Creative Grocery List: An Evening With Peter Carey and Josip Novakovich

little wooden man with veggiesI have a very unwriterly reason for having a soft spot for Peter Carey: my godmother was a fervent fan of his.

I remember a wonderful visit with her years ago in her little house (oh how I loved her royal blue bathtub and loo), listening to her talk in great excitement over tea and cake about “this marvelous new Australian writer” and his newly published first novel “Oscar and Lucinda.”

So when I heard the two-time Booker Prize winner was coming to Montreal to discuss “the writing of inspiration” with Globe and Mail’s Arts Editor Jared Bland at Concordia University, how could I not go? Especially as they were to be joined by Booker short-listed author Josip Novakovich, the master, I discovered last year, of the art of hilarious-but-serious anecdotes.

How to begin

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Are Some Creativity Myths Holding You Back?

sunset and clouds over Lac BromeAre you letting some creativity myths stop you from getting down to the creative work you should be doing?

It’s so easy to use some of these myths as excuses – I don’t have enough experience, I don’t have any truly new ideas, I don’t have the right pen, desk, laptop, I haven’t planned it all out yet…

In a recent Globe and Mail article, Harvey Schachter examines how David Burkus of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., describes – and rewrites – these myths in his book The Myths of Creativity.

I found myself mulling over three of the myths from a writer’s (or any creative person’s) perspective.

The Originality Myth

“Creative ideas are assumed to be original to their creator […] But history shows ideas usually develop Continue reading