Curious and Fantastical: The Daydreaming of Creative Writers

What are the daydreams of creative individuals like? Do they reflect the daydreamer’s level of creativity? To answer this question, this research examines the daydreams of creative writers and ordinary people. Among several daydream qualities, the research focused particularly on curiosity, or the extent to which daydreams revolve around unresolved questions and problems. Studies 1 and 2 provide evidence that curious daydreams—along with fantastical daydreams—predict creativity in community samples. Study 3 compares the daydreams of professional creative writers and non-writers, and examines what daydream qualities predict creativity within these groups. On questionnaires and in a week-long experience sampling procedure, writers reported more curious and fantastical daydreams than non-writers. Fantastical daydreams predicted their lifetime history of creative behavior and achievement. Moreover, daily creative behavior and inspiration throughout the study were predicted by curious, fantastical, meaningful, and pleasant daydreaming, with notable differences between writers and non-writers.