A couple of years ago, I thought of “creative” people as a special type, often going about their creative work in a special place. Writers in garrets, artists in studios, craftsmen in workshops. And I thought that these people had something magical … some genius spark that let them produce works of art.
But since then, through reading a few blogs, taking a creative writing MA, and simply writing a heck of a lot more, I’ve come to realise that creativity is not some rarefied gift. It’s not alchemy.
To create means producing something which didn’t exist before and which wouldn’t have existed without you. A painting, a blog post, a novel, a piece of jewellery – whatever it is, it’s yours.
To create is to dream, to imagine, to take a part of yourself and to place it in the world.
There is nothing complicated or magical about this. You and I are perfectly capable of it. Creativity is simple, but it’s hard. And yet, it matters. I’m coming to believe that it matters more than almost anything else in this life.
Why It’s Hard
So, if creativity is, on the surface, so simple – I take words or clay or paint or movements and place them in an order that tells a story or shows a picture – then why is it hard? Why aren’t we all artists or musicians or writers?
I spend most of my time, online and offline, around writers. In myself, and in them, I see how much energy and strength creativity can require.
Sharing Your Work is Tough
I’ve been sharing my work in creative writing groups since I was fourteen. That didn’t stop me being nervous yesterday when I had to read a 500 word piece to my workshop group at college.
If you’ve ever showed someone a poem or a painting, or if you’ve ever published a blog post that you worked hard on, you’ve probably had similar feelings and thoughts. Will they like it? Is it any good, or am I going to look like an idiot? Have I put too much of myself into this?
I’ve critiqued work with other writers for years, and there’s always an understanding that the work is separate from the person. Yet, it’s impossible to truly separate who you are from what you create. The whole point of creating something is that you created it. And, on some level, you called it “good”.
Creating Takes Energy
The process of creation takes considerable time and energy – often more than any observer (especially one from a different field) will realise. The creative process does not involve sitting down and painting, writing or composing perfectly from start to end. There is planning, dreaming, wondering, false starts, bad bits, great bits that don’t fit, changed intentions mid-way.
I genuinely love writing, but I can’t keep it up for hours on end. There’s an energy cost in taking my thoughts, turning them into words, and finding the right way to convey them to an audience. If I’ve spent hours writing, it can be hard to string a sentence together afterwards. I can’t speak for other creatives, but I imagine it’s similar.
The energy cost of creativity is one of the reasons that we put off ever creating something. There are so many other easier things to do: watching television, answering emails, reading webcomics, chatting to friends. We do enjoy the process, but we have trouble getting started: there’s a hurdle to cross every single day.
Other People Don’t Get It
If you’re surrounded by people who just don’t understand the impulse to create, it can be really difficult to keep up your own energy. I’m lucky that two of the people closest to me – my mum and my fiancé – both do “get” writing. I know a lot of writers who aren’t that lucky, whose spouses or friends or parents can’t understand why it matters.
This is particularly hard when your creative work isn’t paying – and I believe that there is considerable meaning and value to be found whether or not you’re being paid for what you create.
It can be very easy to buy into what the people around you are saying (or implying) and think What’s the point? Why bother?
Creativity Matters
If you feel like jacking in your creative dream because it’s hard, and because the world’s convinced you it’s not important, please think again. Because what you create does matter. It is important. And sticking with it might be the very best thing you do in your lifetime.
It Matters For You
These words of Charlie’s – a aside in a post on How to Lose an Hour’s Creative Mojo in Two Minutes – have stuck with me for weeks:
I’ve worked with people who were physically, emotionally, and mentally sick because they weren’t doing the creative thing that would make them come alive; the fix wasn’t therapy, medication, exercise, or vacations – the fix was them doing their thing, and the rest started to fall in place.
I can’t speak for others, but I know I feel unhappy, more stressed and less free when I don’t get to do my creative thing. I write fiction for lots of good reasons – but one of the key ones for me is because, on some deep level, I need to.
If you have that, whether it’s with writing or composing or painting or anything that makes you come alive, then give yourself permission to do it. If creating something – conceiving it, building it piece by piece and seeing it through to finished – makes you happy, then who the hell is anyone else to say that it’s not worthwhile?
