Creative Writing Exam 1

Developing a habit of mind

Making a habit of thinking about the world that develops your creative cognition

Habit of mind #1 - Ask (wonder)

You notice what others dont

You wonder: You want to know more

You ask “what if” “why” “how”

Habit of mind #2 - Risk

You risk tangents and wild connections

You risk not being perfect

You risk leaving behind imperfections to keep digging for ideas

Habit of mind #3 - Dig

You dont settle for your first surface thought
You ask yourself questions to dig deeper into your mind
You dig to get to surprising ideas

Creativity

Process which someone develops original, surprising solutions to current problems

Divergent thinking

Thought process whose goal is to produce the greatest number of ideas as solutions to a problem

Convergent thinking

Thought process whose goal is to choose the most useful, original, and usable ideas.

Spreading activation

Cognitive process which a concept activates another concept which activates another. The farther the activation spreads, the more creative the ideas. 

Free association (type of spreading activation)

In CC: Process which one piece of info stored in long term memory activates a nearby piece of information. The longer the activation is allowed to spread, the more remote the connections become.

In PW: Allows powerwriting one word or sentence about an idea to activate nearby information stored in the brain, and writes the next idea that comes to mind

Locus of control

Who is “in charge”. Who the writer believes has the power to set your writing goals

Intrinsic Reward

When doing something is its own reward

Schema

A package of stored info about patterns of behavior and expectations to perform that the brain uses in a specific situations.

Dominant schema

Schema for a context that is used so often that they override other schema.
Ex: Years of schooling on how to write have created a schema about what you should do and not do.

Inner critic

Another term for your dominant schema for writing

Intervenes when a sentence, word, or idea doesn’t fit the writers perceived goal for the writing

Conversational Partner

Person with whom you’re having a conversation

In powerwriting, the goal is to become a friendly conversational partner on paper

Open ended question

A question with no “right” answer, but has many possible answers

Every powerwrite begins with a prompt called a backbone question, which is also this type of question