Best study ever done by psychologists on the psychology of creative writing is ignored by all 31 psychologists in book, “The Psychology of Creative Writing”
Please use either of the following links to see the original article discussing that best study, "The Illusion of Independent Agency" (meaning characters seem to have minds of their own):
September 30, 2015
“The Illusion of Independent Agency” by Taylor, Hodges, Kohanyi: The best article ever published by psychologists on the psychology of creative writing
I first cited the article in my post of August 18, 2013:
The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do adult fiction writers experience their
characters as having minds of their own?
Marjorie Taylor, Sara D. Hodges, Adele Kohanyi [see below]
Imagination, Cognition and Personality, Vol 22(4) 361-380, 2002-2003
Yes, ninety-two percent of the fifty fiction writers did experience that. They interacted with, and heard the voices of, their characters. They provided dramatic examples of characters who not only composed their own life histories, but also attempted to take control of the plot away from the writer. Some of the characters were even experienced by the writers as “leaving the pages of the writers’ stories to inhabit the writers’ everyday worlds (e.g., wandering around the house).”
Of course, the article itself is much richer than the above blurb. And so here are two links to the complete, original article:
This classic article, like this blog, is not just for psychologists, but for anyone interested in how fiction is actually written.
Scott Barry Kaufman, James C. Kaufman (Eds.) The Psychology of Creative Writing: None of 31 contributors cites “The Illusion of Independent Agency” [including co-author of latter]
John Baer Jane Piirto
Michael V. Barrios Jonathan A. Plucker
Genevieve E. Chandler Samaneh Pourjalali
James C. Kaufman Steven R. Pritzker
Scott Barry Kaufman Mark A. Runco
Adele Kohanyi Sandra W. Russ
Aaron Kozbelt R. Keith Sawyer
E. Thomas Lawson Pat Schneider
Martin S. Lindauer Janel D. Sexton
Todd Lubart Dean Keith Simonton
David Jung McGarva Jerome L. Singer
Sharon S. McKool E. M. Skrzynecky
Daniel Nettle Robert J. Sternberg
James W. Pennebaker Ai-Girl Tan
Susan K. Perry Grace R. Waitman
Thomas B. Ward
It is not just that none of these eminent scholars cited that specific article—“The Illusion of Independent Agency” (2) (and see earlier post today)—but that none of them discussed the kinds of things reported in that article; i.e., the kinds of things that fiction writers commonly say about how their mind works in their creative writing process.
Why do these 31 brilliant scholars have this blindspot? Probably because they have no theory or framework—like Multiple Identity Literary Theory (the theory of this blog)—within which “the illusion of independent agency” makes sense.
Indeed, the authors of the article I’m praising evidently did not fully appreciate that what they call “the illusion of independent agency” is the essence of multiple personality, and that what they found in 92% of fifty fiction writers is a normal version of that.
1. Scott Barry Kaufman, James C. Kaufman (Editors). The Psychology of Creative Writing. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
2. Marjorie Taylor, Sara D. Hodges, Adele Kohanyi. “The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do Adult Fiction Writers Experience Their Characters as Having Minds of Their Own?” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, Vol. 22(4) 361-380, 2002-2003.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to comment (whether you agree or disagree) and ask questions (simple or expert). I appreciate your contribution.