It’s been a prolific week, at least idea-wise, and I suppose it is true that sometimes, one should try to do things differently, especially insofar as creativity is concerned. While some argue that creating a habit is good for productivity (you enter The Zone and BANG you’re writing/ painting/ composing/ drawing/ and so on straight away) others say that creativity cannot be forced into habitual actions and that forcing it yields results that invariably become written off the portfolio.
I don’t quite know where I sit on this one; part of me believes that the more you create and the easier it gets to do so, even if, or indeed when, you feel like nothing at all is coming. Equally, I also believe that you cannot expect to be able to pick up where you left off every single time and that there are days, and sometimes even weeks, when my efforts are puny and embarrassing and when the results are more irritating than uplifting.
I think that creative types often suffer from a malaise associated with forcing themselves to do something, it doesn’t matter what, in order to get the creative gears into motion. I am all for making the effort, but I have been playing the game long enough to recognise the times that are a write off from the moment I roll off the bed. I believe it is extremely important to give ourselves the space and time to be a write off, to be unhappy, to be worried, to be unable to work. It is vital to let go of the creative endeavour when absolutely necessary, for the intellectual bounce back will be infinitely more rapid and efficient than it would be if we were to force ourselves through navigating the suddenly alien daily grind.
This week I oscillated between two opposite states and eventually felt relieved I didn’t have to rant about them in my diary. Now I haven’t kept a written record, it’s like they never even happened and today already feels like Friday. I escaped to two books, Snoop and The Pleasures And Sorrows Of Work (how appropriate in so many ways), but I’ll tell you about these another time.
