I have to agree with Ms. Angelou. You can’t use up your creativity.
It seems the more I imagine, the more I scoop from the creativity pool. It is never ending.
Are you a person who has to make yourself sit down to create? Sometimes I am the way. In fact, I can easily distract myself. Of course, I can always blame it on the ease of using the internet and “researching” for my next book. Usually, I end up on social media sites reading about kittens being saved from flood waters or something like that….
Honestly, I think my procrastination has to do with fear or failure.
I can’t really measure the value of something I’ve created. I’m too close to it, or from my standpoint my work isn’t as good as someone else’s.
Nothing will stifle your creativity faster than comparing yourself to someone else.
I’ve been reading “The Big Magic” and let me tell you, Elizabeth Gilbert’s book is helping me in ways I didn’t expect. It is very comforting to read a popular author admitting they don’t think they have much talent and are in a quandary why someone would want to read her books.
These are things I know about myself if I want to create:
- I have to have brain space. If there are too many variables in my day (being grandma to our darling granddaughter, teaching and lesson plans, creating Teacherpayteachers products, daily goings on like the laundry needs to be done or we need to run errands,) I simply can’t create.
- I have to be rested. If I’m tired or stressed, forget it. I simply can’t imagine.
- I need classical music or sound tracks playing in the background.
- My ideas arrive most fluidly between 9:00 and 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
- I do my best creating on a rainy day.
- I have to have some plan before I begin whether it’s a synopsis or an outline.
- I like my life to be balanced. If I spend too much time creating lesson plan products or grading papers, then I need to do something such as cook a new recipe, or color in a coloring book or maybe write.
I used to think I was an “emotional perfectionist”. That’s a person who needs to feel emotionally balanced in order to function well in life. In some respects, I am one. It is difficult for me to create anything of quality if I am stressed or worried. (I can write really good poetry then, though. Ha!)
I think I will always have problems with self confidence and I have to be on guard to the little voices in my brain which like to distract me. Those little boogers never seem to go away.
What do you do when you want to create? Do you have certain steps you take to nurture your creativity? I’d love to hear from you.
Contact me at dhcbaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net
If you’d like to read more about my journey as an author, read here:
https://dramamommaspeaks.com/2014/08/07/a-writers-journey-a-really-really-long-one-but-worth-it/
