TWIC: Worst muse, plot sex, magic, process, notebooks, brainstorming, distraction, cleese, school

The Worst Muse Twitter account isn't active these days, but there is lots of (terrible) advice there.

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Writing plot sex

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Help transcribe texts on magic for the Chicago Library. C'mon, what could go wrong?

“You don't need a Ph.D to transcribe,” Christopher Fletcher, coordinator of the project and a fellow of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, tells Smithsonian.com. “[The initiative] is a great way to allow the general public to engage with these materials in a way that they probably wouldn't have otherwise.”


The three manuscripts now available online reflect the varied and complex ways that magic fit into the broader religious landscape of a shifting and modernizing West. The 17th-century Book of Magical Charms contains instructions on a range of magical practices—“from speaking with spirits to cheating at dice,” according to the Transcribing Faith website—but also includes Latin prayers and litanies that align with mainstream religious practices. An untitled document known as the “commonplace book” explores strange and fantastical occurrences, along with religious and moral questions. Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits by Increase Mather, a Puritan minister and president of Harvard who presided over the Salem Witch Trials, expresses a righteous condemnation of witchcraft.

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The Real Creative Process Here are the five steps offered at the link. I snipped most of the explanations so if you want more, follow the link:

1 Preparation
Preparation involves forming a question about our project and immersing ourselves in the search for answers. We decide we want to create something and set out to learn how. It doesn’t just involve pre-work for the project itself; it encompasses everything we’ve ever done or felt.
2 Incubation
Our subconscious processes what we learned in the first stage and assembles it more easily and cleverly than our conscious mind ever could.
3 Illumination
This is the part everyone thinks happens automatically, and pretty much never does. Occasionally, after some Incubation (which could be weeks, months, or the amount of time it takes to have a shower), our muse will deliver a nice little package for us.
4 Verification
More often, though, verification is the part where we discover our ideas still need work. If we’re not careful to be very gentle with ourselves at this stage, it can feel like the creative equivalent of waking up hungover next to the person we brought home from the bar, who, in the cold morning, looks more like a melted candle than the thing we took to bed.
5 Elaboration
Elaboration is where we renew our commitment and run through steps 1-4 again and again until we end up with something we can love.
Although I’ve written the process as if it always goes in order, Csikszentmihalyi reminds us “that the five stages, in reality, are not exclusive but typically overlap and recur several times before the process is completed.

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More on Feynman and notebooks.
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A list of rules for brainstorming. These three stand out for me (follow the link for the rest and a video):

3. Build on the ideas of others
4. Stay focused on the topic
5. One conversation at a time

I think these specific rules work for a group brainstorming session but seem to step on the general rule against editing. Perhaps the video explains things.
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Being busy is killing our ability to think creatively. There is a quote within a quote below - the nested quote is in italics

Little good comes from being distracted yet we seem incapable of focusing our attention. Among many qualities that suffer, recent research shows creativity takes a hit when you’re constantly busy. Being able to switch between focus and daydreaming is an important skill that’s reduced by insufferable business.8 As Stanford’s Emma Seppälä writes:

The idea is to balance linear thinking—which requires intense focus—with creative thinking, which is borne out of idleness. Switching between the two modes seems to be the optimal way to do good, inventive work.

This reminds me of John Cleese saying that he needed 15 minutes to get into a project and any distraction, even a short one, required the same 15 minutes warm up.
Hmmm. I can't find that quote but naturally there is a lot of interesting Cleese has said. Here are a few places to look. One. Two. Three.
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I remember forty years ago we were about to put up panelling or wallpaper in a room and the evening before, dad brought out pencils and, well, stuff - it was forty years ago, the details are hazy - and we decorated the walls with our art before they were covered over and hidden.
The same thing was done on a larger scale at a school about to undergo renovations.

Their Facebook page with many images of the art.

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The Muses

In Our Time on BBC radio recently looked at The Muses. It was online on May 19 and BBC sometimes deletes or locks away their content after some time has passed. The link above probably has a time limit.

