Accidental Genius

Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content

By: Mark Levy

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

When it comes to creating ideas, we hold ourselves back. That's because inside each of us is an internal editor whose job is to forever polish our thoughts, so we sound smart and in control, and so that we fit into society. But what happens when we encounter problems for which such conventional thinking fails us? How can we get unstuck?

For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting, a technique he's used for years to solve all types of business problems and generate ideas for books, articles, and blog posts.

Freewriting is deceptively simple: Start writing as fast as you can, for as long as you can, about a subject you care deeply about, while ignoring the standard rules of grammar and spelling. Your internal editor won't be able to keep up with your output, and will be temporarily shunted into the background. You'll now be able to think more honestly and resourcefully than before, and will generate breakthrough ideas and solutions that you couldn't have created any other way.

Levy shares six freewriting secrets designed to knock out your editor and let your genius run free. He also includes 15 problem-solving and creativity-stimulating principles you can use if you need more firepower - seven of which are new to this edition - and stories of problems he and others have solved through freewriting.

Also new to this edition: an extensive section on how to refine your freewriting into something you can share with the world. Although Levy originally taught freewriting as a private brainstorming technique, over the years he and his clients have found that, with some tweaking, it's a great way to generate content for books, articles, and other thought-leadership pieces.

©2010 Mark Andrew Levy (P)2010 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

"I’ve been a fanboy of Accidental Genius and the genius of Mark Levy for five years now, and I couldn’t work without these ideas." (David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR)

Useful book, excellent narration

This was a really good book and I have now listened to it three times and intend to listen to it again in a few months to refresh the concepts.

Bronson Pinchot's reading is *perfect* so I disagree strongly with the previous reviewer who said the narration was off and should have been done by someone with more "experience". First of all, Pinchot has 81 narration credits to his name so he's a total pro. Also, the cadence and tone was right on throughout. I checked the list of books he narrated to see if anything else caught my fancy, he was that good. To each his own.

The book itself is excellent. Levy describes the use of "freewriting" (where you write as fast as you can for so many minutes without stopping and without editing or correcting yourself) for idea generation. I understand freewriting is an old technique, and Levy cites Peter Elbow's "Writing with Power" as a source. Being my first real intro to the idea I learned a lot and have been using freewriting as Levy describes and frankly I think it's a life-changer though perhaps that's overstating just slightly. It is extremely useful and he supplements the basic freewriting idea with a number of concepts for idea generation and using your freewriting for more finished and public work.

If I were to criticize something in the book I'd just say a few of the exercises are of questionable value, but there's plenty here to hold your interest.

Inspirational, however...

The narration really got on my nerves. I can't put my finger on exactly why it bothered me, other than I found myself scowling every time Bronson Pinchot put the emphasis on the wrong part of a sentence. It would have been much more enjoyable with a more professional/experienced narrator. That aside, the book itself is slanted toward business, but the ideas are inspirational from a more general viewpoint as well.

This book can induce depression

I find myself a little bit depressed after reading this book because it makes me feel like I am wasting my life instead of investing my brain energy into the vital work that the world needs me to do.

It is only useful if you have things that you are trying to wrap your head around.

I have it scheduled for re-reading every few months.

Writing to right your way

I have been a fan of Julia Cameron's morning pages since 1992, Mark Levy's taken this concept another step by embellishing the practicality and effectiveness of this technique.

The exercises he offered in the book made it impractical for me to listen while commuting as I was perpetually drawn to want to pause and give myself the ten minutes. However having listened through once, I will start again, this time with hands poised over the keyboard or with pen in hand.

For those who are drawn to writing as a hobby or profession, this book is loaded with great sources to create prompts to get the words flowing. For those who are drawn to writing as a means of releasing the jumble within your mind, I stand behind my title of this review in that this technique can help you to use "Writing to Right your Way".

For those who are neither drawn to nor use writing as a tool, I feel this would be an effective approach to stimulate your communication technique of choice and add value.

The narrator was brilliant, the one addendum is that I felt at times he spoke to quickly and I gratefully employed the 30sec rewind button numerous times.

OK

This is a good technical listen. Makes you want to think about writing stuff down. Probably not worth a full credit though

Extremely helpful!

This book has opened my eyes to a whole new and better way not only to write but, and especially to think!

Downloaded out of curiosity

Would you listen to Accidental Genius again? Why?

I have to listen to Accidental Genious again and again to process all the information given!

Any additional comments?

Tons and tons of great ideas and exercises to help yo get started writing

Useful, but a little tedious at times

I love the idea. There are some great tips here. However, the book didn't need to be nearly as lengthy as it was. I had it on 3X speed and was surprised how long he took to describe things like examples of opposites. It needed some serious editing.

Love this book!

Great insights and practical tools to get the juice flowing. highly recommended for blogers and for anyone that wants to find their inner voice and get a fresh perspective on the matter. lots of useful easy tasks included. I've enjoyed it very much!

A couple of good ideas

Would you listen to Accidental Genius again? Why?

These are the kind of ideas you have to remind yourself of once in a while.

What did you like best about this story?

It had aha-moments for me.

Which scene was your favorite?

Examples of free-writing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, it lends itself to it.