Are you comfortable with your creativity?

I'm not asking if you ARE creative - that's a given - as author Pam Grout's tongue-in-cheek quiz attests:

I've done creative things all my life. When I was a child I made doll clothes and built stories in my head (aside: I only wrote one story down, dropped it in school where it was found by the girl I wrote the story about, who did not appreciate my blatant exaggeration of an actual occurence. After that experience I learned to keep them in my head...).

Later, in high school and college, I wrote volumes of notes for what I thought would be The Great American Novel - only to find that I didn't like writing fiction! I've also sewn elegant dresses, innumerable costumes, played with paint and paper, jewelry, stained glass and tried every kind of needlecraft around.

But until recently I wasn't comfortable with my creativity. I didn't understand it - where it came from - why it would visit so infrequently - how, or if, I could call it up on demand.

I half expected creativity to flow straight from my fingertips - no "work" involved. The tricky thing was - sometimes it DID happen that way. So I persisted in believing that I could/should wait for the Muse. That any pushing on my part would not be art - not true creativity - but hack work.

Only (blush) in recent years have I learned that creativity is often hard. Why shouldn't it be? Creativity involves breaking new ground (sometimes breaking rules), thinking outside the box, opening to new things. So no wonder it can feel hard. But, I'm no less creative when I feel stuck. I'm thankful to a couple creative friends (and a few books) that steered me toward this knowledge.

Two writer friends shared their process with me. They told me about the way they worked - and how they'd dealt with the question of the Muse. They both told me to write - and write - and write. They both said that I would have days (maybe lots of days) of working without feeling as if I was getting to what I wanted.

They promised that if I kept working (not waiting for the Muse) I'd also have days when I felt the flow of creativity. And they were right! Now I know to keep working no matter what my feelings are - showing up is the biggest part of the work for me!

We'd love for you to think of "Dealing With Creativity" as a joint venture - which won't be complete without YOUR input. Share your stories about process (how you work, how you work around "stuckness", what you love or hate about being creative) - and we'd love to see pictures of your work, too!

Please use our Contact Us form to tell us about what you'd like to share.