As I write this on Thursday afternoon, dark, rain-filled clouds are telling me to take a nap. Instead I’m taking eight of the best tweets I sent this week on creativity and writing and sharing them with you. I accept payment in cash or bacon.

CREATIVITY

“The Creative Personality: Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality,” Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: This post by the author of one of my favorite books on creativity — appropriately titled “Creativity” — highlights contrasts in the personality traits of creative thinkers. They all feel familiar to me, but #2 really resonates: “Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.”

“The Creative Personality: Playful and Disciplined” and “The Creative Personality: Imagination and Grounded Reality,” Douglas Eby, PsychCentral:  These two posts are very appropriate for today, as they both cite Dr. Csikszentmihalyi and build on the post above. In the first post, we learn that “creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.” In the second, we gain some insight on how schizotypy, a milder version of schizophrenia, can manifest in creative people as original thinking that isn’t “bizarre.”

WRITING

“Shy Explorer Series: Asking the Experts by Judy Clement Wall,” Justine Musk interviewed on Indie Book Collective: Both Judy and Justine have been linked here before (in my fantasy Judy discovered Justine through this blog), and the two combine for a really insightful interview about blogging (Justine blogs at Tribal Writer), social media, and platform building.

“6 Key Steps to Finding Your Passion as a Writer,” Barrie Davenport guest blog at Write to Done: Barrie — who blogs at Live Bold & Bloom — explains how we must know ourselves and put ourselves in our writing. That’s a lesson I’m working on in my own writing right now.

“The Seven Virtues Every Writer Needs to Succeed,” Emlyn Chand, Novel Publicity: She had me at #1, “Reverence—The would-be writer must have a profound respect for the craft.”

“10 Ways to Stay Sane When Frustrated With Your Writing,” Karin Slaughter, Writer’s Digest: There’s nothing on this list along the lines of “kicking squirrels” or “throwing rocks at skateboarders” (am I revealing too much about myself here?). They’re positive and at times productive suggestions, like “get out of the house.”

“13 Serious Mistakes No Freelancer Should Ever Make,” Lexi Rodrigo, Freelance Folder: This post applies to any freelancer, not just writers. Number 6 is “Taking on too much work.” I fell into that trap the last time I was a FT freelancer; this time I think my wife would say I’m erring too far in the other direction.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Creativity Tweets of the Week. You know, that bacon isn’t going to fetch itself.