Creativity needs room to grow. Creativity needs to be fed like a small child, exercised like a muscle, and let wild like a puppy. But most importantly, creativity needs a little time.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been stealing away every Thursday afternoon to meet a friend and write. It feels a little illicit, a little indulgent. But this time couldn’t be more essential. We meet at a cafe, sit outside in the warm fall sunshine, and order giant cups of coffee before writing. There are errands to run, lists to make, things to do, but we just sit in the sun and let our creativity flow.
I find myself counting the days, hours and minutes to that creativity time, making piles and mental notes to discuss. And I’m writing more and more on the days we’re not meeting. My writing is a lot of rough bumblings, the initial fleshing out of a novel idea, and most days it hurts to write such drivel, but little by little, the writing will become a bigger part of my life and the creativity will flow. It just feels good to make the time, to exercise my subconscious and let my freak flag fly high through writing fiction, so different than the type of writing I do here.
How are you feeding your creativity?
“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” – Jack London