On Creativity

Not too much to report in my daily living, so time for some philosophical rambling.

I’d like to talk about creativity, today. The reason being that I was recently invited to possibly give a guest lecture at a university in Bangalore on that exact same topic, so I thought it might be a good idea to throw some of my raw thought out here for me to refine at a later date (yes, you’re my sounding board, don’t you feel honoured?)

For me creativity is a battle between my imagination and the little man on my shoulder. It isn’t really the most original analogy, but it’s one that works well. The little man on your shoulder is that little bugger that goes ‘hey, that isn’t good enough’ about nearly everything that you do. I believe a large part of the difference between creatives and non-creatives is that the latter listen to that little asshole (excuse my French), while the former manage to shut him off.

The best way to shut him off, of course, is to just ignore him; the problem is that that is extremely hard. A much more common way for people to switch him off is to drown him out. The most popular way to do that is with drugs (i.e. alcohol, marijuana, LSD, etc.) and that is possibly why you hear of so many creatives being druggies. This is not the most advisable way to kill him, as ultimately it will probably kill you as well (those that use drugs recreationally are called users, those that need to take drugs are called addicts).

The little man on your shoulder is, of course, self-doubt. Everybody has it, nobody can get away from it and it will always be there. The thing is, that when you first start to be creative that is when the little man is the loudest and that is also when you need him to F off the most. Creativity is just like any other skill. It is one that you learn over time. The more often you create, the better you become at it.

When you first start to create, your work will be raw, probably conventional (you haven’t veered away much from the mainstream yet) and possibly even childish. That’s okay when you’re a child (that’s when I started my creative process), but it’s a lot harder to deal with if you want to start being creative as an adult.

The trick is to realise that every single creative process that you embark on is only a stepping stone to something better later on. That way you can tell the little bastard on your shoulder ‘yes, I know it’s crap, but if I make crap now, then I’ll make less crap later’.

You see, the thing is that to be a creative you actually have to create. Many people forget this part of it (I did, for a very long time. I called myself a writer, when I really wasn’t writing terribly much). You can philosophise about creativity as much as you like, but the only way to become more creative is to actually try to create something. Only in that way do you learn to think outside the box.

Learning by rote is something you become better at over time, socialising is something you become better at over time, reasoning is something you become better at over time, so why shouldn’t creativity be something you become better at over time?

Don’t listen to that little guy. Create, create and create. And remember, you can be a creative even though nobody else knows. Artists don’t need to be recognised; only successful artists need to be recognised. A good friend of mine said it well, when he said ‘Is it art? Well I say it is, so it’s art.’ Of course, he’s allowed to think that way because he’s a recognised artist, but then he might have become a recognised artist because that’s how he thought.

In other words, which came first, the chicken or the egg? You decide.