A sold item from BetaBitch at Etsy
Since I’m planning to inflict some examples of my creative writing on you in the due course of time, I’ve been thinking about creativity lately. Here are my opinions on the subject, boiled down to their essence but not etched on tablets of stone. (Though if you want to get chipping away, that’s okay with me).
So, what is creativity
? Is it some divine fire that scorches some souls but not others? Without it, are you doomed to a plodding life of mediocrity and bean-counting?
Is it a case of, you’ve either got, or you haven’t got, creativity?
Well, when this issue comes up, I dispute it with people I know who agree with the above statements. I think everyone is born potentially creative. If you’re a non-creative adult (in your own eyes) then either a) that natural propensity has just been squashed out of you by your environment, interpersonal interactions and upbringing, or b) that’s just what you choose to believe about yourself.
Now, I think option a) is entirely possible and does happen. But I would bet my boots(1) that for every person fitting into category a), there are ten folks out there who sincerely believe that they ‘just aren’t creative’, ‘can’t write’, ‘don’t have any ideas’, and numerous other idiocies of that nature.
What does creativity consist of? Do you want to hear my ideas on the subject? (Which are of course indisputable and inspirational, both).
Creativity is half your own notion of yourself, i.e. what you think is your essential nature, and half just pure courage. So, if you don’t think you’re creative, then in fact, you’re not. Because you won’t even try in the first place, so you’ve just fulfilled your own prophecy. Neat!
On the other hand, if you think of yourself as a limitless font of potentially awesome ideas – and potentially crap ones, too, but who cares about that – then there’s nothing to stop you busting loose with a million ideas a minute, like an oil well that just got struck. I think of it as giving yourself permission: permission to try things out, to go crazy, to speculate and be nuts and be wrong and be right and not make sense and not worry. Human beings have ideas running through their heads all the time.. They’re called ‘thoughts’. If you also call it creativity, then the job’s half-done.
Viewing yourself as creative doesn’t mean viewing yourself as some kind of genius. You only have to see yourself as someone who can make connections, who can manipulate internal concepts and your external environment – and no-one can stop you. It’s okay, and no-one can stop it. But you can ask for permission if you really, really want to – you can ask permission from your internal sergeant major. (This is how I do it). ‘Permission to bullshit, Sergeant Major, SAH!’ (Sarge always gives permission. I’m also the Colonel, and I had a word in his pearly shell-like).
Bullshitting fertilises creativity. However much rampant, undiluted crap you produce, just know it’s all increasing the likelihood of nourishing your next raging, brilliant idea. Both statistically, and because ideas breed more ideas, rather like rabbits.
And the other half of creativity – the courage? Well, I will bet my socks (to follow my boots) that what stops you from seeing yourself as a font of limitless creativity – or, as I prefer, giving yourself permission to bullshit - is fear. What if you say something stupid. Oh my God, the world would end! What would people think? Your sister-in-law would laugh and even say she was right about you all along! To your mother!
OMG OMG OMG. Breathe deep. I think you can survive this. You know the tools you need now: permission to bullshit ( which you provide for yourself) and the capacity not to care what anybody thinks about the results.
So why are you still waiting here? Do you want the Sergeant to start shouting, asking why you’re not rampantly and randomly bullshitting yet and saying things like ‘Get down and gimme five’? You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Go. Do it.
1. Hosford, Jessie. ‘You Bet Your Boots I Can’. Thomas Nelson, January 1994. This expression made me think of this particular wondrous example of creativity, a children’s book that is greater than many that are better known. And hey, I’m not even an Amazon affiliate (yet) – this is a pure and sincere recommendation.
