Choosing your creative moments
It used to be much easier to not brush your teeth before wearing masks. The only people to disappoint were those around you, but with a mask over our mouths - the only one we disappoint is ourself. Such is the type of accountability you get by making a commitment with yourself to write 3 full pages everyday (ie via Morning Pages).
A promise to yourself is sacred. It’s difficult to trust yourself after breaking one.
So what do we do when we want to keep our commitment but are not having any ideas? We dig.
Where do our ideas come from? What must happen before we get our next great idea?Do we wait for time to pass, a good night's rest, or a new experience? Or can we force new ideas into existence by merely making the decision to have a new idea?
And if we can choose to have a new idea but would rather watch TV or literally anything else, what can we do? Well, aren’t these lines of questions themselves a stream of thought free for the taking? Can we not just pick up the pen and write, even if we are writing about how we are not in the mood to write?
I think Creativity with a Capital C is misunderstood. Creativity is a process of doing, not a process of thinking, and it is not the output of your thinking. An idea is not itself interesting until you capture it and do something artistic with it. And the art you made is not creative until you share it with someone else (“Creative” is for other people to decide).
Creative work starts with an interesting idea starts with a decision, but follow-through is key