Creativity vs Imagination
Creativity and Imagination are two words that are often confused on account of the appeared similarity in their meanings, though there are differences between them. The word ‘creativity’ refers to ‘the power of the mind to make something appealing’. For an example, a child paints a beautiful image of a countryside. It is the creativity of the child that allows him to be original. On the other hand, the word ‘imagination’ refers to ‘something that is forcefully thought’. For an example, imagine the case of science fiction that has been compiled by an individual. It is the imagination that allows him to go beyond the restrictions of reality and compile an ambiance that is within the mind of the writer. This is imagination. The two definitions of creativity and imagination highlight that these do not refer to the same thing but are different from one another. Through this article let us examine the difference while gaining an understanding of each word.
What is Creativity?
Although both belong to the faculty of the mind, creativity pertains to something original. Creativity is all about possible happening. It is original in character. Creativity is the power to create a piece of art or poetry. It is dependent on two important factors, namely, the grace of God and experience. People who have the grace of God start writing piece of poetry even at the age of 10. On the other hand such of those who are not blessed solely rely on their experience and practice to create new pieces of poetry. This is the truth about creativity. Hence creativity is the basic factor in the creation of poetry and pieces of art. Creativity paves the way for originality.
For an example in newspapers, we find job advertisements for creative writers. In such a context, what is meant by a creative writer? Usually, it refers to individuals who have the potential to produce something original. This allows the writer to make use of the natural talent that he has for writing and create an original piece. Even in schools there are competitions for creative writing. Once again, the objective of such an endeavor is to create something unique and new. This is the idea behind the word creativity. Creativity and Imagination are not synonymous. In fact, they are two different words. Now let us pay attention to the word imagination in order to understand its meaning.
What is Imagination?
Imagination refers to ‘something that is forcefully thought’. It is mostly about impossible happening. Imagination is wild in character, unlike creativity that is original in character. It allows an individual to think outside of the box. Imagination is the underlying factor in writing poetry. A poet has to make wild imaginations to put them into writing. It is thus said that imagination is the foundation of poetry. A poet has to be creative to imagine. Imagination usually is based on falsehood and forceful thoughts as in the sentence ‘she imagined as if she entered the Moon’. In this sentence, you can see that she forcefully thought about herself as entering into the Moon. This highlights the difference between Creativity and Imagination. Now let us summarize the difference in the following manner.
What is the Difference Between Creativity and Imagination?
- The word ‘creativity’ refers to ‘the power of the mind to make something appealing’. On the other hand, the word ‘imagination’ refers to ‘something that is forcefully thought’.
- Although both belong to the faculty of the mind, creativity pertains to something original whereas imagination pertains to something willfully thought.
- Creativity is all about possible happening whereas imagination is mostly about impossible happening.
- Imagination is wild in character whereas creativity is original in character.
Image Courtesy:
1. Glass Creativity Finalrevis by LaurMG (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
2. “Polish sci fi fantasy books”. [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