That, your happiness and enjoyment alone, is more than enough reason.
It Matters For Others
What you create isn’t, generally, a self-indulgent act. Once you’ve got past the apprenticeship level in your particular field, you’re creating stuff which is worthy of being shared.
Your blog post might be the one which makes someone write “I needed to hear this. It fits perfectly with where I’m at in my business, and where I want to go.” (Fabeku). Your song might be the one which brightens the day of someone you’ll never meet. Your painting might catch the attention of children who aren’t yet born.
When you create something that has meaning for you, something which hooks into your passions and your concerns, that makes you laugh or cry or simply care … it’s going to reach other people.
It’s so easy for our own judgements to get in the way: for us to decide that something isn’t right, isn’t good enough, isn’t going to mean anything to anyone else. But sometimes, you need to let other people decide. You need to take what you have and put it out there in the world, and accept that others will bring their own lives to your work, and find their own meaning within it.
No, that isn’t easy. It often means being brave, and getting your ego out of the way. It costs you: it may be daunting, painful or frightening, especially if you’re a perfectionist. There are posts I’ve published here on Aliventures which I worried would fall flat – and yet they’ve often been the ones which touch the most people.
What are you holding back from sharing with the world?
Perhaps you’re telling yourself “I’m not creative” or “I’m not good enough” or “I don’t have anything worthwhile to offer”. For once, stop judging your own work. Give yourself the freedom to create, to enjoy … and to share.
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Ali, you are spot on once again. It is indeed easier to watch television than to be creative. Creativity is indeed simple and hard at the same time. For me, the most difficult thing is to accept that bad writing is almost essential if I want to deliver good writing in the end.
Bart´s last blog ..Fear Shows You Where To Go
I feel the most self-conscious about exposing myself through my writing. It is something that blocked my creativity right through my school years and something I am only learning to manage now. It’s silly really — I’ll happily voice my opinions until the cows come home, but I get nervous about putting my thoughts on paper for others to read.
As a designer I agree with this as well – it’s the hardest thing putting anything you do out there and waiting to see if people will like it. Do you think even the great designers and writers have enough confidence in their work to just write it or make it and put it out there and never care to look back at what people think about it? Or perhaps look back but not let it effect them if its not so well-received?
AJ´s last blog ..AJdigitalFocus: Can’t add anyone to a list. #twitterfail ?
I know what you mean – I feel dispirited, uncomfortable and ‘itchy’ if I don’t get to knit or write for a few days. I see creativity as being a way in which we impose order on the chaos around us. Take away the thing that makes us sane and we go a little stir crazy…
Icy Sedgwick´s last blog ..Still Running (Flash Fiction)
Bart, I’m with you there on bad and good writing. My first drafts of blog posts are usually passable, but my first draft fiction is often clunky, cliché-ridden and a bit cringe-worthy! But like you say, you have to write through that to get to the good stuff.
Emma, I don’t think it’s silly or self-conscious. For me, the act of putting something down on paper means that I’m saying this stuff is important to me — plus, when you’re writing, you can’t adapt what you’re saying to your audience like you would when speaking.
AJ, thanks for bringing in the design perspective — it’s hard for me to know how much of my understanding of creativity translates across mediums. I suspect that even well-known, acknowledge, writers and designers worry about their work being good enough … I suspect, though, that they do learn to shrug off criticism or negative reactions more easily.
Icy, “itchy” describes it perfectly for me! My writing is definitely my way of ordering and making sense of things. I’ve tried my hand at knitting recently – have made a lovely chunky scarf but that’s my limit at the moment. On a side note, loads of the writers I know are also knitters (at least three out of the eleven in my workshop group at college) — I suspect writing and knitting are somehow connected!
Ali – I really subcribe to this. Your post is really well written and perfectly articulates my feelings towards creating, blogging, writing and a need to communicate. My biggest challenge is being able to write something I am happy with the first time out, not easy to do. That said, once I get something created I am happy with, and out there for others to see, I feel good about the effort that has gone into it. I really respect those that can generate regular blog postings very frequently. And I guess that is also the challenge. To post regularly, which most people recommend, or to post only when something is how you want it. I don’t believe “perfection” is needed but I suppose nothing is ever perfect even by someone considered a master “creator”. Great blog BTW!
