The Unbearable Lightness of Creativity.

2009 October 23
tags: , ,
by betsy

Wow! Has it been awhile, no? I’ve taken a few days off from my usual craft, writing and computer projects and just enjoyed being me instead of “that writing crafty girl with the 8 million projects and weird questions.” After having an online presence to varying degrees for years now, I was beginning to wonder what it’s like to not have to think about posts or spellcheck or photos uploading or where the hell I put that needle.

And you know what? It’s been nice. A bit luxurious, even.

As you can see at the top up there, this blog is called The Creative Life. But what is the creative life, really? First of all, living your life creatively means vastly different things depending on who you are. Secondly, it depends on the willingness to keep your eyes and ears open to the tiny details of life where you might get an idea for a story or a blog post or a new tapestry piece.

My creative life? I’m busy. I know you’re busy, in fact, busy is kind of a dumb word…we’re all busy, all the time! And I, like a lot of you, have a lot of irons in the fire (although I’m not taking blacksmithing…yet), which means that sometimes the creative life can be tough. Everything gives me an idea for something new and sometimes it’s hard to turn that switch off. But… like lightbulbs, the switch needs to go off sometimes to save energy.

I love my penchant for creativity and the way it makes me see the world, but sometimes worry about keeping up with blogs or posts or other online things gets in the way of it. I’m not someone who can write 4 posts a day and keep up with the people that post that or more each day, that’s not how my brain works. And I get sad when I think about having blogs and not fulfilling my “duty” to readers. But wait a second here… aren’t I supposed to help people embrace, work through, fall in love with their creativity? How in the hell can they do that when they’re reading blogs that are constantly being updated or inundated with pattern ideas via the web? Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet and blogs and posts. They are super helpful and awesome.

But the creative life can be hard. And murky. And deep. And fuzzy. It can also be beautiful and joyous and make you feel whole! So, I’m wondering what you, reader, (if anyone’s still reading this right now? Holla!) want to see from me. Here. Exploring this creative life. I’d like to post here and continue the dialogue with you, but also extricate myself from the unwritten contract that if I don’t post every day the world will shut down. ‘Cause it won’t. You won’t. Everything will be okay.

Do you have guilt about what you should be doing online vs what you should be doing offline? If you do, I give you permission to go out and make and do and see. And then come tell me/us all about it online with a Tweet, a comment or a blog post. Take an extra minute with your cup of coffee. Go take pictures of the leaves. Go hug your dog. Then let it sit for a bit and work its creative way through your brain and become even more beautiful. Then share. Blame me for not signing on your computer this afternoon. Go do. Go see. Go make.

Alternatively, if you think this is all poppycock, and that I should be keeping up with 4 posts a day and that I’m just lazy, feel free to tell me so. Just wanted to remind you to take a minute out of life to be creative. And not worry about if someone’s writing a tutorial write now this minute about a similar idea, thus stealing your thunder. Another great idea will come, perhaps one even better. You just may have to slow down a little bit to find it. Trust that first great idea, and your creativity, that it means that more great ideas will come. To you. Stop worrying.

What’s your creative life like? How do you sustain it?

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from → Creativity, Fears

  • Katie
    How do you over come the too many ideas? I am trying to apply to the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI but I can't settle on anything to send in. I just keep coming up with ideas that I never get started. It seems like you have something you go to that reminds you to get back on track.

    Thanks.. glad I found your blog today!
  • "How do you over come the too many ideas?"

    If I had this answer, Katie, I would be a bajillion times richer than
    I am now. So take (although afraid it's cold) comfort in knowing that
    you aren't alone!

    I will say, however, that things started to take more shape once I
    realized that I had to start looking at all my ideas and figuring out
    what they had in common. For example, I realized that the too many
    ideas thing is okay, as long as I work in consecutive projects instead
    of running out guns blazing. :) And once you have the commonalities,
    things might began to become clearer?

    Recently some told me a wonderful adage, "In order to find where you
    need to go, you first need to set your course and sail out on a path.
    Only then can [God*] blow you to where you need to be." Or close to
    that. I like the idea that running with one idea will eventually lead
    you to where you want to be, you just need to start.

    Good luck!

    x
    betsy


    *Re: God, it was someone who used to be a minister who told me this,
    feel free to substitute whatever.
  • I close my eyes and focus on the things that make me the most excited. The
    others can swim around forever in my head, but if I don't just pick
    something I feel really good about, I end up miserable.
  • Sometimes the audience is important to me, and sometimes it's not - I have several blogs, and they all go through rotation of high traffic time (i.e. me posting) and low traffic time. My blogging is also dependent on how much time I spend in front of a computer. At the moment, I am only online at work (where blogging is not in my job description!), so I'm accomplishing more at home in my free time, but it doesn't make it to the computer. I certainly fight with the dilemma of having many ideas and little time, many desires and fewer current outlets. But as time passes, I think that my focus will be more on the creative life and less on the life that exists only to make a dollar.

