Curiouser and Curiouser - Refilling the Well 4

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

   - Albert Einstein

Last time, I wrote about the value of curiosity to writers. But do you actively develop your curiosity? Do you know how to do it?

We all know how curious children can be, so it’s not surprising that developing child-like virtues can support developing curiosity. Humility, tenacity, wonder and play all provide elements needed to explore an odd or unexpected fact. But some traits that might not be considered virtuous (though they are certainly child-like) can come in handy, too. Obsession, rudeness and unreasonableness may be just as important to develop… within bounds.

At the same time, some more adult characteristics are important. Doubt is chief among these, especially as training or the voices of those less curious provide explanations that may be almost right. In addition to a healthy skepticism, innovators who want to be more curious should take the view that things are unfinished and that there is room for improvement. Sometimes demanding a higher standard and imagining that it is achievable goes hand in hand with a curious nature.

Here are a few suggestions on things to do to help you develop your own curiosity:

• Put yourself into new situations that challenge your worldview (and imagine they are true)
• Actively observe, rigorously recording the input to all your senses
• Come up with your own list of great questions
• Question the status quo
• Give yourself permission to look at things differently
• Build your skills at investigating
• Have a perspective
• Make time for curiosity
• Be persistent
• Keep notes on your observations, insights and conclusions
• Solve puzzles
• Get other perspectives

In addition, you can create an environment that stimulates curiosity. Make sure it includes:

• Adequate resources for basic needs
• Enough free or available time
• Exposure to variety of inputs
• A limit to distractions, especially when you are likely to be in a curious state
• Forgiveness for wrong roads taken and work not done
• Proper training and tools for investigation and analysis

Unbridled curiosity is probably bad for a career and bad for relationships.  But most writers are well aware that creating something new is a risk endeavor.  Curiosity can be chancy, but the right dose of curiosity can make writing more fun and lead to unexpected benefits. 

This entry is derived in part from an article I wrote while at IBM, Need to Know: How curiosity drives innovation.

 

Developing Your Curiosity – Refilling the Well 3

 “Where do you get your ideas?” is a question almost every writer has been asked. This week, an agent asked me about a specific question, and I had no idea. The best I could do was reach back to college to explain a fragment.

We accumulate ideas, often in haphazard ways. Since most writers experience curiosity as an overwhelming drive, they have huge and strange collections at the ready. 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. Curious is from the same root as accuracy, curate and care.  

According to Beswick, "People who readily assimilate what they experience to what is already known will not experience very much curiosity."

Curious people balance openness to new stimuli with a concern for orderliness. In fact, a person experiencing curiosity is suspended between the two. He or she has a sense of how the world should be, a real framework that supports experience, interpretations and conclusions. But the curious person also respects the input from the senses. The state of curiosity is a state where things don’t add up.

Uncertainty is uncomfortable. While many people will deny the data, force the fit or move on to something else, the curious person “will be loathe to either assimilating or accommodating” the new information. Curious people can tolerate living with uncertainty longer than those who are less curious.

Curious people:

·      Take in new data,

·      Ask questions,

·      Test hypotheses,

·      Doubt their worldviews,

·      Tweak their frameworks and

·      Spend time wondering about new possibilities.

They invest in the time and effort to put the pieces together in a new way. They make sense of things.

Beswick says that highly curious people tend to have exceptional investigative skills and techniques for integrating information and creating order out of chaos. They also tend to have confidence in themselves or at least feel secure about everything turning out okay.

Why should writers develop curiosity?

Curiosity provides a different way to see the world, remaking us into the kind of explorers we were as children. This often creates new understanding and new perspectives. Curiosity can also be a starting point for creativity, motivating the actions that produce great stories and works of art.

Here are some elements tied to curiosity to consider:

·      Presence – The practice of living in the moment and paying attention to what your senses are telling you opens new doors.

·      Anomalies teach – And anomalies tend to be more visible when curiosity is engaged. They are harder to ignore because they may lead to an answer.

·      Asking questions – Curiosity does not tend to stay around as an unarticulated gut feeling. It generates questions that need answers, and often this leads to both action and new questions

·      Questioning the status quo – Unlearning and suspension of disbelief seem to be curiosity’s natural partners. A “fact” that doesn’t fit, no matter how deeply cherished, has a difficult time standing up to the assault of a curious mind.

·      Basic (not applied) understanding – Curiosity is more concerned with truth than with practical concerns.

·      Engaging others – Curiosity may force those who are less social to approach others, building trust and socializing questions ideas, and questions. Developing curiosity about people can be an important stimulus to networking for innovation.

