Mmm, holidays.
Sun, surf, relaxation. A break from work (not!) and a time for your family members to shove a book in your hands and say, “Read this it will change your life.”
Well, I don’t know about changing my life, but the book certainly started me thinking. And I’ve thought all the way through my pleasant week on the sunny Gold Coast and back to home.
In fact, I’ve thought so much about it I feel a little paralyzed. Instead of doing what I should be (hmm, I don’t like that word, lets rephrase that to could) what I could be doing which is submitting book 4 of the Fallen Star series, revising books 5 and 6 and writing book 8, I’ve been staring off into space thinking. Oh, and doing a little bit of light reading.
Anyway, back to the life changing book and what on earth it has to do with affairs of creativity.
It was one of those books that gets passed around through family members and everyone raves about it to the point where you feel compelled to pick it up and read it just to see what all the hype is about.
The book my mum had pressed into my hands with her grand words is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. It had been a while since I’d read a non-fiction book, so I dived right in, and I must say Ms. Gilberts easy to read style entranced me, and the subject matter was something I find fascinating.
But. There’s alway a but isn’t there?
Ms. Gilbert’s thoughts on creativity or actually where ideas come from sort of startled me. And hence my problem with being unable to focus on work and staring off into space while my mind ticks over.
Don’t get me wrong. I quite enjoyed Big Magic, and I will probably read it again, seeing as I sort of stole the book and didn’t give it back. Ms. Gilbert does a great job of giving you permission to delve into your creativity and make stuff. To take those ideas that roll around in our heads and actually do something with them. It’s all very freeing if you’ve always been told you’re no good at various creative pursuits, or maybe you’ve been told that they’re a waste of time.
Creative pursuits bring a rich sense of accomplishment to our lives. The satisfaction of shopping for a piece of cloth and a pattern to sew a dress, or maybe a knitting pattern and wool. Maybe you’re a man, (not that men can’t knit and sew, or women can’t be interested in typically masculine pursuits) and you prefer woodworking or welding together stuff to make something useful or decorative. Even cooking brings a rush of release when we have the first taste of a well-prepared meal or nibble on a slice of lovingly baked cake. Mmm, cake.
I commend Ms. Gilbert because there would be plenty of people who read her book and find the permission they need to do something about their desire to be creative, to make stuff. That part of Big Magic didn’t really do anything for me, though. I’ve never had a problem with permission to indulge my creative pursuits.
Then again if I’d read her book before I had a contract up my sleeve for a publishing deal, maybe I would have been moved by her freely given permission. After all, we all need a certain level of approval for the things we create even if it’s a spouse or friend telling us what we have done is special.
No, it wasn’t Ms. Gilbert’s permission that set me to thinking, it was her assertion as to where our ideas come from. I don’t want to get into a discussion about theology and the origins of the universe, but Ms. Gilbert’s belief that ideas come from outside us, from something greater than we are set me to thinking.
I found it very curious, because when I think of my own creativity, I fall into two distinct groups.
Cooking, sewing, knitting and other handcrafts I’m definitely a pattern and recipe kind of girl. Don’t get me wrong, (heh, I said that already didn’t I?) I can make a pattern to sew a dress no problems because I’ve learned how, but it’s all about the rules. I have technical books that show you how to construct a collar or the parts needed to make a correct fly on a pair of pants, and I follow those guidelines and don’t deviate from them. Cooking also I’m not much into experimentation especially with baking which I’ve always seen as far more scientific than creative. After all, if you don’t get the right ratio of baking powder to flour you have a flop and who can afford to have a cake graveyard in the garden for all the duds?
But writing? Totally different kettle of fish. My family asked me while we were having drinks on holidays where I get my ideas from and being perfectly honest I don’t really know. Sometimes they flow like a river out of my mind and splash across the page, other times it’s like a dripping tap one tiny little idea at a time, and I have to be patient and listen closely, or they will slip away. Some books seem to come together like magic from the first initial little glimmer of an idea all the way through writing the first draft and others it’s like pulling teeth. But inevitably the ideas are there.
Sometimes I will get an idea from a conversation, or something I read in a book. Other times I will be hit with an idea in the middle of writing and have to stop and jot down notes.
Maybe it is the mystical, almost spiritual occurrence that Ms. Gilbert describes in her book complete with tingles and hair standing up on the back of your neck, but I’ve never experienced anything like that.
Ms. Gilbert further talks about ideas almost being a sentient being who is searching for an owner. Someone who will roll with the idea, polishing and spinning the idea and turning it into a jewel ready for setting into it’s perfectly created housing. The housing being the person who’s mind the idea lands in who will manifest the idea. Furthermore, Ms. Gilbert suggests that if we don’t run with the idea if we don’t endeavour to do something with the idea, we could possibly lose it and uses an experience of her own to highlight her belief.
I must admit that the situation she describes in her book is quite astounding, and something of a mystery and certainly strengthens her belief that ideas come from something outside us.
