Creativity in 3D: Poets and Scientists Converge on Writerly Invention

Abstract

Data from interviews with accomplished poets is used alongside findings from neuroscience, to examine three aspects of writerly invention: automaticity, emotional knowledge, and the social dimension. Writerly invention references the creative process writers use to originate ideas via writing. It is shown that a three-dimensional view of writerly invention becomes tenable when scientific findings are viewed in a consilient manner with the introspections of poets. In addition, a call is made for the sciences to help elucidate a mind-state found to be germane to writerly invention — the receptive stance.

Keywords:

• creativity
• rhetoric
• poetry
• neuroscience
• automaticity
• receptivity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jason Wirtz

Jason Wirtz is Assistant Professor of English Education and Rhetoric & Composition at Hunter College, City University of New York. His research focuses on the nature of writerly invention — the ways in which writers generate ideas through writing.