{"id":6028,"date":"2022-04-26T06:32:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T06:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/?p=6028"},"modified":"2022-04-26T06:32:19","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T06:32:19","slug":"creative-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative reading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you want to improve your creativity? Being more flexible in our thinking allows us to innovate and create connections between disparate sets of information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To enhance this skill, creative reading might be the answer. Perhaps it&#8217;s already a technique you employ instinctively, but in this article, we&#8217;ll cover exactly how to develop the skill and use it to your advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is creative reading?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We can&#8217;t define creative reading without first touching upon critical reading, which forms part of the critical-creative reading process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/2158244020923350\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Critical reading<\/a> is the analysis and interpretation of the text in order to test its accuracy and validity, judging perspectives and synthesising various topics into a congruent whole. It&#8217;s a method which allows us to evaluate arguments and draw conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>This is step one in the <a href=\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/best-books-critical-thinking\/\">critical thinking<\/a> process. <\/li><li>Step two is creative reading, which is required to make use of this analysis.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Creative reading is based upon imagination, innovation and originality. It&#8217;s taking what you&#8217;ve read and evaluated through critical reading and using creative writing to build upon it, developing new ideas and problem-solving approaches.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why is creative reading important?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We can&#8217;t simply stop at analysing the information we read, judging its veracity and understanding it. Although these are essential skills, we must put this information to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because we use information to solve the many daily problems that life presents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Creating innovative solutions from what we read is, therefore, an essential skill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although many educational systems fail to adequately prepare students in this core component of creativity, the success we experience in life appears directly correlated to our critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to practice creative reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, creative reading is an essential part of reading non-fiction and self-help material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although many people might use the genre as a form of escapsim, it&#8217;s often more useful to approach it from a problem-solving mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem-solving exercise covers the following three creative reading activities, an assessment developed by <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/2158244020923350#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Johnasson<\/a> in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Finding the problem and the root of the problem<\/li><li>Planning and executing at least three alternative solutions<\/li><li>Expressing the best solution in the form of creative texts<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finding the problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting with number, one it&#8217;s important to find the root of your personal problems. Some primer questions that might help with this are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What problems do you face in your life? E.g. Is it that you feel stuck or directionless, with a lack of life purpose?<\/li><li>What goals do you want to achieve? E.g. Do you want to start your own business?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The answers to these questions probably aren&#8217;t clear or straightforward and the exact solution or steps involved to make progress are ambiguous. Writing these down ahead of time is good practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you read a pertinent non-fiction book, it&#8217;s good to have these questions in mind and even in a notebook by your side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Planning 3 alternative solutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A useful technique to drill down to the essence of these issues is to keep asking &#8216;why&#8217; after you produce every question, until you can go no further, before then asking a what and how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Why do you feel stuck? Because I don&#8217;t like my job<\/li><li>Why don&#8217;t you like your job? Because I don&#8217;t have enough autonomy<\/li><li>Why don&#8217;t you have enough autonomy? Because of the bureaucracy in the workplace<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The for the what and how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What is the solution? To secure a role with more freedom<\/li><li>How can I do this? To start my own business on the side and try to develop a full-time income from it<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can perform this exercise for each of the primary problems you identify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Creative texts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now it&#8217;s time to get your creative cap on. If you&#8217;ve read other articles on this site, you&#8217;ll know that I&#8217;m a huge proponent of journaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I feel that long-form handwriting can unlock elements of your subconscious that can provide valuable hidden insights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The key here is to relax enough to switch off your analytical mind and allow your creativity to take over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ve identified your problem and the solution, so simply write anything around the topic that comes to mind in a stream of consciousness style exercise &#8211; don&#8217;t censor yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silence that inner critic initially, as your writing isn&#8217;t intended to be perfect on the first attempt &#8211; the work can always be polished later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The result<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What you will find from this exercise is that you uncover new and novel ways to address your problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might approach these issues from various angles in your creative writing piece, probing the potential solutions to identify which is most suitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it needn&#8217;t simply be constrained to writing &#8211; if you&#8217;re a more visual person seeking to develop your artistic skills, you could adapt the technique to include doodles or sketches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all, as <a href=\"https:\/\/austinkleon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Austin Kleon<\/a> says in his book, Steal Like an Artist,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f6f9fb;color:#4d535e\">\u201cEvery new idea is just a\u00a0mashup or a remix\u00a0of one or more previous ideas.