In addition, interested people are interesting people. Cultivating this interest in others promotes conversation, listening skills and being really present to others, rather than thinking about other things.

Where do I get my ideas? From wherever curiosity leads me.

This entry is derived in part from an article I wrote while at IBM, Need to Know: How curiosity drives innovation.

Bigger 3 - Take Me to Monte Carlo

Is your setting big enough for your story? Middle-earth or Manhattan, you need to give the same consideration to where your character fights his battles or duels over cocktails as you do to their dreams and desires. If you don’t, you risk two things:

First, the story might suffer. This is obvious for survival stories, where nature is the antagonist. But it is also true for To Kill a Mockingbird, where both the heat and the social constraints press the characters to reinterpret their values. Too often, writers take setting off the table, and they lose the potential for conflict. West Side Story would not have been as effective in the suburbs.

Second, the story is less attractive. The people who make James Bond and Mission Impossible films know this. Most of the locales for their stories are places where people visit in droves. In fact, those movies take advantage of millions of dollars invested in promotion and in giving visitors wonderful experiences once they get there. Why shouldn’t your story take the same approach? Why go to Des Moines (actually, a lovely city in Iowa, but not a vacation destination) when you can go to Dubai?  

Of course, a story can take place in horrible places. I do not want a holiday in Shawshank Prison or the Alien-infested Nostromo. But I don’t mind watching characters in these extreme environments. Those settings will repel as many people as they attract, but they will attract enough to make me happy.

Bigger does not need to be outrageous. Even modest locations, like those in Jane Austen, can make a story bigger if they are keenly observed and play an important role in the story. Her civilized locales in England may not have high concept going for it, but there is enough detail so readers feel immersed in the reading experience.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to create a bigger locale:

• If I wrote a travel brochure for this place, would it attract any visitors?
• Can I change the location to one that will make people curious about my story?
• Can I imagine a setting that will put more pressure on my characters, forcing them to make difficult and irreversible decisions?
• Have I imagined my story’s location so deeply that I can describe it completely enough to immerse my reader?

Of course, conflict and emotion are what a story is about, so the setting (usually) should not overwhelm these. But attention to setting and deliberately making it bigger can become a vital part of enticing and holding a reader to enter into the world of your story.

The Curiosity of a Writer - Refilling the Well 1

Research, experience and living are the source waters of storytelling. If you make these part of your life, you'll always have something to write about. I'll talk about in in future posts, but first a word about curiosity.

I've written about curiosity in terms of Practical Imagination and in an article “Need to Know: How curiosity drives innovation” (available upon request). These look more at invention and creating change than at writing, but a writer needs to actively nurture his/her curiosity, too. Ironically, this is even more important in an age when answers are available within a few clicks. Answers that lead to new questions nurture curiosity, but answers that don't, kill it. So here are three practices to keep your curiosity alive in the age of the Internet.

1. Speculate. Before you click that button that will tell you how clams survive the deep-ocean pressure of the hyperthermal vents, think of what the answers might be. Consider which one is most convincing and why it is most convincing to you. Then, when you see the "expert" answer, you have a few tools to challenge it and are more likely to say "yes, but..." than "uh, huh." This can work for the hard sciences, but it is even more valuable when you explore softer, more controversial subject like society's distribution of wealth.
2. Put it out there. I am always suspicious when I stumble upon an article that is too convincing. Sometimes this triggers my search for propaganda techniques. (It is amazing how often these show up.) But, at other times, I need help not to swallow the answer whole. In these cases, I just post the link to Facebook and ask for comments and verification of facts. Over and over again, I have been surprised by the responses I get from my circle of friends. They enthrall, illuminate and challenge -- which is just what I'm looking for. (The proviso on this one is the friends need to have different perspectives that they feel free to express.)
3. Dig deeper. Curiosity can be trivial. It can go and search of novelty that doesn't matter much. Tabloid headlines may add color to your stories, but they do not refill the well of imagination. The trivial can be fun, and I'm a big believer in having fun. However, a writer needs to probe more deeply and to have a higher proportion of his/her explorations dedicated to those things that go beyond titillation -- meaning, honor, caring and the sacred. Does that headline screaming about Brad and Angela have anything to say about the people you love, fostering kindness, personal responsibility or what you will leave as your legacy?

These are just a few ways to open your mind, fill the well and find something of value to write about. Perhaps I've raised a few questions. I have one for you. What do you do to nurture your curiosity?

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