Creating is not easy. If it were, everyone would being doing it. Everyone would value the time and energy and not harp on paying for someone’s hard, time-consuming work.
Yes, creative people sell their creations and deserve to be paid for them. Sorry, I’m going off track due to a recent (as of this writing) online argument that authors should (a) give their books away or (b) price them below cheap.
Back on track…To create, for most nowadays, is to put something of ourselves out there for others to see, and judge. It’s not a normal job, for most, and we do it because there’s something inside us that drives us, we’re not happy if we don’t do this “create” thing.
We don’t, normally, get a steady pay cheque; therefore, it’s deemed a hobby or a sideline or just that-thing-she-does. It’s not, normally, a physical activity; therefore, we’re not doing something for our health or competing against someone else (what do you think those best seller lists are about?) or a clock. It’s empty work filling free time that could be spent…cleaning? Watching television and eating bonbons?
The creativity I am familiar with is very individual and lonely.
And, sometimes creating can just plainly be like pulling teeth. You end up banging your head on the computer because the hero wants to be the villain and the villain changes to hero. Or erasing line after drawn line because you can’t capture the model’s chin the way you see it. Perhaps it’s mixing paints for the right shade that just will not materialize. Re-throwing the clay as it refuses to take shape.
So, what to do when that creative tooth won’t budge?
Throw words up on the computer screen. Yes, just type the dang words. Talk to yourself via the computer. Tell that blank screen what you want, or need, on it and just type away and slowly the written shape will show itself. Allow the mistakes, that’s why we have edits. Listen to your characters; let them go their own way, that’s the surprised joy in creating them—bringing them to life.
Write a blog about not being able to write…been there; done that.
Because nothing we create will ever be perfect in our eyes.
We must learn to allow the non-perfect line to stay drawn and the colour to be what it is. The beauty of clay is contained within its imperfections. Which great artist said – the marble shows me what is hidden?
Think back to your very first driven need to create. Was it to be perfect or to be free or was it—is it—because you are being you.