“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” Mary Lou Cook
Mary Lou Cook, whoever you are, I love you! I absolutely, positively love this description of creativity and I hope you do, too, my dear KWD readers!
Creativity—what a gift to be cherished and nourished! When we ignite our ingenuity, when we let our imagination soar, when we become playful instead of straining to be productive, who knows what heights we may reach, what realms we might soar to?
Let’s take a closer look at our kindred spirit Mary Lou’s vision of creativity and see where it takes us—let’s be creative:
Creativity is..inventing: We’re writers, story tellers. One of our chief jobs and chief joys is making things up! I relish being put in the “inventive” space—it makes me feel just like Thomas Edison, the “Wizard of Menlo Park.” We may not be inventing machines like the phonograph or the lightbulb, but consider the amazing inventions that abound in science fiction. And all the characters we conjure up to delight and bedevil our readers. Some people believe that Sherlock Holmes really exists! Making things up—what tons of fun!
Creativity is…experimenting: How true this is! Trying this and trying that—we do this all the time as writers. If one plot point doesn’t work, we try another. If this paragraph seems a little weak, we inject a little bit of drama to pump it up. If this character seems lackluster, we create a backstory that gives him or her more depth. Just like Edison, we are constantly tinkering, adjusting, discarding, trying on new ideas.
Creativity is…growing: When we’re open to change, when we invent and experiment and work at improving our craft, then growth comes naturally. We see more than we saw before. We have a better handle on our plots and problems. We are nurturing our creativity and growing.
Creativity is…taking risks: I love this! How true it is! To be creative, to ignite our ingenuity, to create something from nothing, and to survive and thrive in an industry that challenges our creativity, we have to take risks. We have to get out of our comfort zone. We have to commit to WIT: Whatever It Takes, to fulfill our writing vision and to get our work out into the world. Writing is not for the fainthearted!
Creativity is…breaking rules: Was it Somerset Maugham who said that there are “three rules of writing, but nobody knows what they are”? Think so. In any case, you get the drift. So often we confine and restrict ourselves in writing and in marketing our writing by feeling that we need to play by the rules, whatever they are. But why give the rule-makers and the gatekeepers all that power? Marketing guru Seth Godin has a simple suggestion” “Choose yourself.” By that he means don’t wait for other people to let you in the door. Beat it down or find a different one. Break the rules and break free.
Creativity is…making mistakes. What a shot of adrenalin this is! It reminds us that when we’re making mistakes we’re learning. My good friend and mentor Dr. Rob Gilbert* says, there’s “no failure, only feedback,” and “no losing, only learning.” When we see our mistakes as a natural part of our creativity, we free ourselves to make them more often and to learn and grow from them.
Creativity is…having fun! My favorite! I just love playing around with words and paragraphs and ideas—what’s more fun than this? When we bring a feeling of play to our writing we free ourselves to do all of the above: to invent, to experiment, to make mistakes, to break rules. Playful writers are joyful writers and I believe our readers see our pleasure on the page. Here’s a Fortune Cookie saying I keep close at hand: “See life through the eyes of a child, then you become truly wise.” When we bring a child’s fresh eyes and sense of wonder and delight to our writing, we are playing, not working—and magic happens.
Wow, this is a long KWD post! Guess musing on creativity is a boundless adventure. Let’s travel this road together as we all write on!
*Check out Dr. Rob Gilbert’s fabulous free Success Hotline: 973-743-4690!