Gods of Writing and Stories

A recent show on Disney Plus (I don't want to identify it in case of spoilers) saw one of the characters become the God of Stories. In this situation, the god took on responsibility for maintaining the multiverse, allowing a multitude of stories and different lives to flourish. I really like this idea because in my Season Avatars universe, there is a goddess who calls Herself the Grandmother of Stories. She is one of the primary gods of the Hidden Archipelago, but Her interest in stories draws Her to events around the world so She can witness historical events. (She not only provides story recaps for the reader but also appears in the climax of the series.) The Goddess of Stories grants Her Avatars gifts with language and public speaking, and one of them will feature in the next book in this setting (it's tentatively called Avatars Abroad.)

Inspired by the show and my work, I tried to come with an actual god or goddess of stories from mythology. I'm not sure there's one devoted specifically to storytelling. The Egyptian god Thoth is associated with writing; when I visited the British Museum in 2006, I brought back a small statue of Thoth (pictured) and offered him my leftover English money. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough of a sacrifice to jumpstart my writing career, but there are plenty of other gods also associated with language and/or intelligence (see this list from Wikipedia.) The Greek Muses are probably the best known goddesses associated with creativity, but plenty of other pantheons acknowledge the importance of creativity. Here's one such list. It includes Hindu and Japanese deities in addition to some of the more well-known ones. 

Do you have a "patron muse?" (As a Beatles fan, I consider John Lennon my muse since he also was a writer.) Can you think of any other deities who might be a god or goddess of stories? If so, feel free to share in the comments.

IWSG: Writing, Creativity, and Life

Welcome to another blog post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook group, or Twitter feed.

Our hosts this month are Ellen at The Cynical Sailor, Ann V. Friend, JQ Rose, and Elizabeth Seckman.

This month, we've been asked to answer the following question: How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

My life has definitely changed a lot since I began writing over twenty years ago, but I'd say other factors besides writing have definitely influenced my creativity. One major life event that increased my creativity was becoming a mother. Although motherhood takes up a lot of free time, it also exposes me to different interests and activities that I wouldn't have discovered on my own. For instance, after taking my son to bouncy houses when he was younger, I used one at the setting in my short story "The Mommy Clone." When he became interested in Star Wars, our whole family got into Star Wars costuming, which has led to me learning to sew.

Other creative hobbies have come and gone over the years. I taught myself how to crochet in my twenties; among other things, I made a ring bearer's pillow and a baby outfit. Then I forgot about crochet for a while until the end of 2016. I found a pattern to crochet a "pussy hat" for the Women's March and ended up making two. From there I just kept on going. I currently found a niche  in making geeky amigurmi with Star Wars characters, though I'm expanding into other fandoms and other crochet projects. Most of my crochet is done using patterns someone else designs, though sometimes I modify the pattern. Eventually, I want to create my own designs, possibly to sell.

How has your creativity changed with your writing? Feel free to share in the comments.

The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World

In my opinion, the title "The Runaway Species" doesn't do its book justice. At least the subtitle "How Human Creativity Remakes the World" is a better fit.

The beginning of this book discusses two types of creativity (Picasso painting one of his masterpieces and NASA saving the crew of Apollo 13) that seem wildly different but aren't. Eagleman states there are three ways we can creatively alter something: by "bending" or distorting it, by "breaking" it into components, and by "blending" it with something else. (I can attest to the latter, as I tend to throw several different ideas into a single story.) He lists several examples of each type of change. We can adapt to new things very quickly (witness how much we're tied to our smartphones), so the pleasure we find in getting something new fades. On the other hand, something too different from the status quo will be rejected by society. (The example given in the book was Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, which was the finale of a quartet. Contemporaries hated it so much Beethoven had to remove the fugue from the quartet and publish it separately. Luckily, society caught up with Beethoven, and we are able to listen to the Grosse Fugue today.) One of the reasons we change things so much is to seek the sweet spot between familiarity and novelty. This is a constantly moving target, which is why companies must continue to innovate even when they're currently very successful.

The second part of the book discusses how to cultivate a creative mentality. Part of this requires coming up with many different options, working in a variety of fields, and being able to accept failure. The final section deals with creativity in schools, in companies, and in the future.

Anyone interested in creativity will find this an interesting book to read. The hard part, as always, is implementing its ideas in daily life.

Age and Creativity

Despite my busy schedule over the weekend, I managed to read Susan Kaye Quinn's The Legacy Human, first part of the Singularity series. It's about a teenage boy who's an artist, and he has to compete against other teenage artists for the chance to win immortality not just for himself, but for his dying mother. It's a good book,fast-paced and thought-provoking, and it's the current front-runner for my Hugo nomination. However, one of the issue it makes me think about might not be what Quinn had in mind.

