There is a fascinating scene in the original 1984 Ghostbuster movie that has an interesting application for writers. The three ghostbusters, played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis are trying to capture a ghost flying around a hotel ballroom. Their proton packs emit a powerful stream of energy that trap the ghost and pull it down to a small box that traps its supernatural energy.

However, Egon Spengler, played by Ramis, warns them not to cross the streams or it will have dire consequences. Ironically, crossing these streams of energy is the very thing that allows them to defeat the villain Gozer, as well as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man later in the movie.

When it comes to curiosity, most people don’t cross the streams. They keep their reservoirs of knowledge separate from one another. History, religion, arts, psychology, politics, technology … they keep them in their nice little boxes.

The best creative ideas come from blending these areas, from the cross-pollination of interesting ideas. The only way to create new ideas is to cross your streams of knowledge and experience.

This is why as a writer you must read in different genres and categories. You must talk to people who are different than you. You must take ideas from one realm of knowledge and blend them with ideas from other realms.

You can’t produce new ideas from the same base of knowledge and experience. You must cross-pollinate. You must cross the streams if you want to reach higher levels of creativity.