In Gabriela Pereira’s upcoming book, DIY MFA, she debunks the following 5 creativity myths:
- Creativity is an exclusive club, and you can’t be part of it.
- Creativity is innate–you either have it or you don’t.
- Creativity is driven by chaos, so there’s no way to control it.
- Creativity is all about getting that one “Big Idea.”
- Creativity is focusing on an idea until it’s perfect.
#5 resonates most with me. I’m a perfectionist in pretty much all things. You’d think this would make me a “master” of anything I attempt.
Nope.
Instead, I rarely follow through or finish anything because I am a perfectionist.
If I can’t get it right in my first attempt, it gets discarded or set aside permanently. I kept comparing myself to the successful writers (JK Rowling, Stephen King and Madeleine L’Engle for examples) which made things even worse for me. I found that not only I couldn’t finish what I started, I couldn’t even get started on anything!
For a long time, I thought that perhaps I wasn’t meant to be a writer because I had no skills or talent for it.
Then, I began to study the history of these writers more closely.
It took JK Rowling about five years to write the first book of Harry Potter. This manuscript was rejected twelve times before being accepted.
Stephen King threw his first manuscript, Carrie, in the trash because he wasn’t happy with its progress. It wasn’t good enough. Tabitha, his wife, retrieved it and encouraged him to not give up on it. To finish it. God bless that woman.
Madeleine L’Engle was very shy and introverted as a girl; so much so, many deemed her as “stupid.” So, she reverted to imaginary friends and worlds. Writing grew out of this. With very few publications under her belt, she faced rejection time and time again. Eventually, at the age of 40, she decided to give up on writing altogether. However, the inner voice wouldn’t let her do it. She would write A Wrinkle in Time which would ultimately be rejected more than thirty times before being published.
Wow…these writers weren’t perfect. They didn’t happen upon success over night.
No, success came slow and hard for each of them.
Anne Lamott summed it up best for me:
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.”
Oh, this rang true and clear for me! Other than the fact that I am a bit on the crazy side, I don’t relish the thought of being miserable for the rest of my life. I’d rather write than NOT. I also began to realize that just about every successful writer out there had to work hard in their craft to get where they are.
Which means that there is no such thing as being “perfect.” Just lots and lots of practice.
Do any of the creativity myths listed above resonate with you?
A writer & her adolescent muse 
Number one is a good one. Anybody can create anything at anytime. But, most people won’t be creative for any amount of reasons. Sometimes they just don’t care to be creative or life situations keep them too busy to stop and let their mind cook up a good idea. They may not listen to that inner voice. They may not pay attention to the little things ,that we see, that sparks creativity.
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I think as adults we tend to lose that inner voice as we become way too immersed in reality.
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Number 1 is HUGE for me. I see the talent of others around me and think I have none or that I will never get anywhere if I do have talent. Of course, suffering from Bipolar disorder doesn’t help that outlook. The depressive side of me always believes the worst. I took one of Ms. Pereira’s free online seminars back in 201
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It’s so easy to compare ourselves to other creatives, and then we fall in that trap of doubting our own artistic abilities.
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Really enjoyed this post. Identified a lot with your line of thinking here and felt motivated by the perseverance of those I admire.
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So glad you stopped by! 🙂
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I identify so powerfully with what you said about wanting an idea to be perfect so you never end up finishing it. I’ve done this countless times and I feel like I can never get more than halfway through a story because of this. This is a very inspiring post
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Glad to hear that this has given you inspiration 🙂
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I’ll definitely have to check out the book now! I identify with #2 – Creativity is innate–you either have it or you don’t. So many people I know look at artistic ability and say “Wow, what a gift. You are so lucky.” If you are a writer, photographer, painter, sculptor, musician, etc., it is as if you are only one because somewhere along the line you won the genetic lottery and were “gifted” your talent.
No one ever tells their accountant “My what a talent you have for understanding those IRS rules. It is truly a gift from God.” Saying it is something you are just born with completely discounts the blood, sweat, tears and hours and hours of work artists put into honing their craft.
We might have been born with a penchant for these activities (is it nature or nurture?). But we are what we are today because we WORK at it. We practice. We attend classes. We put our efforts out there for constructive criticism. We work and work and work some more. Creativity, in my mind, is the result of a lot of hard work and effort. The gift is that somewhere along the way we found a resolve and inner strength to keep at it even when it gets hard.
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Wow…I couldn’t have said it better! 🙂
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