I realized that although I had heard of Erato, I didn't know much about these mythical fonts of creativity. Some research - not all that much was needed after Melvin and his Crew discussed the subject, led to details and images.

From Tales Beyond Belief:

Calliope is normally the patroness of writers, although there are several that carry a book or scroll symbol.

Urania is the patroness of astronomy, although today, this field is considered to have expanded to include all of science.  Ah considered by those who care about such stuff. At some point in this post, I'm going to have to discuss what value I think the muses have.

Wikipedia discusses the Muses.

I enjoy this description given at Greekmyths-greekmythology. The language is just enough off to make me think this is second language writing and to emphasize the dreamlike or non rational quality of the subject matter. They" were similar to everything." Uh, okay.

According to the Greek Myths, God Zeus bewildered the young woman Mnemosyne and slept with her for nine consecutive nights. The result of their encounter was the Nine Muses, who were similar to everything.
Μnemosyne gave the babies to Nymph Eufime and God Apollo. When they grew up they showed their tendency to the arts, taught by God Apollo himself.
They were not interested in anything of the regular human everyday life and they wanted to dedicate their lives to the Arts. Apollo brought them to the big and beautiful Mount Elikonas, where the older Temple of Zeus used to be. Ever since, the Muses supported and encouraged creation, enhancing imagination and inspiration of the artists.
Muses and Arts
According to the Greek Mythology, two Muses invented theory and practice in learning, three Muses invented the musical vibrations in Lyre, four Muses invented the four known dialects in the language – Attica, Ionian, Aeolian and Dorian – and five muses the five human senses. Seven muses invented the seven chords of the lyre, the seven celestial zones, the seven planets and the seven vocals of the Greek Alphabet.

Ancient History Encyclopedia has an article about the Muses by Mark Cartwright who I think is one of the speakers in the In Our Time podcast.
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Alright.  Why do I care?  I am a man trained in science and a dedicated skeptic so I am not planning any sacrifices or offerings.  I think I am fascinated by the Muses in precisely the same way I am fascinated by creativity.  They, or it, are magical, even today.  Poorly understood and maddening.

Even now, we mostly understand why people have creative insight only when they are in laboratory conditions.  For example, the 1931 swinging ropes experiment. A researcher would bring subjects into a room with two hanging ropes, then ask the subjects to hold them both or tie them together.  But the ropes were too far apart to simply hold one and walk to the other.  If subjects appeared stuck or if a set amount of time had passed, the researcher would bump into a rope *accidentally* and the subject would quickly figure out the solution - swing one rope, then walk to the other rope, approach the swinging rope and wait for it to swing into reach.  But when subjects were questioned on what led them to inspiration,  they didn't know, or they told stories that were themselves quite creative.  The timing however showed the real causation.

Is creativity only understandable in situations where researchers have staged a problem? Could asking the Muses for help offer any benefit?  Urania, please help me study and understand!

I want to be obsessed

A lot of psychology is biology and I know a fair bit in that field.  One course I took, Animal behavior, was  a strong introduction to the subject.  In this post, I will write about what I think of as obsession. I think I follow the basic definition Google offered at the top of its search window:

an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.
plural noun: obsessions
"he was in the grip of an obsession he was powerless to resist"
synonyms: fixation, ruling/consuming passion, passion, mania, idée fixe, compulsion, preoccupation, infatuation, addiction, fetish, craze, hobbyhorse;

but I want it clear I make no claim to the psychological definition of the word and that I find the casual use of 'OCD' to be annoying.

I recently wrote to a friend about our obsessions.  He put himself on a strict diet for two weeks to see what would happen and one result was he dreamed and lusted for the wondrous food he would eat after the two weeks had passed.  In 2015, I gave myself the goal of running 183 times in the year. I, uh, like talking about the thing I was obsessed with; that can't be a surprise, but it really isn't a subject relevant to this blog.  I'm still going to write about it, but I posted it in the 'read more' or 'under the fold' area.  If you want, you can find it there.

The point of the longish story below is that I set goals and stuck to them pretty well, even though I didn't really enjoy them. Or I enjoyed them but also found them exhausting and irritating.  My friend, struggled through his labour and doubtless enjoyed seeing his weight drop and feeling physically better even though it presented a physical struggle.

