Valuable book for wannabe writers and those looking to harness their creative side. "Accidental Genius" by Mark Levy

Title: Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content

Author: Mark Levy

Reviewer: Richard Sesek (educator, wantrepreneur)

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Topic/Intent of book: This is about “free writing” to get your ideas out. It involves generating a lot of ideas quickly and then discovering what is valuable in what you have put out. You write fast to stop yourself from editing out potentially good ideas as you are writing.

I selected this book because: My brother had read this book and said that it is conceptually similar to the “morning pages” technique described in “the Artist’s Way”. His experience in inventing suggests a similar theme: quantity can be used to drive quality.

Recommendation: Yes. I think it valuable for wannabe writers, but also for those wishing to harness their creative side. Free writing helps push you past some of the blocks that can unwittingly filter or bias our creative pursuits.

Major lessons from this book: writing quickly, without editing, allows you to tap into your subconscious thoughts before your pesky conscious thoughts can edit out potential nonsense. “Nonsense,” that may prove valuable for beating writer’s block or solving your problem. There are several free writing principles that he advocates: work fast, work against a time constraint, write how you think and in plain language (your language), and follow your thoughts wherever they take you. Finally, he suggests that you may need to tailor the methodology to your individual needs and preferences.

Book Inspirations: I like to run creativity and innovation workshops with my brother. These concepts are mirrored in many of our exercises. Writing and innovation are both creative pursuits and I find a lot of value in reading about the writing process.