Preface

Summary

We laymen have always been curious to know… from what source that strange being, the creative writer, draws his material, and how he manages to make such an impression on us with it.

– Freud (1908)

Who is this strange being that is the creative writer? How can we understand the person behind the creative writer or what process a person may take to write creatively? Can we use this knowledge to nurture aspiring creative writers and even enhance the writing of already established creative writers? In The Psychology of Creative Writing, we offer 20 chapters by top scholars musing on the key components of creativity writing: the writer, the text, the process, the development, and the education. These insights are bookended by our own analyses and thoughts.

We have both been fascinated by creative writing and creative writers for as long as we can remember. As a child, Scott would often peer into other worlds, either through writing stories about time travel or reading science fiction such as the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Today, he works on stand-up comedy writing whenever he has the time, and he tries to sneak away from his work whenever he can to open up a psychological thriller or science fiction novel and escape into another time and place.

As for James, he always wanted to be a writer – he was writing stories by the fourth grade, always under the watchful eye of his first mentor, his mother.