#IDEAS: Creative #Writers Pull Out All The Stops

Creative writing is an art, and you already have everything you need to do it. So what are you waiting for? This is the right time to start writing! 

How To Establish Yourself as a Creative Writer

If you have the ability to imagine something useful or interesting or generate ideas, then you are creative. Putting all these ideas down on paper is creative writing. 

Creative writing is any form of writing that focuses less on journalistic, academic, technical, or professional forms of literature, but more on expressing ideas, thoughts, and emotions in an imaginative way. It is the bedrock of the world of entertainment and the media.

Unfortunately, most creative thinkers don’t become writers. They either feel they’re too busy, don’t have the opportunity, or have some other factor in their lives that hinders them from writing.

In this post, I’ll show you what to look out for—the obstacles that can get in the way of developing and nurturing your creative writing. 

Hindrances for Creative Writers and How to Overcome Them

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TEACH YOURSELF CREATIVE WRITING

Six Major #Benefits of Critical #Thinking

“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the quality of your life largely depends on the quality of the decisions you make.

Amazingly, the average person makes 35,000 conscious decisions every day! (1)

Imagine how much better things could be if there was a tool that ensured you were making the best possible decisions, day in and day out?

Well, there is and it’s called critical thinking.

Learning to master the skills of critical thinking can have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of your life.

Definitions of Critical Thinking

The first documented account of critical thinking is the teachings of Socrates as recorded by Plato. (2)

Over time, the definition of critical thinking has evolved.

Most definitions of critical thinking are fairly complex and best understood by philosophy 

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WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

#KLSF: Do You Know Where Your #Ideas Come From?:

 

The great ideas of the ages have come from people who weren’t paid to have great ideas, but were paid to be teachers or patent clerks or petty officials, or were not paid at all. The great ideas came as side issues.

 

 

 

Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?”

A 1959 Essay by Isaac Asimov on Creativity

 

How do people get new ideas?

Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is essentially the same in all its branches and varieties, so that the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. We are most interested in the “creation” of a new scientific principle or a new application of an old one, but we can be general here.

One way of investigating the problem is to consider the great ideas of the past and see just how they were generated. Unfortunately, the method of generation is never clear even to the “generators” themselves.

But what if the same earth-shaking idea occurred to two men, simultaneously and independently? Perhaps, the common factors involved would be illuminating. Consider the theory of evolution by natural selection, independently created by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.

 

There is a great deal in common there. Both traveled to far places, observing strange species of plants and animals and the manner in which they varied from place to place. Both were keenly interested in finding an explanation for this, and both failed until each happened to read Malthus’s “Essay on Population.”

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BRAIN STORMING TECHNIQUES

#IDEAS: Are You Living In The Real #Reality?

"In his new book, UCI vision scientist Donald Hoffman says evolution has trained humans to construct reality, rather than to see the world as it truly is"

The case against reality

By Heather Ashbach

Perception is not objective reality. Case in point: The above image is stationary and flat…just try telling your brain that. In his new book, The Case Against Reality, UCI cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman applies this concept to the whole of human consciousness – how we see, think, feel and interact with the world around us. And he thinks we’ve been looking at it all wrong.

“I’m interested in understanding human conscious experiences and their relationship to the activity of our bodies and brains as we interact within our environment – and that includes the technical challenge of building computer models that mimic it, which is why I’m working on creating a model that explains consciousness,” he says.

Current scientific approaches assume there to be a pattern of neural activity that makes us experience things like the taste of a nut or the appearance of the color red. But, says Hoffman, there are no formal theories that explain this.

“As a scientist, I propose a theory and then try to prove the theory wrong, to test its validity,” he says. “Because there is no mathematical theory explaining the pattern of neural activity that creates consciousness, it may mean we are making a false assumption.” He argues instead that consciousness creates neural activity – that humans have evolved to see what’s needed for survival. Perceptions, he says, are a user interface, but not necessarily reality.