\u201d<br><br>\u201cIf we\u2019re\u00a0free from the burden\u00a0of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can\u00a0embrace influence\u00a0instead of running away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Creative reading is an essential technique that many people might not have been taught in school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s never too late to develop the skill and become a flexible thinker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By reading the right books, we can unlock the answers which already reside within us. Let me know how you get on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Creative reading | Bloomsoup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? It&#039;s an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creative reading | Bloomsoup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? It&#039;s an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bloomsoup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bloomsoup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-26T06:32:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-26T06:32:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/creative-reading.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joelface\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thebloomsoup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/540656bb1e42797634f467f16f584da7\"},\"headline\":\"Creative reading\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-26T06:32:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-26T06:32:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\"},\"wordCount\":914,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Personal Development Activities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\",\"name\":\"Creative reading | Bloomsoup\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-26T06:32:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-26T06:32:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? It's an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Personal Development Activities\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/category\/activities\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Creative reading\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/\",\"name\":\"Bloomsoup\",\"description\":\"Re-Imagine Your Reality\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Bloomsoup\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/bloomsoup-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/bloomsoup-logo-1.png\",\"width\":169,\"height\":33,\"caption\":\"Bloomsoup\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bloomsoup\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebloomsoup\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bloomsoup\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCO2Dd0fMHv_S7kYcM7QjXww\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/540656bb1e42797634f467f16f584da7\",\"name\":\"Joel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/316d86b5d67c9e515c4b2037ccd75702?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/316d86b5d67c9e515c4b2037ccd75702?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Joel\"},\"description\":\"Joel's trying to solve universal riddles for the machines that will one day take over, in addition to the greatest question of all; why cheese tastes so good.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelface\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Creative reading | Bloomsoup","description":"Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? It's an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Creative reading | Bloomsoup","og_description":"Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? It's an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here","og_url":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/","og_site_name":"Bloomsoup","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bloomsoup","article_published_time":"2022-04-26T06:32:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-26T06:32:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":853,"url":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/creative-reading.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joelface","twitter_site":"@thebloomsoup","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joel","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/"},"author":{"name":"Joel","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/540656bb1e42797634f467f16f584da7"},"headline":"Creative reading","datePublished":"2022-04-26T06:32:17+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-26T06:32:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/"},"wordCount":914,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Personal Development Activities"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/","url":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/","name":"Creative reading | Bloomsoup","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-26T06:32:17+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-26T06:32:19+00:00","description":"Want to know how to develop your creative reading skills? It's an essential part of developing solving your problems in life. Learn more here","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/creative-reading\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Personal Development Activities","item":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/category\/activities\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Creative reading"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/","name":"Bloomsoup","description":"Re-Imagine Your Reality","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#organization","name":"Bloomsoup","url":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/bloomsoup-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/bloomsoup-logo-1.png","width":169,"height":33,"caption":"Bloomsoup"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bloomsoup","https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebloomsoup","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bloomsoup\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCO2Dd0fMHv_S7kYcM7QjXww"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/540656bb1e42797634f467f16f584da7","name":"Joel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/316d86b5d67c9e515c4b2037ccd75702?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/316d86b5d67c9e515c4b2037ccd75702?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Joel"},"description":"Joel's trying to solve universal riddles for the machines that will one day take over, in addition to the greatest question of all; why cheese tastes so good.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelface"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6028"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6046,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6028\/revisions\/6046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}