From the author: The article is old, but still relevant, it seems to me. I am often asked if my work has anything to do with creativity training. And I always answer no, although I understand that I am refusing money. Creativity is a hot commodity these days. It is successfully sold to businessmen, copywriters, managers, writers, artists and housewives under the guise of some kind of magical remedy that will allow a person to write Hamlet every day without experiencing the pangs of creativity. In a broad sense, creativity is the ability to generate unusual ideas and deviate in thinking from traditional schemes, quickly resolve problem situations. It is assumed that a creative person is able to come up with one original idea after another, easily find ways out of dead ends, act unconventionally, etc. One of the components of creativity is the ability for divergent thinking - that is, not linear thinking, but, so to speak, branched thinking in different directions at the same time. Another important component is the ability to turn off the internal critic, which slows down creative activity, carefully scanning every thought for “correctness,” “expediency,” “morality,” etc. Actually, creativity training is aimed specifically at the development of these two components. People are encouraged to come up with unusual ways to use an old umbrella or sell a holey balloon, be uncritical of the ideas that come to mind, practice brainstorming and be less shy. As a result, a person should gain the ability to generate dozens of ideas on a given topic, counting on that at least one thought turns out to be worthwhile. That is, creativity comes down to the ability to take quantity, hoping that sooner or later it will turn into quality. The theory of probability can help us. The first difficulty associated with creativity is the lack of a clear definition of this ability. Researchers offer various formulations, sometimes very different in meaning. The second difficulty is, again, the lack of proven, reliable and valid methods for measuring creativity. That is, there are enough tests for creativity, but all this is still very, very raw material. And since there is no clear definition, no tools for measurement, then the newfangled methods of developing creativity also raise doubts - how to reliably check what exactly is developing? Finally, the most difficult question, to which it has not yet been possible to obtain a clear answer from sellers of creativity: what does creativity have to do with has to do with artistic creativity? At first glance, the question sounds absurd - the ability to be creative should have a direct relationship to this very creativity. But this is only at first glance. If you remember the essence of creativity, as it is understood by most practical psychologists and trainers, and multiply what you remember by the problems with definition, measurement and development, then the question will immediately cease to seem ridiculous. Anyone who has ever tried to write a story probably has no shortage of ideas for the plot. On the contrary, there were plenty of plot ideas. The real difficulty comes when you need to write the first sentence. And behind it - the second and third. That is, at the level of ideas, everything is going more or less smoothly - the plot is written, the characters are invented, their motivations are steel, and the ending is amazing. But as soon as it comes to transferring the hard-won plot onto paper, something strange begins. The right words are not found, the characters say something completely different from what they should, behave in a way that is not at all required by the plot, and sometimes they even turn into faded pieces of cardboard and nothing can be done about it. As you write, the plot itself becomes overgrown with cumbersome details and mysteriously emerging branches, under which it dies, losing meaningfulness and dynamics. How will the ability to come up with a hundred original ideas per minute help in such a situation? Some novice authors, of course, count on the fact that.