With NaNoWriMo in full swing and me starting to lose my mind, it was probably inevitable that a simple question would set me off on a sarcastic tangent. Someone asked me, “What makes people creative?” Of course I gave them the usual answer.
“Curiosity. Education. Reading. The ability to see things differently. Thinking outside of the box.” Blah, blah, blah. The truth is that science hasn’t fully identified what makes someone creative. Neither has the world agreed on a definition of “creative person,” since creativity is often in the eye of the beholder. (That ground breaking novel hailed as highly creative might make me think, “Eh. I’ve seen this before,” for example.)
Anyway, I thought about it some more and realized that, in my own experience, there are certain characteristics of creative people. Or at least me.
Note that this is designed to be somewhat humorous, although I suspect that there is a grain of truth in here somewhere. Also note that, as the graphic says, this isn’t based on any kind of science. Only my experience which may or may not be relevant. And probably isn’t. I tend to avoid being statistically significant at all costs.
Anyway, here’s a helpful chart to help you recognize a creative person when you see them. It may also help you become more creative.
If you’d like to be more creative, I suggest you start with incorporating a little more crazy into your life and work your way up to the more advanced social problems like introversion, crying in public over nothing, and telling authority figures to shove it. You’ll know you’re getting close to maximizing your creativity when you feel completely ostracized from mainstream society. When you find yourself having conversations with imaginary people and living in a fantasy world that you treat as reality, you’ll know you’ve arrived.
Congrats! You’re a creative.