Great post as always Ali. Charlie’s quote is spot on too! I have only started writing recently (for my blog – the last time I wrote properly was for a-level english) but really enjoying it and it does feel like my creative expression to the world. I find that sometimes I have such amazing posts in my head, but find it difficult to convey that into words the way I have envisioned it or at times I read things by great writers(like yours) and wonder if I will ever be as good a writer …I know deep down that’s not what it is about and by getting out there and doing it, I am learning and it is also inspiration for me….
Thanks for the inspiration and wisdom
Jen
Marc, thank you! From talking to a number of (very good) writers and bloggers, I’d say that it’s pretty rare to ever writing something that you’re happy with the first time round. Revision (literally, “re-seeing”) and editing are just as important as drafting.
I like having a deadline for posting (I try to put new posts here on Mondays and Thursdays), because it creates a reasonable amount of structure and discipline for my writing. I think it’s too easy to either get rigid about writing and to force it into a cage, losing all the joy of it … and too easy to go the other way and “only write when inspired”, which ends up being never!
Jen, thank you
Charlie is always spot on! I think your comment hits a number of the most important things about writing: you’re enjoying it, it’s your way of expressing yourself, you’re learning by doing, and you’re reading and being inspired by that. Trust me, my posts never come out quite as amazing as they were in my head, and my fiction never does… (though with drafting and redrafting, I get closer!)
Creativity takes energy–it is output as opposed to input (reading or watching TV). And I’m not sure why, but somewhere along the line creativity has gotten a bad name–like people associate it with sweet little old ladies making Christmas ornaments. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because I’m a huge fan of creating whatever makes you feel good. It is just that the act of creativity has gotten devalued in our culture for some reason, which is what I’m grasping to figure out here, somewhat unsuccessfully! Maybe it is because creativity doesn’t always have a monetary value, and without that, society doesn’t value it. All I know is that I can’t live without writing.
Charlotte Rains Dixon´s last blog ..Whole Abundance
Well said and couldn’t agree more. Its the putting it out there that is scary and fun at the same time. The fact that we are creating and sharing shows that people are on the right track. Being Creative in this manner is not just good for your business but better for your Sole.
Thanks for sharing on such a great topic.
Oh what an insightful post!!! Creativity feeds our soul I think and I didn’t realize this til very late in life. With engineering and networking and math background there is no room for creativity and when I started to explore ways to be creative (tango, yoga, writing), I started to fully live. And I am never starving myself that way again. Thank you!
Great post. It’s amazing how exhausting creativity can be. When ever I go out for a photo shoot, which leads to a post, I’m tired, but it’s a good kind of tired.
One other insight you had in this post that hit home was the idea that people don’t get it. Well, not all people, but my family for sure. Oh, I know they like what I do, but I also know they don’t really understand it, or what drives me to keep doing it.
Thanks for sharing the ideas revealed here.
LisaNewton´s last blog ..10 Essential items you’ll need for an Emergency Kit
Ali,
An artist creates art for art’s sake, not for the material rewards.Of course, there are exceptions…
Albert Einstein did NOT experiment with ideas to be wealthy and famous: that came much later in his life. Einstein just pursued his curiosity and let the world take care of the details. Early on his career, Einstein failed to land a decent job and worked as a clerk in Switzerland. Yet, he never lost sight of his ideas; he kept on tinkering with solutions even as a patent officer. Only much later, was he rewarded.
By and large, creative individuals demonstrate inherent curiosity to pursue art and intrinsic motivation.
This varies from time to time, of course, and it may not be true for all people. However, it makes sense.
Many great artists have earned fame only posthumously and others not at all. How many “unhonored, unsung and unheard” heroes (as a poet once wrote) have we lost already–and are losing currently–to the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?” You have to follow your bliss and create for the sake of it. For some, creativity is catharsis: sort of like therapy without having to meet a head shrink.
