Most people make a common mistake: they assume creativity is a well belonging to a chosen few. (Plagiarists and copycats shrug it off — what's the harm in borrowing a bucket of water from your well? Will it be missed? You still have plenty left).
Creativity is not a well but a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. (By that thinking, people who constantly "borrow" wind up with flaccid creative muscles).
To keep those muscles going strong, creatives need an environment filled with the following:
Good listeners. Because creativity is the world of ideas, creatives need alert, open-minded listeners who understand conceptual thinking and will suspend judgment even if they don't fully understand creative processes. These are folks who don't just get off on the special effects; they also appreciate a great backstory. Creatives like to brainstorm, play with words and imagery, follow through on "what if?" imaginings... It's fun to bounce ideas off one another. There's nothing more flattening than to discuss the curiosities that drive you to create, only to have that other person tune out, or interject, "You know what? You should do portraits of CEOs. Bet each one would fetch you a good price," or "Why do you always deal in such dark subjects? Why not bright, peppy, colorful things? Those make me happy!"
Opportunities for transformative, not just transactional work. Of writing, Lawrence Kasdan said, "Being a writer is like having homework for the rest of your life." Writers try to maintain a daily writing practice, often keeping more than a couple book ideas going, and if they're not hammering out the first draft to one, they're making research notes on another, or scouring newspapers for fresh story ideas. That said, creatives maintain a daily practice of thinking beyond.
Sure, there are creative jobs where you can turn off the computer and never think about it until 9AM the next day, but most creative challenges entail continuous thinking and planning. That stream of experimental thought optimizes the birth of good ideas. What appears to be down time (brooding, puttering, doodling, daydreaming to music) is in fact a mind feverishly at work, weighing options, testing theories, scanning an idea from a variety of angles, asking, "What if...?" The transformation begins in the process that yields the idea. Remember, creativity is first and foremost a problem-solving skill.
A conscious life, based on authenticity of risk and effort. To be creative is to analyze, (re) interpret, depict, magnify, and exalt reality — whatever reality means to the individual — to comfort the distressed, and to startle the complacent. Creativity yields not only a new way of looking at things, but also a call to action. Individuals who are more committed to convention, to garnering widespread acceptance, will have a harder time getting past formulaic, derivative, "first shelf" ideas. Literally, they have nothing new to say.
Creatives don't just inhabit the visual and performing arts: they work in finance, STEM industries, blue collar sectors — all the places where one might assume a deficit of creativity. Fact is, creativity belongs to everyone, resides in everyone, so is there anything on this list that wouldn't be important to each and every one of us?
Next post: The only thing you need can't be taught.
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