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david mura in our education system students are not taught the principles of creativity even in creative writing classes and yet from early in my career i learned that understanding the principles of the creative process was crucial to my growth as a writer as a third generation japanese american i was raised by an asian tiger dad who berated me for any b who wanted me to go to an ivy league school and become a lawyer instead i went to graduate school for an english ph d but after four years i was kicked out of the program with seven incompletes clearly i was suffering from a massive writers block luckily i stumbled upon the poet william stafford s book of essays writing the australian crawl stafford s advice was simple the key to writers block is lower your standards this of course was contrary to the perfection my asian tiger dad expected his constant demand for high standards and straight a s eventually as stafford advised i learned how not to judge my writing in the first draft to accept what the unconscious tossed up to go with whatever came into my head to see writing as process of improvisation rather than the achievement of the perfect product as i started reading books on the creative process in other fields like science or business i realized that the creative mindset was the opposite mindset of the perfect straight a student i should foster my unconscious rather than my conscious critical mind i shouldn t be afraid of making mistakes or failing or trying something new i could stray from what i did best i could experiment look foolish attempt the foolish i didn t need to do what everyone else was doing since adhering to the rules of the good student had led me to writers block and a creative impasse i had to adopt new rules for example in creative writing it s not our failed poems or stories that matter we are judged by our successes but those can t come if we re not writing regularly because we re too critical similarly real improvement can t occur if we re going over the same subjects in the same way writing the same poem the same story and yes trying something new may not be successful at first but that s the only way we can grow and yet if we re in a highly competitive workshop where everyone is trying to impress the teacher a student tends to write the same poem they know works i e the student does not try something that might not work does not experiment they learn to stick to the familiar the tried and true they do not venture into an area which may resist them because of the emotional or psychological work that requires work which might not necessarily result in good writing at first but indeed may end in bad writing as i tell students you don t start digging a ten foot hole at that depth you start digging the first inch which is going to be shallow but if you keep digging eventually you get real depth just get some writing down you can always revise something you can t revise nothing a few weeks ago in a class on the creative process i used the music producer rick rubin s the art of creation rubin is trying to help his artists to create new work and not repeat the old to break from previous successes and find a new path a new source a new sound this process includes entertaining multiple what ifs what if you did this or that or that or that i e multiple attempts new resources or approaches rather than adhering rigidly to one single path now i ve always thought of creativity as freeing oneself up into possibility into breaking down shackles or pre imposed ideas into drawing outside of the box but in the course i also used david epstein s inside the box how constraints make us better epstein argues that starting with no constraints can open us up to too many choices and this makes it hard to find a new direction moreover faced with too many choices our tendency is to follow what we already know but if you provide constraints if you say limit the target or subject or approach and make it smaller that can focus your creative energies and force you to make choices you wouldn t have made before out of that comes discovery and creativity obviously seen in this light the poet s use of rhyme and meter are a form of constraint which can focus and spark creativity in a similar process david henry hwang has students choose five random words and asks them to revise a scene using those words almost inevitably the new draft is better because the words narrow the writer s creative attention and suggest associations they wouldn t have thought of as epstein points out in his book narrowing the task or breaking the overall task of creation into a smaller target or smaller areas writing dialogue writing scenery creating plot helps focus the writer thus it enables a creativity that too large a task or thinking of the whole task can often confound this is similar to t s eliot s comparison of shakespeare to blake shakespeare didn t have to create his plots he used north s plutarch for roman history and holinshed s chronicles for british history shakespeare employed the structure of the five act tragedy and the blank verse form a philosophy from seneca and montaigne with all these constraints as givens shakespeare could focus mainly on the dialogue the specifics of the story eliot compares this to blake who though a genius had to think up his philosophy and mythology and his verse form the result argues eliot is a brilliant mess a work of genius yes but a corpus which lacks the precision and power of shakespeare s best plays with the exception of the songs of innocence and experience which are in traditional meters constraint can work simply in cutting in rewriting poems i ll often cut say a forty line poem into say eight quatrains and then perhaps work the poem into form and meter recently i arbitrarily set out to cut a third of my memoir on my parents recent passing it was hard at first but as i got going the process speeded up the book is better for this shrinkage more focused and i have a more precise vision of what the book is actually about early on in my writing career i had to give up the rules and habits of the good student and learn how creativity works and is nurtured my twelfth book exit miss saigon about my life as an asian american artist and activist will be released soon and i ve got three other books nearing completion on my computer so obviously i ve gotten over my writers block but i m still learning from books on creativity outside my field and it s my belief such instruction ought to be more a part of creative writing courses and mfa programs __ david mura s memoir exit miss saigon about his life as an asian american artist and activist will be published in oct 2026 his most recent book is the the stories whiteness tells itself racial myths and our american narratives his previous book was on creative writing and race a stranger s journey race identity narrative craft in writing with essayist carolyn holbrook mura co edited the 2021 anthology of minnesota bipoc writers we are meant to rise voices for justice from minneapolis to the world his other memoirs are t urning japanese and where the body meets memory share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print share on x opens in new window x share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr more share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading author newsletters craft connection reader collection july 28 2026 16 comments by allison k williams you ve heard it you need a mailing list perhaps you ve poked around on substack or are wondering what s up with substack or are sick to death of hearing about substack but you don t really know what the other options are and sure you like sharing your work and one day you re going to publish a book or another book and it would be nice to tell people about it all at once but what the heck do you do to get started or maybe you re started but it feels like no one is reading so how can you stay motivated let alone grow your audience whoever that s supposed to be it s time to figure that out a mailing list is your most powerful way to stay connected to your future readers being invited into someone s inbox is far more intimate than connecting on social media most of us see under 10 of what our friends post in their social feeds but most people read about 95 of their email more importantly a newsletter whether that s monthly or weekly to 5 people or 500 or 5000 is a reason to show up and write regularly for people who are expecting to hear from you in a format and a venue that doesn t have to be your bestest writing ever and has zero gatekeepers between you and the people who love your words here s how to get started don t agonize about the method a blog is a newsletter is a substack more or less some of you are reading this very essay in your inbox some of you came directly to the blog some of you saw a link on social media it doesn t matter how readers get to your newsletter just that they do technically a blog is online and a newsletter is emailed but the smart choice is to email as many people as you can and publicly post what you wrote the advantage of substack and wordpress and simple website hosts like tertulia is that those functions are in one place your writing can be found by subscribing or by searching i email my newsletter then share chunks to social media readers who want more can click through write before you have readers collect readers before you ve written anything chicken egg start writing with an introductory post this is who i am this is what i do for my newsletter the a list subscribers automatically get a welcome email with links to previous writing for substack this will be your introductory post include how often people can expect to hear from you say what you write about and why defining your purpose will help you choose what to share too if your newsletter is also a blog a couple of pre written already posted entries help readers know they want to subscribe copy to learn notice what newsletters you subscribe to and what blogs you regularly read why what do you get out of them do you want to write something similar jeff somers analyzes story plot and character in movies and tv with snark and insight i learn as a writer when i read writing without rules deep dives kathleen schmidt at publishing confidential mixes free posts with paid and i find her insights on publishing and pr well worth paying for darien gee writes about the craft of micro prose and shares prompts and interviews other writers at writer ish i love discovering new writing techniques with her pick a format you like and use it consistently i usually lead with a personal story tied to writing in some way then list upcoming free and paid writing events readers subconsciously know what to expect and the meaty part comes first if they sign up for an event or buy a book great but more importantly they connect with the story as part of my community i would rather they read that and skip the rest not the other way around use intriguing or explanatory subject lines so readers want to open the email look at the newsletters linked above for examples asking a simple question at the end encourages comments and even people who don t write a comment will comment in their heads which is another connection keep returning to your purpose more than anything a newsletter is a gift to ourselves it s a chance once a month or maybe once a week to organize our thoughts about our work to share links to other work we found inspiring or amusing or just plain fun to write something creative that people have asked to read that s what subscribing is i sat down last month to write a newsletter i wasn t sure what i d say but i had a self imposed deadline i found a picture i liked and a concept i d been talking to other writers about and i wrote an essay and hit publish no pitching no querying nobody s permission a little platform building a little writing practice a little of myself offered into the world are you writing a newsletter ________ allison k williams is managing editor of the brevity blog and the author of seven drafts working on your own newsletter or want to be join allison and hippocampus magazine august 16th at 2pm eastern for a deep dive webinar making a newsletter work for you 50 this is a live only session including feedback on your newsletter plans limited to 20 writers find out more register now share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print share on x opens in new window x share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr more share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading job descriptions included on a self employed freelance editor and writer s resume july 27 2026 4 comments by chelsey clammer delivered 250 packages a day about me freelance editor and writer interested in working for clients who will provide interesting and robust opportunities for writing related work desires types of work ranging from anything to everything as a working creative professional any job offered that might be related to writing or editing is preferred although side gigs that provide opportunities to be either outside and away from the computer or to have in person conversations with other human beings are also sought job summaries ghost wrote five chapters of a novel in which jesus returns as a feminist soccer mom wrote obituaries of the deceased whom the writer did not know for an industry leading ice cream brand s monthly magazine mentored a twelve year old girl in writing her queer and transgender friendly novel about a shy demon turned human edited for clarity flow narrative arc and especially especially repetition a seventy five year old woman s transcriptions of months worth of audio recorded self interviews about being a therapist who employed her four standard sized poodles in her sessions 174 pages of poodles totaling 608 pages handled dogs mostly alive although deceased due to hawk attack or old age also managed at a boarding kennel including feeding and medicating animals as well as excrement removal ingested eight types of one brand s protein bars and wrote descriptions for the packaging and marketing of each one week deadline co hosted sappho s salon the monthly lesbian literary entertainment night at a feminist bookstore including participating onstage during burlesque night clothing not included proofread for typos and sku number accuracy the packaging of a texas snack brand s european pretzel line worked as a waitress at a thai german restaurant requiring memorization of two diverse menus mostly printed in english further as coherent as possible spanish used for communicating with the mexican american high schooler chef who cooked the german menu edited tra...