As for critics, listen to them. Maybe they have something constructive to say. Incorporate that valuable feedback in your writing. And make a better product. Ignore what is not constructive criticism. This is what a lot of artists do. Find out what the critics are saying and identify what works for you. Sometimes, your critics can be your best allies: you can learn a lot from them if you keep an open mind. Critics are not always trying to shoot down your ideas. Critics too have their role in society.
Creativity is indeed difficult to grasp. There are many discouraging factors that prevents us from exploring this inherent aspects of ourselves–you have expounded some clearly here. If we let go of our negative expectations as well as the expectations of others, we will see the beauty of our creativity in its entirety. We are all meant to create.
Walter´s last blog ..Selfishness under the pretense of love
Ali, You literally took the words out of my mouth! Thank you so much for reminding me that even if some people don’t “get it”, I still must do it and not feel guilty about it.
Monkey’s Momma´s last blog ..The Story Behind The Song: A Chicken Soup Giveaway
Ahhh Ali, my little breath of fresh air on a late Saturday night. It’s funny how each of us here are likely subscribed to multiple blogs and therefore each of us knows what it’s like to skim through someone’s article or really take a moment to ingest what it’s saying. I can honestly say Ali that I don’t read your blog just to get through them, I read them so they get through me…if that makes any sense. Keep up your great work and thanks for what you do.
Marcus Sheridan´s last blog ..YouTube, Small Business Domination, and How to Really Drive Your Competition Nuts
The real pain comes from being unable to NOT create.
Wow, thank you all!
Charlotte, I know just what you mean about “creativity” as a word (though I think “crafts” has even more of those associations for me). Yes, I agree that it’s the process and the enjoyment which matters. I think it’s rather a shame when only financially-rewarding activities are seen as valuable: there’s so much in life which matters hugely and yet which can’t be bought.
James, you’re right: it’s such a great feeling to get a good reaction to your work, but it’s scary to put it out there and risk people being indifferent. One of my creative writing group was telling the rest last week that he “wants one of her characters to come to a sticky end” — THAT’S the reaction I love to get, when people get really into the story.
Farnoosh, thanks! I’m reading The Artist’s Way at the moment, and one of the themes of that is how many of us are creatively starving, or starving our artist selves. I come from a wordy background (English degree) so writing’s always been there for me … albeit in a more academic than creative context at times. (Actually, the two feed into one another for me.)
Archie, I agree! Art created with a cynical eye on the market is, in my opinion, unlikely to succeed or to be creatively fulfilling. It’s interesting you bring in Einstein, who was of course immensely creative … I think we often think of creativity as lying solely within the domain of the “soft” subjects (arts and humanities) rather than sciences.
I definitely listen to critics, and my fiction work is *hugely* improved by taking feedback on board.
Walter, yup, I think you’re right there. We have so many preconceptions about creativity, and so many rules that we put on ourselves about what we can/can’t create, what’s valuable, etc that sometimes we have to just put all that aside and enjoy!
Monkey’s Momma (what a fab name!) Yes, keep on doing it! And feel *good* about it — you’re giving yourself the creative time and nurture that you need.
Marcus, cheers! As a suscriber to slightly more blogs than I can comfortably read
I know just what it’s like to come across a post where I actually stop and enjoy. (Charlie Gilkey’s Productive Flourishing and Naomi Dunford’s IttyBiz do that for me.) Yep, you make a lot of sense, and I’m sincerely flattered. 
Dave, interesting comment! I think that many of us, deep down, are *driven* to do our creative thing. (I really can’t imagine not writing in some form or other, and I’m pretty sure that part of my writing needs to be fiction.)
Well said, Ali!
The two parts that really connect for me in terms of the social reasons creativity matters are the vulnerability required to share, and the unknowable benefits of sharing.
We don’t know what our ideas and art will or could mean to other people until we release our work into the world and let it mix together with the life experiences of our audience.
I’ve found that it’s often the parts that I’m most concerned about or frustrated with that people end up liking, or those little afterthoughts that slip in before the perfectionists get to them.
The perfectionists in us, that team of professional second-guessers, are put in their place by proving them wrong over and over again, by sharing work, reading and hearing the reactions, and learning what other people get out of it. Scary, but essential. Thanks for a great post.
