Writers

The playwright, the poet, the novelist, the memoirist, the screenwriter, and the journalist are the varieties of writers discussed in this entry. What is creativity in writing, and how is it judged? How does creativity in writing relate to creativity in general? A small number of researchers, mostly educators and psychologists, have been asking these questions. Conventionally, the “creative” writer is defined as the writer who writes poetry, fiction, plays, song lyrics, screenplays, or essays that usually don't have footnotes (except for the novels of such postmodern fiction writers as David Foster Wallace). If the writer uses footnotes and other sources, he or she is a scholarly writer but not a creative writer.

A surge in research on creativity began in the late 1940s, after World War II, when the Institute for Personality Assessment and Research (IPAR) at the University of California at Berkeley, and the Army Aptitudes Project in the Structure of Intellect (SOI) at the University of California at Los Angeles began to develop tests, checklists, and other devices and instruments to help the country find and describe people who are most effective. Those who wrote on the psychology of creative writers included psychologist Frank Barron, who studied eminent, popular, and student writers. Social psychologist Dean Keith Simonton also studied writers according to genre, geographical location of residence, and eminence. Howard Gardner did a case study of T. S. Eliot using Gardner's concept of linguistic intelligence. Psychotherapists Nancy Andreason, Kay Jamison, and Albert Rothenberg studied writers with regard to their psychopathology. Scott Kaufman and James Kaufman edited a book on the psychology of creative writing. Jane Piirto did a study of 180 contemporary U.S. creative writers.

Such research has shown that creative writers were often early readers. They used early reading and writing to escape. They have high conceptual intelligence and high verbal intelligence. They are independent, nonconforming, and not interested in joining groups. They value self-expression and are productive. They are often driven, able to take rejection, and like to work alone for long periods.

In addition, writers often have difficulty with alcohol or substances. They prefer writing as their mode of expression of emotions and feelings. Creative writers are not immune to great ambition and envy, probably because they are [Page 953]often rejected by publishers, editors, and agents, and when one of their number succeeds, they wonder, “Why not me? What is the difference between my writing and his?” Their conceptual intelligence allows them to focus on philosophical matters, but they are able to convey the concepts concretely, so that the average reader can apprehend them. The concern with philosophical matters may take an almost religious, and certainly a spiritual tone. Writers are often politically active, most often left-leaning. They experience a higher rate of psychopathology and suicide than does the general population. Depression is more common than in the normal population, and writers are 10 times more likely to experience bipolar spectrum disorders than is the general population. Writers have often experienced childhood trauma. Poets have the highest rate of suicide among writers; journalists have the lowest. Writers seem to empathize with the underdog and with the oppressed. Of people imprisoned worldwide for their convictions, journalists rank highest. Writers' verbal talent is often shown in their odd senses of humor. Studies with psychological instruments such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) show that writers prefer intuition as a learning style.

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