Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide

Your thoughts follow your mood

Once you’ve come up with a new idea, there are two ways to test it. First, there is the one I described earlier, when you bring the critical faculties you suspended during the playful stage to bear on whatever it is that you have thought of. You’re now sufficiently clear about your idea to be in a position to evaluate it. If you decide it can be im

If you are an experienced writer, and you show people your work, there are four questions you need to ask: Where were you bored? Where could you not understand what was going on? Where did you not find things credible? Was there anything that you found emotionally confusing?

if you have zero expectations at the start, you can hardly fail. And you’re already priming your unconscious…

Once you have the answers to these, then you go away, decide how valid the problems are … and fix them yourself. The people you have asked will probably suggest their solutions too. Ignore these completely.

That’s the great thing about working in comedy. If the audience doesn’t laugh, you know you’ve got it wrong.

don’t ask yourself who is right. Ask which idea is better.

The trouble is that most people want to be right. The very best people, however, want to know if they’re right.

the bigger the leap, the longer the creative period is likely to be.