This page is another that’s still in its infancy. I plan to make it a collection of links to various resources I hope will be useful to other writers.
Useful sites I’ve found…
(People like Joanna Penn, Mark Dawson, Daniel David Wallace, Bryan Cohen, Derek Haines, Neil Gaiman’s Master Class, and many more.)
Unconscious Thought Theory and Creativity
The handout for my workshop on this at Conflux 16 in Canberra, 2022.
Because it’s a topic close to my heart and also I think key to writing, I’ve written about this topic several times now on both my blogs. Because it’s fiddly to track each article down, I’ll collect the links to each of them here, starting with the oldest first.
1: From Sunday 11th September 2016: The Creative Process and the Unconscious, which started:
I’m fascinated by the creative process, and I’ve had a few pieces of luck, perhaps, in getting some insights into it.
I’m right now in the middle of watching a TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) which I found on Shannon Ellison’s absorbing blog at Nearly Eloquent (more specially in Four Tips on Writing Well), about the creative process.
(Read the whole article…)
2: From Monday, 31st October 2016: Where Ideas Come From
I was daydreaming recently about what I’d say if I sat one day on an author panel, and someone asked the classic question. But I’ve thought about it enough, and followed perhaps enough interesting research, and been lucky enough, to maybe partly answer the question.
A stupidly arrogant claim, eh?
The short, half answer, is: the same place dreams come from.
(Read the whole article…)
3: From Tuesday, 27th February 2018: An update on Creativity and the Unconscious:
Why have I written this article now? Well, I’ve been reading and reviewing and doing small fixes to the half of the Leeth Dossier MS I’d set aside in… (goes away and checks some file dates…) yikes: it may have been 2008, 2004, or even 2003!
(Read the whole article…)
4: From Friday, 3 August 2018: Writing, Editing, Creating:
I wasn’t planning to write a blog article, but felt after yesterday I wanted to make some notes while the recent events were fresh in my mind. I’m not sure what this piece will be about, but I guess it’s going to touch on creativity (also see The Creative Process and the Unconscious, Where Ideas Come From) and An update on Creativity and the Unconscious), blocks, editing, and book 4 progress.
(Read the whole article…)
5: From Sunday, 8th December 2019: Overcoming Obstructions to Writing:
Just a quick post to share something small I learned about how my mind works when it comes to writing. For the last week I’ve made no progress on Lost Girl (Leeth Dossier #5). There were everyday tasks which I felt needed to be done (like coffee: harvest time won’t wait), but that wasn’t enough to explain it all. Those tasks only took up the time and energy for a portion of each day.
(Read the whole article…)
6: From Sunday, 5th April 2020: A Novel Ending:
A funny thing happened on the way to the ending…
I’m loving my new being-an-author career, despite my inability to earn a living from it. (Yet?)
One of the things I enjoy is that each book feels like it comes with its own unique challenges. I hope that means I’m learning as I go along.
(Read the whole article…)
7: From Friday 31st July 2020, Unconscious Thought Theory as a Tool for Creativity:
I ran a workshop on UTT for creativity at the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, on July 31st – (session information here):
What we’ll cover in this workshop
How can Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) help in writing?
What is UTT, and the science behind it
Practical exercise (part 1 of 2)
How UTT worked out for my writing
Do others use their unconscious for creativity?
Practical Exercise (part 2 of 2)