Curiosity for Writers

“Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” 

                                                    -- Einstein

For me, part of the fun of writing is making connections between ideas and finding something that's amusing and/or insightful. I have an outsized curiosity and, as a child, tormented people with my questions. I can get obsessed with subjects, researching them and probing for the limits of understanding.

While this is not an essential trait for a writer (observation, grace, and facility with language may be enough), I suspect it's important to creating work that is original and innovative. And the surprises and revelations that make stories (especially commercial fiction) engaging often depend upon knowledge and facts that are gathered more by happenstance than by focused research.

For some curiosity is an overwhelming drive, while for others it is a minor distraction.  Given how universal and familiar curiosity is, it is surprising that its definition, “a desire to know,” is less than helpful.  David Beswick, a social psychologist and professor emeritus, University of Melbourne, points to the origins of the word in careful attention or scientific or artistic interest (from the same root as accuracy, curate and care).  This seems like a relevant perspective for writers since curiosity often leads to the sort of focused attention that provides insight.

Experimentally, curiosity has been viewed both at a state (feeling curious) and a trait (being a curious person).  For the former, it is clear that we all have a need to be in a state of arousal with regard to knowing more.  If we didn’t question or learn, we wouldn’t be able to satisfy basic needs or grow.

Curiosity, in most cases, is its own reward. It’s an intellectual hunger that feels good to satisfy. It’s also a natural and healthy cure for boredom. But it also can have some practical value. It can be a starting point for creativity, motivating action. It can suggest deeper and/or transgressive  questions that challenge the status quo. It can reveal unexpected truths and new areas worthy of exploration. And it can stimulate an interest in going beyond the obvious to understand other people.

If you are naturally curious, there are a number of ways it can be piqued, including:
    ▪    Novelty
    ▪    Contradictions
    ▪    Incomplete information
    ▪    Delayed gratification (especially when questions go unanswered), which builds anticipation
    ▪    The urge to complete a picture, resolve a story, or solve a mystery.
    ▪    Recognizing and learning to form good questions
    ▪    Getting past expectations so you can observe and listen to other people without judgment

There are ways to reshape your environment to encourage and deepen curiosity:
    •    Reduce attention to wants so that adequate resources for basic needs are not in jeopardy.
    •    Schedule time for exploration that is driven by interests and questions, not just directed at goals.
    •    Move past habitual subjects (preferred genres, current hobbies, engagement in topical subjects) to discover and sample new intellectual areas, kinds of art, and perspectives.

Einstein said, “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” But, even if you have been trained to be conventional, you can find your way back to child-like virtues like humility, wonder, playfulness, and even obsession, unreasonableness, and rudeness. Embrace the toddler within.

Beswick sees curiosity as successfully balancing openness to what’s new and a natural concern for orderliness. He says, "I see curiosity as a process of creating, maintaining and resolving conceptual conflicts." When something surprising or unique comes up, especially when it doesn’t fit your worldview, a productively curious person will not dismiss it or force it to fit. Typically, it becomes a prompt for questions that lead to research and exploration. And, when enough information is gathered, analysis, restructuring, and testing new perspectives—real and often difficult work— begins. With enough questions, wonder, doubt, and imagination, something new is allowed to emerge. The surprise may fit itself into place or may lead to a new structure of thought and perception.

For many people, going so far with curiosity is difficult. Beswick says, “highly curious people will remain longer than others in situations of uncertainty, as well as being more likely to be there, that they will have developed a range of investigative skills to help resolve conceptual conflicts by gathering additional information, that they will have a sufficient sense of security in their world to put their cognitive map in jeopardy without debilitating anxiety, to run the risk of creating a new and better order, and that they will have the capacity to carry out the integration required to create a sense of cosmos where there was the threat of chaos. That is, they will be able, typically, and more than most people, to create, maintain, and resolve conceptual conflicts.”

Here are some other thoughts on developing curiosity:

• Go slowly - This is about learning at your pace, not someone else's. This may mean taking piano lessons, teaching yourself another language or exploring a new sport.
• Take small steps - Remind yourself of the sayings "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" Remind yourself that self-managed learning means making mistakes so you can learn what works and what doesn't. There are no grades posted, no deadlines to meet. This is your learning something solely for your enrichment.
• The best part is to make a list of things you want to do, learn or play. Find something delicious to eat, play your favorite music, sit down, and create your wish list.
  

Then get ready for the unexpected. You never know where asking a good question will take you.

This is adapted from an article I wrote regarding curiosity and innovation.