In her world, teens compete to ascend (be transferred to an augmented state) because they're most likely to survive the process. Given that the youths apparently don't have to work or go to school (which could explain some of the problems in their society), it's plausible that they could practice enough to master their art. But what kind of life experiences or perspectives can one accumulate in less than two decades? Is this system fair to the late bloomers--assuming that the losers or those not picked for the competition would bother continuing their art with no hope of the big reward? Even a prodigy like Mozart benefited from maturity. Perhaps as a middle-aged writer, I'd rather read about characters closer to my age, ones more likely to inspire me, than ones I'm now old enough to parent. There are certainly real-life examples of people being creative at every stage of life, from Mozart to Grandma Moses.

Do you feel age makes a difference in creativity? Do you think it's harder to have a creative mind as one gets older? Alternatively, how does one preserve a creative mindset as one gets older. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

RPGs: Not Just for Grown-Ups Anymore

Anyone out here familiar with D&D and GURPS? (Dungeons and Dragons and Generic Universal Role-Playing System) I played some role-playing games back in undergrad: Star Trek, Star Wars, and a spy game I can't remember the name of anymore. I even tried running a superhero campaign in GURPS, but we only did it once. I wouldn't claim to be the greatest gamer, but I had fun with it. So it was nice to see this article on CNN about a guy who's come up with a RPG for kids. It's not a video game; it's a tabletop version. (I wonder what kind of dice it uses.) RPGs not only foster creativity, but they also help kids with their math and reading. Hopefully something like this will also encourage a lifelong love of fantasy and science fiction as well.

Ten Word Tuesday--On Being Too Busy

When every moment is taken, when can a writer dream?

Humor, Puzzles, and Creativity

If you subscribe to the New York Times online, they had an interesting article yesterday about scientists who are trying to understand the "Aha!" moment of creativity. What the scientists have found is that humor helps put the brain in the right frame of mind to achieve insight in solving word problems (as opposed to the trial-and-error method). Apparently humor makes it easier for the brain to spot the less-obvious connections that may be necessary to solve a puzzle. Doing crossword or Sudoku puzzles also helps open up the brain. Subconscious clues may also help people solve problems. Although analysis and insight may both be required to solve a problem, they are different states of the brain. If we know how to switch ourselves from one state to another, we may become more creative and better problem-solvers.

I think we writers need to keep these points in mind not just for ourselves, but for our characters, since we often toss tough tasks their way and expect them to muddle through. Knowing how to achieve insight will help us resolve our tangled plot points, which are often problems our characters have to face too. Sometimes it's not enough for them to resolve the problem; we have to show how they figured it out and how creative they were. The more we know about creativity and problem-solving, the better we'll be at helping characters solve their problems and showing how they do so in a realistic way. Perhaps that wise-cracking sidekick is more helpful than he or she knows.

Finally, to help you with your creative thinking today, here's some Whose Line Is It Anyway? humor. I've posted it before, but it's been a while:

Discussion: Creativity

My three-year-old son is obsessed with trains. To him, everything is a train--markers, playground equipment, even me. It's almost the opposite of that old brainstorming exercise where you think of as many different uses for an object as you can. So I came up with a question: is it more creative to make the same thing out of several different objects (what my son does) or to come up with several different things to do with the same object? In what types of situations would you find each type of creativity useful?

White Space and Creativity

White space (or negative space) is the part of the page that's left blank. It's necessary not just to group text and graphic elements, but to give the eyes a rest. Similarly, our minds need downtime to learn and come up with new ideas. But as this article in the New York Times points out, our electronic gadgets provide temptation to fill all our downtime with distractions. If we ceaselessly shovel content into our brains, we will never have enough quiet time to be creative.

I have to admit there are times when I don't give myself enough quiet time--instead of relaxing during my lunch hour, I surf the Net or write. But there are other times, such as when I'm at the park with Alex, that I try to take time to relax, look at the clouds, and try to clear my head. It isn't easy, especially when I get earworms from Alex's shows stuck in my brain. But I've also found that when I set aside some time to be creative--for example, setting aside time to develop a plot or an alien race--several ideas may pile on top of each other.

Do you give yourself mental downtime? If so, is it just walking away from the Internet for a while, or do you take more drastic measures? Do you think more should be done to promote the importance of downtime? I wonder if some future culture will mandate everyone unplug every so often, and what affect that would have on people.

Quotations: Creativity

While I was cleaning out my office earlier this week, I found a clipping with quotes on creativity. I'm not sure where I found it, but I know I've had it for years. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from it:

Very few people do anything creative after the age of 35. The reason is that very few people do anything creative before the age of 35. -- Joel Hildebrand

Highly creative people are often off their rockers.--Stanley Hoffmann

Artists die twice. First creatively. Then physically. The second one is easier.--Sylvester Stallone