Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content
Description
For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting. It's a deceptively simple technique: just start writing about something you care about. Anything. Forget about grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Set the timer and go.
But it's far trickier than it sounds. We all have an internal editor that censors our thoughts before they hit paper. Levy shares six secrets designed to knock this editor out and let your inner genius run free. He also includes problem solving and creativity stimulating principles you can use if you get stuck seven of which are new to this edition.
Also new to this edition is an extensive section on taking your raw unfiltered freewriting and refining it into something you can share with the world. Although freewriting's roots are as a private brainstorming technique, Mark and his clients have found that, with some tweaking, it's a great way to generate ideas for articles, blog posts, presentations, even books.
Our first reaction to a problem is often to tackle it head-on. Mark Levy says that's wrong your head might be the problem. Freewriting offers a way to trick your conscious mind into letting your unconscious generate more ideas than you ever thought possible.
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Content
Part One: The Six Secrets to Freewriting
Chapter 1. Secret #1: Try Easy
Chapter 2. Secret #2: Write Fast and Continuously
Chapter 3. Secret #3: Work Against a Limit
Chapter 4. Secret #4: Write the Way You Think
Chapter 5. Secret #5: Go With the Thought
Chapter 6. Secret #6: Redirect Your Attention
Part Two: Powerful Refinements
Chapter 7. Idea as Product
Chapter 8. Prompt Your Thinking
Chapter 9. Open Up Words
Chapter 10. Escape Your Own Intelligence
Chapter 11. The Value in Disconnecting
Chapter 12. Using Assumptions to Get Unstuck
Chapter 13. Getting a Hundred Ideas is Easier Than Getting One
Chapter 14. Learn to Love Lying
Chapter 15. Hold a Paper Conversation
Chapter 16. Drop Your Mind on Paper
Chapter 17. The Writing Marathon
Chapter 18. Doubt Yourself
Chapter 19. The Magic of Exact Writing
Chapter 20. Extract Gold from a Business Book
Chapter 21. You Are What You Focus On
Part Three: Going Public
Chapter 22. Sharing Your Unfinished Thoughts
Chapter 23. Help Others Do Their Best Thinking
Chapter 24. Notice Stories Everywhere
Chapter 25. Build an Inventory of Thoughts
Chapter 26. Write Your Own Rules
Chapter 27. The Fascination Method
Chapter 28. Freewrite Your Way to Finished Prose
Notes
Acknowledgments
About Mark Levy