What writers can learn from an inventor (& Walt Disney)

In The Salt Lake Tribune, John Keahey writes about inventor Stephen C. Jacobson, the president of Raytheon Sarcos. This company came up with robots for industry and the military, high-tech medical devices, and robotic dinosaurs, as well as the amazing ‘dancing’ fountains in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. What I found interesting was his discussion of how they work, and how this parallels the creative act of writing. Jacobson says,

“We constantly learn new things simply by doing it… We're always selling, developing opportunities…We are an unusual group of creative people -- people who are 'obsessible,' who lose track of time, who sometimes don't know whether it's day or night… We're results-oriented; we have a lot of meetings to talk out problems. And when something is designed, built and it works, we're eager to move on to the next project… Some people are good at theory, some are good at common sense. We want those who are good at both.”

I think this captures what makes a writer successful as well—a blend of the dreamer and the realist, and a touch of the critic as well—these are the three elements that Walt Disney used in developing his ideas (and, importantly, he stressed that it’s important not to mix them together at the same time). 

It can be a good exercise to assess whether you have the right mix or need to add a dash of one or the other. Here's a mini-quiz that can help:

Dreamer: Do you give yourself time to daydream? Do you capture the ideas that come up? Or do you have a harsh inner critic that says daydreaming is a waste of time, or let the ideas escape and forget about them?

Realist: Do you select the most promising idea and focus your time and attention to it--and finish it? Or do you leap from idea to idea, never quite finishing one before abandoning it and starting a new one? And, assuming you wish to profit from your writing, do you think in advance about who will want to buy what you write and how you can make it more appealing to them? Finally, do you embrace the idea that marketing yourself and what you write is your responsibility?

Critic: Do you shut up your inner critic until you have a first draft or do you start to critique in the middle of the writing process? Are your critiques of your own work as constructive as those you'd do for a friend? And are you open to changing what is weak or are you defensive about what you've written?

(The writing and marketing process is explained in my book, “Your Writing Coach,” a friendly guide that takes you from idea through to publication. You can get it now at Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)