Takings a playful attitude towards words used to define groups in the profession, creating new classification systems -- all of these can help one's research imagination (Mills10). Consider extremes of human behavior -- think outside the box of existing studies. Finally, there is value in writing to the layperson, not just the expert. There is great value in communicating important findings to the public and writing lucidly and cleanly can also be useful for the academic writer, to help him or her think better as well as write better (Mills...

Much of the advice Mills gives would be valuable to an artist as well as to a scholar, and perhaps that is partly his point -- a scholar of sociology is a creative artist when making observations, studying the work of other 'scholar-artists,' creating plans and research constructions, and honing his or her ability to come to a greater understanding of human beings.
Works Cited

Mills, C.W. "On Intellectual Craftsmanship." June 8, 2009.

http://ddl.uwinnipeg.ca/res_des/files/readings/cwmills-intel_craft.pdf