5 negative attitudes that prevent you from being creative

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Creativity is for everyone, and following Stephen King is not always a good idea.

Creativity helps you express yourself and deal with your feelings. It makes our life brighter and richer. But at the same time, it is shrouded in many fears, myths and misconceptions that prevent us from taking up a brush, clay or keyboard. Here is some of them.

1. To create, you need to wait for inspiration

The concepts of "creativity" and "inspiration" are inextricably linked in our minds. In order to invent and create something new, an impulse is necessary, you need to enter a special state, wait until a burning desire to create wakes up inside, we think.

Actually

Inspiration brings delightful emotions. But you can wait for it for a month, or two, or a year. Unless creativity is sporadic fun, it's best not to rely on such a capricious thing as inspiration.

Here's what Stephen King, author of over 50 novels, writes.

Don't wait for the "muse" to arrive. As I said, this is a dumb-headed man who does not succumb to creative thrill. He does not have the knocking tables of the spirit world, but ordinary work, like laying pipes or ferrying trucks. Your job is to bring to his attention that you are there and there from nine to noon or from seven to three. If he knows this, I assure you, sooner or later he will appear, chewing a cigar and performing magic.

Stephen King

When we learn and practice in an activity, connections are formed between the neurons in our brain. The more connections and the more stable they are, the better we cope with tasks. This is how experience is gained and skills are honed in any area, not only in creativity. Therefore, if we want to do something well - draw, write, play the guitar, cross-stitch - it is important to practice regularly.

2. You need to create every day

Haruki Murakami gets up at four in the morning and writes for six hours straight. Ernest Hemingway had a similar work schedule: he woke up around six and worked until noon or a little less. Stephen King, who in 2017 ranked fifth on the list of the richest writers in the world, also said more than once that he sits down at the keyboard every morning, and by lunchtime the manuscript has already increased by 2,000 words.

Artists, screenwriters and musicians give advice to be creative on a daily basis. One gets the feeling that this is the only way to achieve some kind of success. And you need to devote time to him every day, without looking back at the state of health, mood and other circumstances.

Actually

Even the most famous creators had pauses. Sometimes they are associated with a creative crisis, illness or depression, and sometimes with the usual desire to relax and do nothing.

Leo Tolstoy set the rules for himself:

"Is it bad, good - always work", "Get up before sunrise", "Always write and everything is clear and clear", "In the morning, determine the activities for the day and try to fulfill them."

Leo Tolstoy from diaries for 1853 and 1854

And he himself violated them.

June 24. In the morning I sat down to work; but he did nothing and was glad when Gorchakov came to interfere with me.

Leo Tolstoy from diaries for 1854

Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin dodged work and went to the cinema.

Days like these are never really good for work. Yet, as always, I am at my desk in the morning. I sit down for him after breakfast. But, looking out the window and seeing that it is going to rain, I feel: no, I cannot. Today in the blue daytime performance - I will go to the cinema.

Ivan Bunin "Nobel days"

George Martin, in a conversation with Stephen King, admitted that if he wrote three chapters in six months, he worked very productively, and hinted that he often finds himself in a creative dead end and doubts himself.

Therefore, treat yourself with care and remember that you are a living person and have the right to get tired, get sick, or just be lazy. In order to succeed in any business, you really need to do it regularly. But regularly - not necessarily every day. Create a realistic and convenient timetable for creative activities, keeping in mind other tasks and your own resources. Drawing, singing, or writing a couple of times a week is pretty good.

3. Creativity only for the great

Why write a book if I never win the Booker Prize? Why make a film if it has never been nominated for an Oscar? Why draw, sculpt, compose, invent, if my creations will never compare with what geniuses do?

Creativity is not for mere mortals. It is only for those who are truly gifted and can do something grand and meaningful. And everyone else is better off not making people laugh with their attempts.

Actually

This very common and dangerous attitude stems from self-doubt and perfectionism: "It's better not to do anything than to do, but not perfect." Perfectionism, by the way, leads to depression. This is not just a desire to become better, but a kind of ailment that prevents us from doing our favorite things and enjoying it.

