Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

Creativity, is always so hard to describe to anyone else. As a former tutor on a degree course in the arts, as well as a textile designer for many years, I came to recognize those qualities in a student that, would more or less determine how good they were going to be. To the lay person, creativity is often seen as practical skill, being good with fabric or plants or buildings or whatever, but in practice, it always felt more to do with certain personality characteristics and whether they had them or not. This is why I suspect that those awful creative workshops for business types never actually do anything either; you can develop the skills, but they need to be there in the first place. A former tutor, when I was doing my own post graduate work, once said, that if you were creative, you could turn your hand to most creative tasks, garden design or architechture; you could learn the practical stuff, but not so much the creativity of mind that was there or not. And yes, being open as a personality, is the most important thing. Creativity is something, as the authors say, admired in a loose general way in society, but not the actual creative mind or personality, which is very messy and different from most others. I know, I was one growing up and never fitted into other peoples ideas of what was normal, until I was lucky enough to get into art school during my late thirties. What a joy, to be surrounded by other odd bods who thought and felt the same way and me, and what a joy not to have to explain why you do or don't do things the same way as other people; although sometimes you do of course. My husband who is a scientific creative (he has worked on NASA products, both in the US and here in the UK) read the book after me and agreed with the authors assertions about the difference in various types of creativity, the differences between artistic and scientific creatives. I so wished I had had this book when I was growing up, it would have helped me understand myself so much and saved so much pain and misunderstanding, particularly if those around me had read it too. Far from being unoriginal, as one reviewer complained, this book is full of the latest research, carefully gathered together in a very readable form. Research is growing all the time and we are now learning so much about not just what we create and how to go about it (which is what I and others teach) but the nature of that creativity itself. Do not be fooled, there is a mine of important information in this book and if you are, or are thinking of going into any creative field as a career, please read it first; excellant too if you have a creative person in the family. Read it and take note; I cannot recommend highly enough.

This is a good book for anyone interested inthe creative process. As an artist I recognize and appreciate the research that has gone into this book.

good book

guys. you have GOT to get your nose into this! i literally couldn't believe all of the bright colorful pictures my mind was painting when I read this. i bought it as required material for a class I was taking (in COLLEGE by the way, NOT high school.) and we didn't get all the way through the book by the end of class, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I was speeding through this thing at home. I was reading paragraph on paragraph. sometimes multiple pages in a day! i couldn't put it down.it really changed my outlook on creativity, and helped me pass my (college) class with flying colors!

Thoroughly researched, insightful, practical.The authors bring together a wealth of fascinating research plus examples of known creative people arranged into 10 behaviours common to many creative people. The result is a book which makes you aware of the different behaviours that can augment creativity so you can be sensitive to them - in yourself and others - do them more, and really indulge them. The book is a pleasure to read with its entertaining stories and exploratory style and left me with an even greater respect for those who succeed in creating something genuinely new and different.