I have a blog post from Asana open. It is called Working from home? Here’s how to stay on task.  I really should read it. I'm good at finding such articles, and I read many of them.  Reading is good.
It would be much freakin' better if I convinced myself to follow such articles!

In the eighties and early nineties, I watched Prisoner of Gravity, as TVO show about science fiction and fantasy books and movies. In season four and five, there were episodes with advice for writers.  One point I remember from those episodes was the advice, 'If you can find something else to do, then do that instead'.  You needed to be obsessive and driven to write for it to work.

I have a job.  I'm an ESL teacher and I work to make the subject interesting to my students, many of whom are there chiefly because they have to be.  I have large periods of time off and I always plan to revamp my teaching and try new ways.  And I do, I still think I am a good teacher, but not nearly as much as I could.

I started this blog to document my research into creativity and to understand how to do and how to teach it.  I definitely know enough that I should be a creative person now. And when I have a problem, I use creative methods to find a solution. But I am not producing much, if any, more than I did when I began at Creativiti Project.

So, here are more than fifteen hundred words about writing that aren't directed at the story I have been trying to write for the past few months. It seems that I need to trick myself to write.

I am creative.  I need to be obsessive.

I love Grant Snider's comics and this one seems a relevant.  I have shrunk it here, follow the link for the full size version or ways to buy it. I added the red circle:

I either need no other work or I need other work I want to avoid.  Actually, I would probably avoid both.

Crossposting: mind body dualism research

I recently blogged about new research on consciousness at CreationEvolutionBusan, my ranting blog for arguments about evolution.

One part of the research article fits on this blog.  A big part of why I began to research creativity was to learn how new ideas suddenly appear in my (or anyone's) head.  I still don't know and it appears no one does.  The closest people come to an understanding is to offer tips on how to have these flashes of inspiration, how to prepare our minds for them.  But not how they occur.

From the article (my bolding):

Compare consciousness to the Internet, Morsella suggested. The Internet can be used to buy books, reserve a hotel room and complete thousands of other tasks. Taken at face value, it would seem incredibly powerful. But, in actuality, a person in front of a laptop or clicking away on a smartphone is running the show -- the Internet is just being made to perform the same basic process, without any free will of its own.
The Passive Frame Theory also defies the intuitive belief that one conscious thought leads to another. "One thought doesn't know about the other, they just often have access to and are acting upon the same, unconscious information," Morsella said. "You have one thought and then another, and you think that one thought leads to the next, but this doesn't seem to be the way the process actually works."

I may be making too much of this sentence fragment.  It certainly doesn't answer questions.  I can only hope it points where we need to look.

Many researchers have noted the connection between creativity and mental illness (here is one example from this blog) so Morsella's thoughts in that direction may be of interest:

The theory has major implications for the study of mental disorders, Morsella said. "Why do you have an urge or thought that you shouldn't be having? Because, in a sense, the consciousness system doesn't know that you shouldn't be thinking about something," Morsella said. "An urge generator doesn't know that an urge is irrelevant to other thoughts or ongoing action."

Am I creative?

I recently gave a talk on creativity and how to encourage it in the classroom.  I'm not all that satisfied with the talk I gave; I think I tried to ....no, no point in weasel words.   I know I tried to fit in too much information and content into 45 minutes.  My biggest fault was first explaining how some research shows brainstorming doesn't increase the creation of new ideas, then spending time explaining how to brainstorm.

Ah, I've had a beer and didn't have lunch.  I hope I'm making sense.

The talk was satisfactory and one person in the audience had a lot of fun with my activities and really made me feel good about them.  Good work, dude whose name I never got.

Early in the talk, I stated that after ten years of studying and blogging about creativity, I didn't think I was creative.  I told the audience I would explain that at the end of my talk.

But the end of talk was rushed and I didn't explain it.

What I planned to discuss was my creative output; the total amount of creative work I have produced.  And I planned to say I hadn't made all that much.

