Creativity Is Work

The original title for this was ‘creativity is hard’. 

Given the difficulties some experience every day at the moment, I thought that could be deemed a little insensitive.

Even if it was followed with a self-deprecating disclaimer.

Of course, my point was going to be, that whilst in the grand scheme of things, creativity is not hard, I do sometimes find it hard to be creative.  

But then I realised that that’s not even the best way of putting it.  

The thing I wanted to highlight about creativity is not that it’s hard, it’s that it’s hard work.

So, you thought you could just be creative huh?

In my last newsletter of 2020 (What’s that? You’re not subscribed? My sincere apologies. Here’s the link.), I wrote about my plan to creatively recharge over the holidays.

Take stuff in so that I could put more out.  

Whilst I did do that, I perhaps naïvely thought that when I sat down at my laptop again in the New Year, ideas would simply burst out of me.

I’d stumble out of bed in the morning, crawling over to the computer, overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of the ideas spilling out of my brain, my body convulsing with untapped creative energy.

This did not happen.

In fact, I was disappointed to find that I was struggling to feel creative at all.

I didn’t have the creative get up and go I thought I might have.

I imagine there are two reasons for this:

1.   

2.    Creativity is work

The first reason is completely valid and possibly the biggest contributing factor to my lack of creativity.

The fact that not much is happening and we are unable to fully experience LIFE, the WORLD and THINGS as much as we normally would means the engine that normally powers creativity isn’t getting much fuel.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot I can do about that.

The second reason, however, will always be true, whatever the weather.

Creativity = Ideas + Work 

Sometimes it can feel like ideas do just pop out of nowhere.

The chances are though, they’ve probably been inspired by something along the way. 

And when your job is creative, you can’t rely on the occasional idea popping into your head.

Consistent, meaningful creative output comes from doing the work.

Feeling bereft of ideas, even after a good break, made me realise sometimes you’ve just got to hunker down and produce stuff.

You have to intentionally set aside time to think and process partially formed ideas.

It’s great when writing feels natural and organic but this doesn’t happen all the time. Often when it does, it’s not at a time when you can work.

With what I do, the number of words I need to write and the subsequent editing and tweaking that is needed to make something worthy of publication can be overwhelming.

But, truth be told, it’s not difficult. I can do all that stuff. I’m good at it.

It’s just work. And it’s only through spending time and energy on it that something good comes out the other side.

Sometimes you just gotta work through the pain.

The best things are moulded

Very few on-the-spot ideas are complete. If they were taken as they are, they wouldn’t be that great. 

The best stuff is tweaked, formed and moulded.

The time spent mulling over the ideas, planning out structures, gathering inspiration and research are all necessary parts of the creative process.

The best creative work is born as you create. The winning ideas usually come during that process, not at the beginning of it.

Which means you’ve got to be disciplined and set aside the time for this to happen.

I can have all the good ideas in the world, but if I don’t put the time and the work in, nothing gets done. And if there’s nothing to show for it at the end, was there any point in doing it?

Now when I don’t feel the creative juices flowing, I first remind myself that with everything going on, I’m hardly in fertile ground…

And then I apply a bit of pressure. I try and get stuck into the work.

It’s here that the fruit grows.

And the end result is all the more satisfying for it.