I love being creative. That’s not much of a surprise for anyone who knows me, but I do. When I really start creating, when I really start listening to those voices who are giving me the ideas to write down, I start feeling a mixture of a deep satisfaction, slightly embarrassing pride, a vague but exciting antsy anticipation in my stomach, right next to that ball of warmth. And I can’t wait to share what I’m creating.
There are different kinds and levels of creativity. I have spent the last several days creating a new training course with a book, worksheets and video instruction, all the while thinking, “As soon as I’m done, here, I can go be creative.” But a funny thing happened. Today I suddenly noticed that mixed up feeling. Where did that come from? Oh, yeah. Creating that course. I needed to pull from my experience, delve into my knowledge. I had to imagine what the student would need, put myself there. Instinctively (translated: from deep habit) I used my senses to do so.
Athena from Zues' Forhead (Image via Wikipedia)
I posed circumstance and questions that I trusted my subconscious would provide the answers to and lived through the struggles of my imagined students. Then I waited a little while as it percolated (and, as is also my habit, a little while as I procrastinated) then jumped in and followed the story that had been born, almost fully formed like Athena who leapt fully formed from Zeus’ forehead. (He must have been imagining her for a very long time! Well, maybe it was Metis who did the imagining. Look it up.) It all sounds sort of like what I go through when I’m writing a story. It almost sounds like creativity. No wonder I’m feeling so smug!
In any case, once the product is done and out, I can get back to the novel, but I’m already being creative, so my soul seems content.
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