Matt Blair´s last blog ..Words on a Screen
Cheers Matt! And very good points. Yes, I sometimes find that people like throwaway lines or odd moments which didn’t mean much to me (though sometimes they like the bits that I thought were clever, which always makes me happy!)
I love the way you describe the perfectonist-inside. I’ve become a lot braver about showing early drafts to people, and not worrying about trying to get everything polished before letting the world take a peak!
Ali,
This is a great post. It took me years to get to the point where I realized that the things I create are separate from who I am. Yes, I made them, but they’re not me. Once I came to that simple realization, it was like I was free to do whatever I pleased.
I would like to add one thing. You write that creating takes energy. I agree with that. For me, though, I find that the more I create, the more energy I have to keep create. It’s a matter of inertia. Though I too have trouble writing hours on end. Playing music, though, that’s a different story: I hate to stop!
As always, thanks for the wonderful writing.
Seth M. Baker´s last blog ..How to Get Out of a Rut (for Cheap)
Cheers, Seth! Glad you came to that realisation: I think it’s very easy to either see what we create as having *nothing* to do with us as people (which means we can’t really create at all), or to get so wrapped up in our craft that we can never have any perspective.
That’s an interesting point about energy, and in fact I think I agree with you: I definitely find that I struggle to write well early on in a writing session, then get “flowing” after an hour or two. I can’t keep that up all dya though!
Hi Ali,
That’s an excellent post…I could relate to that very well…infact my biggest fear is sharing my poems and articles openly with the world…At times I feel they are silly and that I am being arrogant by going out there and asking people to read them….but I know that what i am feeling is not right….after all how can you expect others to respect your creativity when you don’t respect it yourself
Swati´s last blog ..Take me home
Swati, thanks! I think it can be incredibly hard to share our creative work with others — I know I’ve often felt the same about writing. Sometimes we need space and privacy to develop our poetry/articles/paintings/etc in private, but eventually there’ll come a point when the next step is to let others share them.
Have you come across Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way? I’m reading it at the moment and I think you might find it thought-provoking.
Swati,
You have an interesting perspective about creativity, a topic which is really close to my heart.
However, let me add my two cent’s here–oops, Ali is offended now–I meant quids/shillings!
I have shared my creative work with a number of people. I guess too many people.
My people were quite eager to share feedback–or should I say a punch in the nose?
They told me to get a real job–like farming or construction work–and stop the artsy/fartsy stuff.
Writing experts/coaches gave up on me a long time ago, and yet I keep on plugging away.
I used to be a regular at poetry slams and recited my poems “in front of a a captive audience”.
And I actually got slammed as soon as I reached the parking lot. (I tried to escape from goons).
People were incredibly annoyed that they had to suffer through my verse– and worse, my voice– which makes the crows fall dead off the branches of trees.
The trick is, don’t take yourself too seriously. Create poems in a spirit of play.
And try not to take rejection personally, if you can. Share poems in a spirit of play.
Maybe you can use the criticism to improve on your writing the next time?
Write to please yourself–the critics come later. Write whenever inspiration strikes you.
And if you receive “rejection slips” galore, who cares? That’s the story of my life, actually.
I make paper airplanes out of my rejection slips and give them away to children.
And the children appreciate my work much more than art snobs, know-it-alls and experts.
Not only is my creative work silly, but I am sillier. In fact, I know I am a real whack job.
I found that out a long time ago.
That’s why I approach my creative work like a clown in a circus.
Lighten up and keep your chin up.
And share whatever you have with the world anyway.
Who cares it you fall short? We all fall short anyway. “To err is human/to forgive, divine,” wrote a poet once. (We don’t need to write like Shakespeare, Tennyson, and William Blake.)
I am so absent-minded, I can’t even remember the name of the poet, but I love the line anyway. So, buck up and go for it.
And Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way is an excellent recommendation by Ali.
And sharing your work with others is not at all arrogant. You are just sharing and allowing others to share with you as well. Have you ever attended a writer’s conference/seminar?
It is (sort of like) a round table conference and people share their works with other writers. And you give feedback and get feedback too. And it is great experience. Cheers!
And I wish you great success in your creative efforts. And hope to read some of your poems!