Conversely, Holly Lisle whose writing courses I have taken suggests that we all have a muse and our ideas come from there. Or rather our subconscious minds. Ms. Lisle quite amusingly describes her muse as difficult to deal with, but if this is what we have then mine must be a big old pussy cat because a stroke of it’s sleek fur and a scratch behind the ears and it’s usually purring quite nicely for me.
So in terms of creativity, is the part of us, or the outside force that gives us ideas the same thing? Some people seem to be drawn to creative pursuits more than others. Those who are highly intellectual can sometimes seem to be less creative than those who work with their hands, but many very intelligent people play a musical instrument and is that not a form of creativity too? How is that any different from following the pattern for a dress, or the recipe for a cake?
Isn’t problem-solving something that doctors, scientists, researchers and many other intellectual fields of study do? And solving problems can be a creative exercise.
One of my favourite quotes is: Creativity is intelligence having fun. – Einstein.
So for those of us who aren’t highly intellectual does this mean every time we use our creativity, we are also using our intelligence? And where exactly does coming up with ideas fall into that?
Are we all connected to the universal entity or God if you prefer and are we blessed with an idea that for some reason thinks we would be a suitable candidate or do our ideas come from that great well of experience that makes up our subconscious?
Of course, ability and talent play a part in the eventual realization of an idea. A master craftsman may have the same idea as a novice, and two very different results will be attained. If this is the case then why would this idea-generating entity not send all the ideas to those who will produce the most wonderful and beautiful of creations? Why would such an entity bother with the amateurs and dabblers and those who simply do something for the pleasure of it?
Perhaps there is truth in both ways of looking at things? And maybe a little more as well. A complete unknown can have what seems like a miraculous idea that shoots them towards stardom especially in the field of writing. While a well-established author struggles to come up with what they consider to be suitable ideas to follow.
Do we after a while start to turn our noses up at the ideas given to us either by this unknown force or our muse and think if only we wait for the most brilliant of ideas to spend our time nurturing and lovingly caressing into fruition we will be insured of our own greatness. All the while forgetting that the more time we spend honing our craft and increasing our skills even if it is only with the simplest of ideas when that magical idea comes we will be ready.
And of course, as Ms. Lisle says, not all ideas are created equal. There will always be those ideas that we have no interest in simply because they are not a good fit for us, due to skill or simple interest. So why do we have them? Why would this outside force send us an idea that we have no interest in or are not capable of completing?
Should we as Ms. Lisle suggests in one of her courses become a cultivator of ideas or should we wait, patiently, anxiously for that tingle along the back of the neck, that hair-raising feeling of being blessed with an idea? Should we worry that if we don’t take up the mantle and undertake to fulfil our ideas, they will be lost to us, like the set of car keys, you can never find. Will the excitement wear off if we don’t spend time with our ideas, nurturing them every so often, so when we are finally free to work on them they are there still as fresh as they were when we first had them?
Is creativity spurred by ideas or are ideas spurred by creativity? Which one comes first? Do we become more passionate about something the more we participate in the activity of it thus encouraging ideas to form to press us further on?
For example, you may have no interest what so ever in writing a book so ideas for characters, settings and plotlines are the furthest thing from your mind, yet mine is filled with them day and night. Perhaps your passion is gardening and your mind is filled with ideas about how you can make your yard look more beautiful, or you love to cook, and you are always dreaming up ways to make a recipe better or maybe you’re one of those clever cooks who can make things up as they go along, and it always tastes great?
What sparks a passion and what role does idea generation play in that? Does the original idea that we would like to try something come from some greater entity as a kind of gift for the soul or are we shaped by our upbringings and the opportunities open to us as we grow?
English was certainly not my strongest subject at school, in fact I didn’t like it at all even though I loved to read, yet here I am passionate about writing and finding more fulfilment in every word I write than in any other creative pursuit I have taken up in my life, and there have been plenty of them. So what is different about writing for me? Why do I stick to the rules and patterns and recipes with some creative pursuits, yet give my imagination free reign with writing?
What was it that spurred me on to start writing? Was it an idea? Of course! All it took was one small idea and a need inside me to express something greater than myself. But perhaps there was more to it than simply an idea. Perhaps there was something inside me longing for release, longing to be expressed and the only way it could find the release it needed was through writing.
Is it simply the expression of our inner worlds that drives us to create? Has it always been a drive from some unknown, almost primal part of us to express ourselves in a myriad of creative ways? And where did those first early ideas come from?
Is it simply the need of the soul for expression that drives the well of ideas inside us so that we may create in whatever way we find most appealing at the time?
Perhaps it is not where our ideas come from that is the most important thing, but that we listen to the whispers of our soul that wants to lead us gently towards a life filled with creative happiness whether your particular brand of expression is writing, sewing or discovering the cure for cancer.
Sometimes the person we need permission from the most to explore our creative natures is ourselves. So I encourage you to give yourself permission to write, sew, knit, cook, build things or do whatever it is that brings peace to your soul.
Big Magic can be found here if you’d like to read it. I don’t receive any kind of bonus if you click the link. It’s just a link.
And the very entertaining Holly Lisle and her fabulous writing courses can be found here. Also no bonuses there.
Please feel free to leave a comment on your thoughts as to where ideas originate. I’d love to hear from you.