    I really appreciated the poem you posted in Craftivism, linked in one of the comments here. It was very timely for my work situation, reassuring, and reminded me not only that focusing on my creative life is important, but so is living in whichever moment I am in, including that job that brings in the paycheck.

    As for this blog, I am enjoying it as is, and I don't think blogging quotas should be placed on people unless they do it as a FT job. Each blog has a different personality, quality and frequency figuring in to that. I have noticed among some blogs that I follow a tendency to really want to churn out material. I don't need to see each centimeter of a sock as it progresses, or different angles, though I admit that sometimes I'm in an eye candy mood and other times I love to read what the blogger has to say about his/her creative life and process. But with technology like Twitter and Bloglines, I don't necessarily need the frequency to remind me to visit. I vote for quality.
  • My creative life? I used to try to create as much as possible. There was knitting, blogging, and store stash to create. At some point it all became work, every bit as stressful as my corporate days. I let things fall and I felt guilty. These days, I have revamped my blog and store. I post on my blog what and when the I feel like it. I list items for sale as I finish them. I take no orders, nor am I doing any contract/sample knitting. Oddly, enough, I am getting so much more done now. I am even blogging more than I used to when I had myself on a schedule.
    Give yourself a break. It you are like me, you will become more productive and relaxed when you stop trying so hard. (((hugs)))
  • My Creative Life? Oh God. Where to begin...

    My creative life is a mix of improving my jewelry art, secretly wishing I could sew, knit and crochet, admiring those who can,laying my hands on whatever tutorials I can find, drooling over cool leather work tools and vintage sewing machines...scavenging for cool bits and pieces and whatnots....having a myriad of ideas but all of them somehow too elusive to put on paper, sketch, or plan. Or having 1 or 2 crystal clear ideas that I immediately put into action.
    The online/offline dilemma? There is no dilemma-you can't have a cool online life if your real life is crap. So yes, any excuse to shut that damn PC down and go for a stroll in the park is fine by me. And you will give that tired PC of yours a well deserved rest! :p
    The urge to please your readers with regular blog posts? I don't have it. I do want a blog audience, sure, all of us here do, BUT! do we have to start writing 4-5 not-so-creative blog posts a day? Wouldn't that be too big a compromise? I personally feel that IF I have something to write about that is exciting to me-then I write. I don't write because I start feeling guilty that"Oh my, it's been 4-5 days, and I still haven't published anything!"
    When you don't feel inspired to write a blog post, the next best thing is to devote some time to promoting your art, I think. This doesn't require that much imagination, and it's always helpful.
    Like craftivista, I am also a bit slow in my work, and I've discovered it works best for me .
  • Huzzah for embracing the "slowness" you need in order to do your best
    work!
  • I try to blog post once a day and keep up with promoting for my etsy store and stuff pretty much daily, but I tend to take the weekends for myself and my creative or relationship life. Sometimes I post on Monday if I did something that might interest, but not always.

    For example, yesterday I went to see the Jack o Lantern Spectacular in RI and i'll def be posting photos on Monday because it was creative and interesting and inspiring.

    It's a nice mix of working during the week and having the weekends off, just like if it was a regular 9-5 job. I do think I should try to get my views up a little more on the weekends, but I don't plan on taking away from my life too much to do that. Maybe an hour or two on a Saturday morning or something...
  • This post made me think of this photo and poem - http://www.flickr.com/photos/k... - "...be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
    and listen to others..." I'm really starting to enjoy my creative journey more and more. I don't feel nearly as nervous about it as I did before. Viva la creative life!
  • Oh, it's a fine balance isn't it? I especially notice my own differences in online presence and what I still call my 'real life.' In the past, when real life was really flying along, I would rarely stop to share it online. Then when I had time to share, it was hard to know where to start as there was so much to choose from and yet, it seems harder to talk about what is passed online. There is something of a guilty apology in every "Last summer, I..." or "I know I've been gone for a while, but..." type of post I read--it seems an unnecessary weight. (I now make an effort to avoid the phrasing both in my mind and online--no worries about timing!)
    Now, I'm trying to balance it more, spending a few moments wisely online to share and catch up and then go back to creating. That seems to bring the 'real' into both.
    I also notice that online community has almost exclusively pushed out my in-person crafting communities. It's also a result of moving to a new place! That is slowly changing as well and it is a conscious decision followed by effort.

    Thanks for sharing your journey! It certainly resonates with me...
  • Yeah, the whole timing thing is weird to me. Why should we apologize
    for taking some time away offline? Long ago I realized that it doesn't
    suit me to be overly prolific because when I am whatever I want to say
    is diluted and not fully formed. That doesn't mean I discount or think
    less of anyone who works in a different manner... we're just
    differently wired. And I know that b/c I'm wired to be slower it does
    bite me in the ass sometimes. But discovering how you work best is so
    liberating...finding the balance as you say is hard... but I'm
    inspired when others say that they're working towards having a more
    balanced life, so thank you! :)

    And moving to new places! What a lovely adventure!
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