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

When it comes to creating ideas, we hold ourselves back. Thats because inside each of us is an internal editor whose job is to forever polish our thoughts, so we sound smart and in control, and so that we fit into society. But what happens when we encounter problems where such conventional thinking fails us? How to get unstuck? For Mark Levy, the answer is free writing, a technique hes used for years to solve all types of business problems, and generate ideas for books, articles and blog posts. Free writing is deceptively simple: Start writing as fast as you can, for as long as you can, about a subject you care deeply about, while ignoring the standard rules of grammar and spelling. Your internal editor wont be able to keep up with your output, and will be temporarily shunted into the background. Youll now be able to think more honestly and resourcefully than before, and will generate breakthrough ideas and solutions that you couldnt have created any other way. Levy shares six free writing secrets designed to knock out your editor and let your genius run free. He also includes fifteen problem-solving and creativity-stimulating principles you can use if you need more fire power seven of which are new to this edition and stories of problems he and others have solved through free writing. Also new to this edition: an extensive section on how to refine your free writing into something you can share with the world. Although Levy originally taught free writing as a private brainstorming technique, over the years he and his clients have found that, with some tweaking, its a great way to generate content for books, articles, and other thought leadership pieces. Read more