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WHAT IS REALITY; THE BRAIN

Build Your #Wisdom By Asking The Right #Questions

“We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered, we get wise, for a well-packed question carries its answer on its back as a snail carries its shell.”  - James Stephens

 

The Right Questions 

 Questioning techniques are one of the easiest areas of instructional design that can be improved, at least in my opinion.  By looking at the question stems, one can determine the level of thinking our learners are expected to demonstrate.  Low-level examples almost always begin with who, what, where, when. These aren’t bad per se as you need knowledge to move up any knowledge taxonomy chart.  The problem is when questions reside here and don’t push kids to think and apply their thinking in more complex ways.  Learners also don’t find much purpose with these beyond just getting them right. 

 

Herein lies one of my major issues with how I see many digital game tools used in the classroom as typically comprised of low-level, multiple-choice options.  As I mentioned before, there is a time and place for this. However, it goes without saying that an emphasis on recall and memorization will not prepare kids adequately to thrive now and in the future.  Disruption caused by the fourth industrial revolution, and living in a knowledge economy, continues to teach us this lesson. If a student can easily Google the answer, then it goes without saying that the question isn’t very challenging.  In the end, questions are more important than answers if learning is the goal. More on this later. 

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MORE COMMUNICATION TIPS 

 

Use Your #Dreams To Improve #Creative Writing

"Can really dreams improve your writing? In fact, they do. Dreams are represented by a vivid succession of images, ideas or conversations."

Can Your Dreams Improve Your Writing?
By Lilian Chifley

If you are a writer, you have experienced a lack of creativity. You have been through those hard times when you had to write, and you did not know what.

Well, this happens to all of us. It does not matter if you are a writer, a musician or a designer. All jobs that require creativity have moments of lack of creativity.

So, what can you do? How can you increase your creativity level? How can you improve your writing skills? How can you overcome those moments when you do not know what to write?

There are a lot of exercises that can boost your creativity level. But, there is an even simpler way. Have you thought about analyzing your dreams?

 Well, this is what humans have done for centuries. They tried to understand what are dreams and what they reflect. They tried to understand why we have nightmares or happy dreams.

But, the question is: can your dreams improve your writing?

 Let’s find out!

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HOW THE BRAIN CREATES

 

 

 

#IDEAS : The #Philosophy Of Creative Writing

 "In 1930, Lewis worried about an “American fear of literature” — of readers who didn’t want to grapple with social novels and the issues they raised. Ninety years later, we should worry about why we stopped fearing it."

 

The Philosophy of Creative Writing

IN 1930, Sinclair Lewis sailed to Sweden to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature. In Stockholm, where he received the gold medal and a check for $46,000 from King Gustaf V, Lewis thanked the Swedish Academy and then devoted the next hour to condemning American literature and criticism. Most Americans, he told his European audience, “are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues.” 

He railed against the jingoism and anti-intellectualism of American universities and colleges, lamenting that they excluded creative writers from their lecterns because professors liked their literature “cold and pure and very dead.” Lewis saved his harshest words for new humanism, a philosophical movement that promoted a restoration of moral teaching in the liberal arts and opposed deterministic theories of human nature, which he mocked as an “astonishing circus” and a “nebulous cult.”  

 

 Elitist, moralizing, nostalgic for an imagined past — new humanism, he argued, epitomized the worst of American culture. Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, titled his lecture “The American Fear of Literature.” He received a standing ovation in Stockholm and severe criticism in the United States.

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City of American Literature

 

#BrainCare: A Healthy #Vegetarian Keto #Diet

 

"It’s clearly possible to be both keto and vegetarian. The biggest issues may be lack of variety and meeting your nutrition needs on a regular basis without eating meat or seafood."

 

 

 

How to follow a healthy vegetarian keto diet 

  By Franziska Spritzler, RD

Are you a vegetarian interested in experiencing the many benefits of a keto diet? Or perhaps you’re already eating keto but have been thinking about giving up meat for ethical or other reasons. There’s good news – a vegetarian keto lifestyle is definitely doable. 

However, there are some potential health issues to be aware of.

Read on to learn how to follow a vegetarian keto diet in a healthy, sustainable way.

 

 

 

Introduction

Are there any health concerns for keto vegetarians?

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A COMPLETE GUIDE TO FASTING 

 Dr Jason Fung