Why make the creative process into a mystery?
It all comes from our influences.
Inspiration comes from many places. No use pretending it all comes out of our heads with no other stimulation, or making the creative process into a big mystery to outsiders. In the Give Credit Where Credit Is Due department, here are some of my recent influences, which are helping me progress my art, my novel, and my writing about creativity:
Learning New Tricks. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. By reading this, I found inspiration for sharing my work. And I’ve learned to share more.
Sketching: Pick up a pencil and draw. I did. In my little black sketchbook. The pleasure of sketching is immeasurable, especially when you know it’s your own private sketchbook, no sharing required. Conversely, there’s a freedom in that privacy for the artist or writer. (That's item 4 from Ten Ways to Cultivate a Creative Mind.)
Why make the creative process into a mystery? It all comes from our influences.
Reading is how a writer becomes a better one. Enter Flannery O’Connor. Since learning her habit of art informed her writing, and vice versa, I’ve begun my journey at Flannery O’Connor University (it's my continuing education). On my syllabus:
A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor by Flannery O’Connor and Sally Fitzgerald
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor
Writing on a new platform. There’s a joy of discovery within Medium’s Collections, or feeling supported within the resources for creators on Substack, and the focus on just the writing (without formatting and template distractions) on my own blogging platform. Any of that can be cleansing. Finally having all the flotsam and jetsom of my novel's research organized in Scrivener offers me freedom to find the right words. Submitting my work to curators of writing collections and blogs that accept guest posts encourages me to polish my work.
And all of these influences might lead to Albert Einstein's work methods: "Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
What’s been influencing and inspiring you lately?
For more on the creative art of writing, look HERE.
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