Accidental Genius

Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content (San Francisco, California: Berrett-Koehler, 2010)

The act of writing stimulates thought, so when you cannot think of anything to write, start writing anyway. – Barbara Fine Clouse, Working it out: A Troubleshooting Guide for writers.

Mark Levy in Accidental Genius teaches you how to use the process of writing to unlock the vast and valuable potential that is housed in your subconscious mind.

Mark teaches the concept of writing without inhibition and as fast as your finger can type or write. Through freewriting, the paper on which you write becomes the dumping ground for the content of your mind.

Writing is a good habit to have. Set some rules for yourself and then discover the genius in you through your writings.

Here are five things I like about Accidental Genius

  1. Try Easy – this is the process of telling yourself as you write that what you are writing about doesn’t matter and so you can be relaxed about what you write. When I tell myself to try easy, I know that the quality of what I am writing is not important at that moment. What is important is that I write. You get another opportunity to improve on your writing quality.
  2. Work against a limit – Mark believes that and I agree with him that setting a time limit for your writing session is very important. Many of us do our best work when we have a deadline. The time set by you is all you have and as such you write fast and furious to get as much down within the deadline.
  3. Getting a hundred ideas is easier than getting one idea – Again this is a quantity versus quality argument. With a hundred ideas, you become idea rich and from the one hundred you can refine, extend or combine you best to come up with the ones that are worth further investigation. If you are trying to get 100 ideas on paper, you also give yourself the room to experiment. You suspend judgement and suddenly ideas begin to flow.
  4. Holding a paper conversation – Imagine that you are sitting with someone you admire in your field and you are asking him or her questions and then you write down the answers. Mark advocates that you flesh out your characters before you talk to them. The more concrete you can describe your character, the better the quality of answer you will receive.
  5. Write your own rules – As a writer you need to have rules that guide your writing sessions. This will help you to be effective and consistent. The rules are yours and they are there to help you get the best out of your free writing sessions. So play around with some rules until you come up with what works for you.

Accidental Genius has twenty eight chapters so you will need to get the book to find out more. This is defiantly one of my all time favourite ideas to action and writing books. I am still working on my writing and freewriting has certainly helped me to get more out of my writing sessions.

Why not get your own copy of Accidental Genius today and start your freewriting today.