In addition, many are accustomed to dividing art into high, elite, and low, popular. And consider that the second category, in principle, has no right to exist.

But, firstly, if you don't start to be creative, you will never know what you are capable of. What if your book really gets the Booker one day? And secondly, you can wrinkle your nose and despise popular culture as much as you like, but it gives millions of people joy every day. We laugh at funny pictures on the Internet, listen to pop music, read fiction, detective stories, horror films, and romance novels.

Any creativity is important. In addition, it is beneficial for mental and physical health. It activates the brain, helps to cope with negative emotions, and even boosts immunity.

So create for your own pleasure, do not compare yourself with others and do not try to get closer to an unattainable ideal.

4. Creativity is always a joy

“Whoever has experienced the pleasure of creativity, for that already all other pleasures do not exist,” Chekhov wrote. “Happiness is a waste of yourself on the creation of your own hands, which will live on after your death,” Exupery echoed. And Ray Bradbury uttered an even more radical thought: "If you write without rapture, without fervor, without love, without joy, you are only half a writer."

It is generally accepted that people find comfort and joy in creativity. That a creative person is always burning with his work and his ideas. And if this feeling is not, then the ideas are not so good, and he himself is not so creative.

Actually

Ernest Hemingway admitted that sometimes he could not write for weeks because of a bad mood.

I work hard. I had a period of very gloomy mood, when at first I could not write, and then sleep - for three weeks in a row.

Ernest Hemingway

Kurt Cobain, in a suicide note, said that he was forced to die because the music no longer makes him happy.

And now, after so many years, I have ceased to enjoy music, and I can no longer listen to it or write. I am terribly ashamed in front of you for this. For example, when we stand backstage and I watch the lights go out, and the mad roar of the crowd crashes into my ears, my heart remains cold.

Kurt Cobain

Vincent Van Gogh noted that drawing is not only a joy, but also overcoming.

What is drawing? It is the ability to break through the iron wall that stands between what you feel and what you can do.

Vincent van gogh

There is no occupation that always brings only joy. Especially if it is not just a hobby, but a profession and a source of income. Everyone sometimes has difficult days when it is almost impossible to sit himself down at a drawing or article, and if you still succeed, the work moves with a creak. During such periods, you can take a break and relax, or you can, for example, use the strategy of the writer Dmitry Yemets.

If you don't even have any strength, still open the file with the story or story, just put a period or remove a comma. It often happens that the desire to work appears.

Dmitry Emets

5. You need to endure rejection and criticism

J. K. Rowling, having sent the manuscript of the first part of the Harry Potter saga to the publishers, received 12 refusals, but claims that this did not break her and she firmly decided not to stop until all the publishing houses in the country refused her.

Publishers have repeatedly rejected both Joanne Harris's Chocolate, Catherine Stockett's The Servant, and Stephen King's Carrie. All of them continued to create and promote their books, and then with a smile talked about the criticism addressed to them. Joanne Harris, for example, jokes that from the rejections she received, an entire sculpture could be sculpted. And in King's stories, the main characters-writers periodically appear, which critics dislike. Boris Akunin under the tag #menevzali talked about how "Eksmo" rejected his first novel about Fandorin.

It may seem that a truly talented person is always confident in himself, does not pay attention to poisonous statements and fights to the last for his books, paintings and music.

Actually

Refusal is very painful. And this is not just a dramatic metaphor. When we are criticized or rejected, the brain reacts in much the same way as if we were physically hurt. This does not only apply to denials of love or work. A similar reaction is triggered even when someone unfollows from us on Twitter or doesn't like a post on Instagram.

Therefore, it is completely normal after criticism to feel empty, talentless and worthless for anything. It is normal to be discouraged, sad, angry, and discouraged. Well-known writers, artists and directors who survived the rejection must have experienced all these feelings too, but now they have coped with them and can talk about such a difficult experience with humor.

Flaunting, hiding your emotions and trying to pretend that refusals and criticism do not touch you is not a good idea. If you want to be sad, be sad. If you want to revise your creativity, please: criticism can be a starting point for growth. But only if it is friendly, constructive and expressed by a person who is well versed in the matter. The acrimonious comments of strangers on the internet are not something to listen to.