A few weeks ago, I mentioned one of the questions I am often asked, one that I feel uncomfortable talking about. “What advice would you give another writer?”

Similar questions in that arena are:

1) How do you avoid writer’s block?
2) Where do you get your ideas?
3) Don’t you run out of ideas?

No two writers do much of anything the same in this business. Is it interesting to hear someone writes standing up or after they swam a mile at dawn or drank coffee if they wrote in the morning and tea in the afternoon? I want to turn around and ask a question of my own: “How does this apply to YOU as a writer?”

Why do people want to know the tangible details of someone’s creativity?

Because they hope that modeling something, anything, after a successful writer who’s gone before them, will similarly connect them to that creative genius. They are wondering if something tangible and readily reproduced can tap into a more imaginative well than they have now. It’s trying to find the 1, 2, 3 steps of writing successfully and publishing smart.

Everyone has a left brain and a right brain. The left brain is your logical, how-to-do side of things. The right side is creative and involved the arts. The left involves sequencing and linear thinking, while the right is about imagination, intuition, and rhythm.

Frankly, all too often, you searching for the most productive way to do things is a right brain endeavor. Instead, to boost your creativity, study the creative ideas of others, not how they got there. Look deeper within yourself, maybe even meditate, to give your creative side time to gel in a different way. Attempt something fresh. While that last one feels more right brain, it is not. It instead introduces you to new creativity in different settings, cultures, food, or even reading material that may prompt you to create in a fresh manner.

But emulating how someone creates is rarely going to help you. Instead, open your mind to new creative ideas. That’s where the magic lies.