track on thinking about what you intended to write about.

Apparently people who edit themselves as they write tend to generate some decent middle-of-the-road stuff, while Freewriting tends to generate a lot of garbage and occasionally some real treasure.

I've been using Freewriting to work out ideas and situations and characters etc. I find it really does lead to all kinds of things I never would have come up with if I would be in semi-critical mode. And often the ideas are much better.

This ties in with another book about creativity I read for a college course on design long ago, called The Universal Traveler: A Soft-Systems guide to problem-solving, creativity, and the process of reaching goals. The authors, Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall, divide the creative process into 2 distinct stages—brainstorming followed by rating and editing the ideas generated in stage 1. But they stress it's vitally important to brainstorm without the faintest thought of editing words, ideas or anything else. And generate a lot of nonsense and gibberish along the way, it gets you flowing in a creative way.

I also want to make it clear, Elbow isn't saying you should ONLY do freewriting, or even primarily. Use it when you want to spur creativity or generate ideas, maybe as an exercise each morning or before you start writing for real.

The important thing is, separate the creative from the critical part of the process.

Criticism and correction are destructive, negative modes of thinking and will contaminate creativity if you mix them together.

Added 07-30-21: I've discovered another excellent book that's closely related. It's Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Rico.
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O.M. Hillside, Cave Troll and Malisky like this.

Comments

I certainly think freewriting has an important place in the creative process. There's a member posting lots of "describe this thing" threads and I can feel some other members mildly abraded by it, but it's hard for me to understand why. It's just an exercise. I would never use those descriptions as is, the way I wrote them, ultra-thick and far too saturated. But there is something to be learned in the act. It makes you go through that entire closet of words, syntax, structure, simile, metaphor, etc., the ones you never wear, the ones that aren't the three outfits you keep cycling through despite all this before you.

Wreybies, Apr 22, 2020
Good example. I notice on his threads, as well as elsewhere on the board, I have a tendency to post mainly in the negative, which is very anti-creative.

What's more, maybe 2 decades ago I entered a phase of intellectual development (when I started getting into philosophy, psychology etc) and started reading non-fiction almost exclusively. I also stopped writing any fiction. My drawing and painting at that time also took a turn toward studying the fundamentals, and I stopped drawing freely from the imagination, which is what I used to do all the time. I did improve in many ways, but the imagination has been atrophied severely.

And now, thinking about my recent attempts at writing stories, I see they're bound entirely too much in realism (pragmatism).

Time to dive deep into unfettered creativity. Edit after. Happily Edit After.

Xoic, Apr 22, 2020
I find it extremely difficult not to edit as I go. Especially when the word I mispelled most probably due to bad typing skills gets underlined by a red, angry line. I just have to immediately correct it. That's why when I free-write I only do it on notebook. I mean pages, pens, etc. And it might not be perfect or even close to readable, but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much. Way faster kind of writing. Problem with it, is that afterwards you have to transfer everything on word and this is so boring.

Malisky, Apr 22, 2020
I find it easy if I keep on typing and don't look back at what I wrote. Whenever I'm not actually typing I look away. Those dotted red lines hold no sway over ME no sir!! As long as I steadfastly don't look at them. If I do, well, that's another story...

Xoic, Apr 23, 2020
I'm the type of person that when someone distracts my attention and I briefly turn my head around to look at them while keeping on walking, causes accidents, so... How can you do that? I have to see what I write or else a sentence might end up reading like that: Im theuitype ovgb pefrsob thaty neefjds to watcgh wuhat imfr3 doibng. When I'm writing it's like splitting my brain into two. One for thinking upon what to write, the other half actually writing it down. That's why when I'm thinking on a story I spend most of my time staring blankly at something for a good while (so I don't lose continuity), engrave it in my mind and then man up and type it down.

Malisky, Apr 23, 2020
Nothing wrong with writing almost indecipherable gibberish as long as it's only for yourself, or to spur creativity. If you're going to end up using some of it in a script or something, then turn the spellchecker loose on it, but afterwards.

I guess I'm used to it because I tend to type really fast and make a lot of mistakes anyway, even when I'm trying to write decently. I've learned it's best to finish without stopping to edit because it breaks the flow. So I end up with chicken scratch and have to run it through spellcheck and then usually make a pass or 2 to fix the mistakes that are actually words, spelled right, but the wrong words. You know, stuff the spellchecker won't find.

But I know some people are made differently. Apparently some can edit as they go and still come up with great stuff.

Xoic, Apr 23, 2020
I've thought some more about the issue of my art becoming more structured and less creative as I got older, and I realize it's inevitable in a way, because as you get closer to professional level it can't be random stuff like what a kid would write or draw. You do need the structure and the fundamentals in order to improve, but you also need to keep ratcheting back and forth between that and the looser creativity. Somehow they need to combine. I've heard the way to make that happen is to train and practice the structured stuff a lot, until it becomes second nature, and then cut loose and work intuitively. I think it's time to let my intuition off the leash for a while.

Xoic, Apr 23, 2020
In my years on the forum, what I've picked up from so many Members is fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of offending people. Fear of not being interesting enough. Fear of writing something that's been done before. Fear of writing something that won't sell. Fear of boring people. Fear of not being able to write at all.

I think it's fear more than anything else that stifles creativity.

Even Freewriting can instill fear in some folks. The only thing my mind does during a freewriting exercise, is fret about not coming up with something usable! Freewriting doesn't actually work for me—because it's not the way my creative brain wants to work. It's kind of like fingerpainting: you smear stuff around—and it can be fun—but what you end up with is a mess ...which you throw away. And then you go back to actually creating a painting you can keep.

People access their creativity in many ways. But I think the first thing to do is stop being afraid. Stop worrying what other people are going to think. You don't have to show your work to ANYBODY unless it pleases you. Nobody will be judging it until YOU are ready to be judged.

Just set yourself a specific problem or 'world'—a situation, a character, a moral dilemma—and start thinking of ways to engage with that problem or world. Turn it on its head. Throw something new into the mix. Play 'what if' games with the idea. Build your world. Pursue the ideas you come up with. And don't give up. You'll know you've hit that creative zone when you come out of it ...and realise it WAS a zone and you were in it. Now you're chock full of ideas AND enthusiasm.

Write without fear. Then edit without mercy. But don't try to do both at the same time. That's my suggestion, anyway.

jannert, May 19, 2020
I've heard several people conflate freewriting with writing absolute gibberish like what the surrealists used to call automatic writing. Yes, that's Freewriting at it's most extreme end. I sometimes do that for a few minutes just to really loosen up and activate the creative parts of the mind. Then a paragraph break and i start writing something more focused, maybe use your characters and put them in a situation and just make stuff up fast, without corrections, and don't worry about anything, because this is not going to be in your story. Unless somehow it ends up really good.

But what you said about writing without fear, that's freewriting as far as I'm concerned. I see it as a spectrum that runs from pure nonsense to almost a serious effort at part of a draft, only loose and fun. It's the fact that you're NOT writing anything serious that frees you up.

"The only thing my mind does during a freewriting exercise, is fret about not coming up with something usable!"

Freewriting isn't about writing anything usable, it's an exercise to warm up and crack open your creativity. Get the juices flowing. Then you start writing more serious stuff. I usually find after starting with full gibberish for a few sentences, then scaling up toward more focused stuff, that I get the creativity flowing and can use it in my more 'serious' writing.

Xoic, Jun 21, 2021

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This entry is part 2 of 33 in the series General Writing Related.

Creative Thinking versus Criticism

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