In thinking it over, I believe I undersold myself.  Or, um, I would have undersold myself to the audience if I had explained the point.  Instead I left them curious and unsatisfied.

I have written two 'books' with Nanowrimo and have been working on a third.  None are close to being published.  I have ideas for three short stories.  The main points are fleshed out but have not been written.  I have two or three plans and even drawings for wood carvings but haven't touched my gouges and chisels in months.  I have plenty of ideas but I have a low production rate.

Is this true?

In the past two years, I have prepared 40 Google Slideshow presentations for the science camp I teach at, and at least a similar number of slideshows for my university students.  I lectured my son's classmates on my work at the Wye Marsh in Ontario,Canada and on water safety.  I have prepared and led many activities at Dongseo University's English Cafe...

Student needed to put these pictures in order and tell a  story.

I have created a lot of content but for work rather than for my own unfettered desire.  And yet, it has not been exclusively work.  I enjoy teaching and have managed to insert fun and games and joy into my classes.

I've created a lot of content.  I am creative.  I don't want to turn into Stuart Smalley for this post, but I do want to admit to myself that though my creative output has been less-publicized, it is still real and useful.

My best ideas come 3 minutes after I leave the computer

Colin Marshall at Boingboing looks at the question of why your creative ideas all come when you are driving.

"I guess the nice thing about driving a car is that the physical act of driving itself occupies a good chunk of brain cells that otherwise would be giving you trouble overloading your thinking," writes Douglas Coupland in Life After God. "New scenery continually erases what came before; memory is lost, shuffled, relabeled and forgotten. Gum is chewed; buttons are pushed; windows are lowered and opened. A fast moving car is the only place where you're legally allowed to not deal with your problems. It's enforced meditation and this is good."

Yahoo news teasers as prompts

If you want to know more, click here.

Before you do, think about the 11 other times it is better to spend a little more up front:

(somewhat) serious:
batteries, underarm deodorant, medicine, first dates, university choice, bikes, rain coats, haircuts, umbrellas,

Silly(er):
brothels & prostitutes, shoes, interview clothes, ...Dang, these aren't very silly.

Having looked at them, I can see that the online answers were sillier than mine.

Number 1: Vending machine snacks.  The advice, order (high quality) snacks online.  I can see how that would save money, but preparing your own snacks at home would be even better.  As a bonus, the reduced packaging would be better for the environment.  This point also leaves out the socializing potential of visiting the vending machine.  I would guess it is similar to a coffee break and people might gather there.

Number 2 is just sad: Don't just separate to save money; go the distance and get that divorce.  It is probably good advice, but a tough thing to discuss.

This isn't a home-ec blog so let me comment on just one more thing before I conclude: Extended warranties(#6):

Overpaying for extended warranties
"The cost-effectiveness of extended warranties is minimal and simply put, they're generally a bad idea," says Schrage.
In fact, retailers typically enjoy a greater gross profit on the extended warranty than they do on the product they're selling.
Standard warranties should be just enough to get you by. 
On the flipside, if your PC or laptop breaks down, forgoing the extra $50 or $100 could cost you hundreds for wear and tear. 

That's good adv...oh, wait, no it isn't, chiefly because there is no advice given.  Get the extended or not?  At the end of the segment, you are still left in the air.

I think Yahoo lists these teasers to increase 'page-view hits' for the purpose of selling advertising.  It's really annoying, but if you want prompts to brainstorm over, there are new ones every day.

art from several personalities but also from only one person

Apparently, her ID gives her name as Kim Noble, but her dominant personality goes by Patricia.  She was interviewed in the Guardian recently.  She has more than 100 separate personalities and many of them create art.

I have always hid behind a 'manly and masculine lack of understanding of art' but the variety of media and content shown here do appear to be from different people.

Nick Cave is not in a creativity competition.

Fifteen years ago, Nick Cave won MTV's best male artist award but declined to accept it.  His letter includes sincere thanks and some mystical discussion of his muse.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF THE OPINION THAT MY MUSIC IS UNIQUE AND INDIVIDUAL AND EXISTS BEYOND THE REALMS INHABITED BY THOSE WHO WOULD REDUCE THINGS TO MERE MEASURING. I AM IN COMPETITION WITH NO-ONE.

