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)

Stream of Consciousness

I guess any thought in my head that I put to paper is important enough ... to me. This seems like and ego driven exercise in self with no real purpose. I don't think I got it.

Not concise

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I like the concept and I have enjoyed the fast writing sessions, however, he could have explained everythink in an hour.

Would you be willing to try another book from Mark Levy? Why or why not?

Not likely. He tries to make an essay into a book.

Was Accidental Genius worth the listening time?

Yes, luckily it was already fairly short. He takes too long to get to a point.

Suffering from writer's block? You NEED this!

I'm a writer, public speaker, Toast Master and business person. My daily activity involves creating a lot of written content for speeches, blogs, article writing and product reviews. Many times I've been STUCK while trying to figure out what to write. The dreaded 'writers block' is a big problem for people like myself especially on those days when there just isn't enough inspiration to write. Accidental Genius OBLITERATES these road blocks and I've discovered an entire new world of writing that has truly changed my life! The narrator's voice isn't exactly the best BUT the CONTENT is what's important! No fluff, I HIGHLY recommend this audio book!!

Six Sigma for the mind.

Using brainstorming methods to get enough ideas to paper that you can make a book out of them...an interesting survey of done methods various authors and reporters have used.

great many the unconventional nuggets here

surprisingly useful ways to ideate solutions for challenges in many varied fields. it's upto the reader !

Freewriting Techniques on Display

Loved this exploration into varied techniques of freewriting. The narration by Bronson Pinchot, of "Perfect Strangers" television sitcom fame, was particularly good as well. Highly recommend!

Motivational but Nothing Revolutionary

Any additional comments?

If your looking for a book to listen to while multitasking, it's a good book. But, to focus your complete attention would be a waste of time. It could have easily been condensed down to series of slides with a quick description of each major point. The overall impression of the author was not someone you would be friends with. He gave an unpleasant arrogant tone throughout the book and filled most of the time with fluff examples and explanations. His ideas are good and inspirational. He simply didn't present the ideas in any spectacular way.

Better in print?

This book has some fascinating concepts, but I got pretty bored with it pretty quickly. I suspect had I read the print version, I might have stopped to try some writing before moving on. Since I listen to audiobooks primarily in the car, this format didn't work for me.

Don't buy it if you're not a writer

Don't buy it if you're not a writer .. basically one main idea repeated in many different forms

A simple idea that can help you write more

This is one of those books that would work better as a two-page magazine article. The entire book is about a single idea: if you need to write something and don't know where to start, just start writing whatever comes to mind, there will be time for filtering, editing and fine tuning later.

The rest o f the book is an elaboration on this idea. I am not a professional, full-time writer so take my comment with that in mind.

There are other books about writing that I found to be much, much richer