More Words on Creativity

More Words on Creativity

Do you desire creativity?  Consider this:  Take the time to care for your creativity.  It has to be cultivated, practiced and allowed to be expressed.

Big news, right?  Probably not, and we pursue creativity anyway. 

I have considered myself a creative person for nearly forty years, yet in the last ten have I really felt I’ve reached a new level in understanding this elusive creature. 

There have been times in my writing schedule when I could tell the minute I open a blank document on my computer that this was going to be a fresh and flowing writing session.  At other times, I’ve struggled for an hour or more and have had to give up in sheer disappointment and a bit of frustration.  However, I’m learning to be less disappointed and say, “I’ll live to write another day.”

And that is exactly what happens.  Tonight is one of those times.  We are in La Connor, Washington for a 24-hour getaway.  This week alone I opened one of my blog pages and attempted to write a certain blog.  Nothing happened.  I finally wrote a long missive last night, only to share it with CB and we agreed it is too long and too … whatever. 

And yet tonight, in this hotel room, I can hardly keep up with the ideas.  I’ve written two posts in about 45 minutes. 

Wish I had a pill to bottle for those of you who seek to be creative.  I’ve be a rich man.  This is what I know about this process.

~It comes with practice.  I am more creative today than I was ten, yeah 30 years ago simply because I have practiced being creative.

~I am a leech for ideas.  I listen to everyday conversations, books on tape, read books, watch movies, listen to music and a hundred other activities, all in search of one seed of an idea.  Just one. 

~When the ideas don’t come, pursue for a while (whatever that means to you), and then be kind to yourself and simply say, “Tomorrow is a new day for new ideas.  Goodnight."

~When I’m writing, I usually have a particular blog site in mind (I have five.)  However, there have been times recently when I thought I was going to write for one site and another idea for another site crept in and took over.  I allowed it to take over.  Ideas happen when they happen. 

~Keep a file of ideas.  I almost always carry a Moleskin pocket notebook with me.  And on this computer, I have an idea file that is 190 pages long.  I’ve been collecting ideas for nearly ten years.  I mine it weekly for ideas and you would be amazed at the ideas I can get from some passage I recorded six or seven years ago.

~A final thought:  I borrow ideas from the greats and make them my own. I completely embrace this quote by Pablo Picasso.

Good artists copy; great artists steal.

P.S.  Be kind to yourself.  Be generous with self.  Noodle, wander, meander.  You’ll be amazed at what this can do for your creativity.

This is what is on

my mind today.

P Michael Biggs

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