Nick Cave Online via Kottke.

Lovecrafts 'commonplace' book

Apparently 'commonplace book' is another name for notebook, used by authors to store their writing ideas. 15 months ago, I wrote about Agatha's Christie's Notebooks.  I guess they were notebooks because she used them for everything - recipe's shopping lists, story ideas and more.  I have read a few Christie novels and enjoyed them but I have never gotten the feeling that she was a literary writer as perhaps Lovecraft was (was considered -by me- to be literary).

Anyway, Via Boinboing, I have learned a little about Lovecraft's commonplace book.

From Wired:

This book consists of ideas, images, & quotations hastily jotted down for possible future use in weird fiction. Very few are actually developed plots—for the most part they are merely suggestions or random impressions designed to set the memory or imagination working. Their sources are various—dreams, things read, casual incidents, idle conceptions, & so on.
—H. P. Lovecraft

Presented to R. H. Barlow, Esq., on May 7, 1934—in exchange for an admirably neat typed copy from his skilled hand.

1 Demophon shivered when the sun shone upon him. (Lover of darkness = ignorance.)

2 Inhabitants of Zinge, over whom the star Canopus rises every night, are always gay and without sorrow. [x]

3 The shores of Attica respond in song to the waves of the Aegean. [x]

Note the "May 7, 1934".  The list of ideas, which totals over 200, also includes dates and 1935 is listed.  Now, that is spooky.
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Not really related: Rudy Rucker has published his notes and ideas for Mathematicians in Love (PDF).  These notes were collected, I presume, after he published the book and clearly collected after he had the main ideas for this book.  It is not a commonplace book as I understand (poorly) the term as the notes comprise the time after 'the light turned on'.  Still, it is interesting to see how he put the book together.
I have not read the book, but some people (I forget who) at Boingboing love him.  I suspect the PDF has spoilers so it might be wise to read the actual book first. Mathematicians in Love at Amazon (published in 2008 with no Kindle edition available for me -I'm listed as Canadian - but perhaps for Americans?)

Encouragement from the American Elf

Yesterday, the Elf gave us:

what should I wear while writing?

If you are a woman, perhaps nothing.  The Guardian reports that:

Our survey of women writers revealed that only 48% wore "normal" clothes to write in. Two per cent wrote in the nude, 14% wore night clothes and 1% have a "special writing outfit".

The writer, Hadley Freeman, suggests that in addition to the proper selection of writing attire:

... I would suggest this for, to borrow your deliciously romantic phrase, "the aspiring authoress": first, a giant padlock. This is to be draped decorously around the fridge. It's amazing how hungry one gets when one is working from home, and how fascinating heretofore uninteresting foodstuffs become. Eating a can of pickled onions or starting the next chapter? No contest!

Next, a pair of shoes with cement blocks for soles. If you can't find them on the high street, ask a friend with connections to the mafia. Put them on once you have finally watched all the morning TV you can take before suffering an aneurysm and are sitting at your desk. These will make it harder for you to get up and wander around: it is an unexplained but irrefutable phenomenon that for some reason it is only when one has to do any kind of writing at home that one realises how many fascinatingother things there are in one's flat that require reading immediately, such as three-month-old magazines and the backs of aspirin bottles.

Next, maim your left hand. Just smash it with your cement shoes and be sure to injure it in a way that won't impede your typing, but will stop you turning on your wireless or spending another day on the internet reading articles about things you don't care about.

And finally, don't wash your hair for several days and wear the ugliest outfit possible. Perhaps that old maternity dress of your sister's that somehow ended up in your closet? The one with the spaghetti sauce dripping down the front in a pattern that makes it look like you're drooling? Perfect. Put that on. Thus, even if you develop the thigh muscles to be able to walk in your cement shoes (never underestimate the determination of those desperate to procrastinate), this look will definitely keep you from going outside and will secure you in your chair, writing the next great novel. Procrastination is a strong compulsion, yes. But vanity beats all.