DAY FOURTEEN

End of the second week of this blog, and mostly, all is well.
 
I say mostly because I haven't yet found the groove I was hoping for as far as daily postings are concerned, much as I've enjoyed the reflections I've written up so far. 
 
The intention was, still is, to make or create something every day and reflect on that experience, rather than write about creativity in general, but that would have meant every posting being about the book I'm writing, or about the blog itself, which would have been a bit 'meta' and once upon a time, terribly postmodern.

The fact is I hoped the blog would at least in part inspire me to make something every day (other than the blog itself), give me just that tad more encouragement I need. This seemed perfectly feasible a fortnight ago, and the idea hasn't yet descended in my thinking to the level of 'wildly ambitious', a level on which, in a far dark corner, is located the rather overstocked 'cupboard of dropped projects'. There is still hope, in other words.

This brings me to thoughts about process, or method - the way creative people and makers get things done. I have three firm beliefs about this:
  1.  The best way to get started is to start. Like me, you will have found that once you get into something the energy and interest starts to flow.

  2. The muse is always busy attending to someone else. This is similar to the above, but is more about the folly of waiting for inspiration to strike. You could be waiting a very long time, so if you want to see something come to life by your efforts, best get on with it yourself and leave the door on the latch so the muse can let herself in when she arrives.

  3. Structure and constraints are good for the creative process. Open-ended commitments tend to remain open-ended. Deadlines, daily targets, timetables, strict routines, commitments to others, as in the commitment I have made to the 'readers' of this blog (of which there are as yet none), even the demands of a job or family (are you listening Cyril Connolly), can all be good, albeit not necessarily congenial, grist to the productive mill. The creative spark needs something to spark against, sometimes.

However, like diets, exercise, and all manner of things that are good, pleasant and enjoyable, you also need willpower. 

So I'll just have some more tea and biscuits before I...wonder what the Wattsapp group are up to...oh, look someone I've never heard of is doing something I've no interest in according to this newsfeed...what's this, a review of that obscure Japanese poet you heard of once before...I'll just take a look...talking of writing, that pile of books over there really needs sorting out...and talking of sorting out, I should tidy the wood in the shed then I can make that...I'll just make a list of the things I need to...what happened to that nice pen I was using the other day...probably rolled under the sofa...look at the dust under here...better get the hoover out in a minute...when I've had my tea...did I put the kettle on yet...?

Onwards...possibly.


Picture Credit: 'PushMePullYou'. Chris Eason from London, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons


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