I'm feeling like clarifying to myself some disordered thinking about creativity. The winner of the Costa Book Of The Year (formerly the Whitbread) prize was announced today. It got me thinking about how the author had set about writing her book, what gave her the right to write about her chosen subject matter (never mind how a subject matter was chosen or whatever the verb is that describes the thing that isn't like a conscious choice but isn't an accident) and so on. And then I thought that all creativity is self-indulgent by definition (and so are all acts of publishing created works), and although it was blatently obvious and trivial, it seemed important and worth reflecting on. A good way to deal with disordered thinking is to face the obvious and trivial. Baby steps, I know, but there it is.