How can one chase down creativity?
I always thought that being creative is what some people are, or they aren’t. And I thought I was. But of course there came moments when I wasn’t, where I couldn’t funnel my half-ideas out. And it’s in those moments that I beat myself down with negative talk-downs, like: »You can’t do this«, »You always handle your creative commitments this way, you un-creative bum«, »You’re a fake«. As a result, I wasn’t creative or productive at all. C’est la vie.
”It’s what I want to do forever!”
What’s that illusive creative feeling that we want to catch and hold on to? My first job was as an editor at a small production company. It’s something that I really wanted to do, because then, I associated editing with me being creative. That was the ultimate goal. A few years later my priorities shifted, and I thought compositing was the creativest (there, we made up a word :) ). It’s what I want to do forever! This prompted me to switch jobs, which kept me happy, until I dabbled a bit with animation. Wow! I began to think that surely, animation must be the creativelyest (yup, new word there, too) thing ever! What followed was freelancing, running a small studio, to now doing mostly design for animation. Lots of changes driven by what I considered to be the most creative in a particular moment.
As kids, we don’t judge our ability to build something
We just do it
Playing with LEGOs with my kid made me remember that it’s actually the feeling of being »into it« that I’ve been hunting for. As kids, when we play, we don’t stop to judge our capacity to build something, to be creative. We just do it. After some reading and some introspection I realized that I was really searching for something called »creative flow« or simply, »flow«. I now get myself there by getting rid of distractions, being organized and then focusing on the task, not thinking about anything else – relying on and trusting myself to solve what I’m tackling with. By having more mental space and unburdening myself of all the inner chatter, I can focus. But even then, sometimes, the ideas don’t come - what to do then?
”Hurray for some science of sleep!”
We’re creatures of the environment we live in, so of course there’s days when we’re not at good or even bad at something. In those cases, I like to overflow myself with inspiration: design, photography, music, short films etc. I enjoy. After being full of disorganized impressions, I go to bed and let the mind with it’s altered chemistry do the rest. During sleep, the material that pilled up forms an inner self-confidence and an inspiration map to draw from the next day. Hurray for some science of sleep! Although I still struggle with catching and outputting creativity, I now actually find enjoyment in the process – and with it, I’m also gaining trust and confidence, one day at a time.