If you're wondering whether you're a creative person, consider whether some of the things Dr. Andreasen identified as typical signs of creativity apply to you:

1. You see multiple possibilities

This is often called divergent or lateral thinking, which means approaching a topic or problem openly, unsystematically, and experimentally from multiple angles. However, Andersen emphasizes that convergent thinking, which involves focusing on only one aspect of a problem, can sometimes also be creative.

2. You find new creative solutions through free association

Free association is the brilliant idea that comes to you in the shower, the voice that whispers the answer to your question shortly after waking up, the muse on your shoulder that guides your pen or brush. Creative minds can deliberately cultivate these moments in which their minds are in a state of divergent thinking.

3. You have several passions

Creative people aren't specialists, but people with broad knowledge and diverse interests. They're likely to use this wealth of knowledge to approach a problem from different perspectives.

4. You actively strive to improve your knowledge and skills

Most of the creatives Andreasen studied were self-taught, but all of them devoted considerable time and energy to deepening their knowledge and skills. You might call it intellectual curiosity, perfectionism, or perseverance, but this desire for improvement is common to all creatives.

5. You take your creative results for granted

As Andreasen was astonished to discover during her interviews with creatives, most interviewees viewed their creative creations as nothing special, but rather as obvious or obvious. According to Andreasen, this reflects how natural and self-evident the creative process seems to most creatives.

6. You come from a family of creatives

Both Andreasen's study, as well as other previous studies, suggest that creativity is more prevalent in certain families; there are many examples of this in artistic families of all kinds (Bach, Mann). However, it remains unclear whether this is due to upbringing or genetic factors.

7. You suffer from an affective disorder

Andreasen's work also confirmed earlier studies showing that affective disorders (i.e., mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder) are particularly common among creative people and their families. Eighty percent of the writers suffered from them, compared to only 30 percent in the non-creative control group. Of course, this doesn't mean that one necessarily has to be mentally ill to be creative, but there is a high percentage of creative people—from van Gogh to Hemingway to Kurt Cobain—who have suffered or still suffer from them. Andreasen was unable to establish a correlation between creativity and schizophrenia, which is also occasionally discussed.

Now you can take your time to consider whether some of these points apply to you, or—if not—then you might now have an explanation for why you haven't landed a bestseller yet. A high IQ, by the way, is not synonymous with creativity. While most creative people are quite smart, they don't necessarily have to be exceptionally intelligent—at least not according to standard IQ tests.