How creativity arises by looking sideways at your goal

There is a tendency among how-to enthusiasts to talk about creativity as if it has set goals: things you know from the start will turn out to be novels, symphonies, or paintings. Writers and musicians who have suffered through the uncertainties of creation know that this is an unlikely prospectus. If they have to talk about it at all, they cite ‘artistic vision’ and leave it at that.

I think both approaches are inadequate. Experience tells me that creativity often lies on one side of a stated goal, and that ‘artistic vision’ is an unnecessary metaphor, because what we are considering…