It’s IWSG posting day!
Today’s OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question asks How your creativity has evolved in life since you began writing. But for me, my creativity has evolved through both writing and art.
As a child, creativity was effortless
As a child, I lived in my own world–created all sorts of things–art, writing, other craft projects. It flowed out of me without a thought and without self-consciousness. Throughout high school and college, my creativity was expressed more through music (playing the clarinet, mostly) and drama.
I always wrote–mostly in my journal. But I’ve come back through the years to writing and art, separately and now together. Even though I don’t have that lovely unself-consciousness that I had as a child, I still love to feel the flow of words and images. But getting them to start flowing can–and often does– feel challenging.
Which came first–the chicken or the egg?
When I pause to think about it, however, I’m not really sure if my creativity has evolved in my life because of my writing or if my writing has evolved because of the creativity in my life. Somewhere in my readings of Rudolf Steiner on art, he said that the highest art is the social art.
Through the years, I’ve come to see creating a life as an art form. Everything has an art to it and beauty in it if you choose to see it that way. That’s part of the beauty of blogging–it’s an opportunity to share the mundane happenings of life and to notice the art in them. Of course, blogging can do a lot of other things, too. But seeing the wonder in an ordinary day is high on my list.
My creativity in both my writing and my life has evolved through the years. While I doubt that I will ever feel that same freedom that I did as a child, I can enter the state of flow sometimes in writing and in life. I believe that I learned that from writing and making art. And I’ve learned to step back and look at my work. Through editing, I can polish my work and make it better than it started it. By observing myself and my work, I learn and improve. In that way, my creativity has evolved in both art and life.
That’s all for today–thanks for visiting!
Another interesting question from the Insecure Writers Support Group.
Other recent questions include:
How do you process major life events through writing?
And What are your ultimate writing goals?
Happy first Wednesday of the month–always IWSG posting day.
And thanks to the awesome co-hosts for the November 7 posting of the IWSG are Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor
And thanks to you for stopping by. How has your creativity evolved through writing–or in any other way?
xoxo
What an interesting discussion – and living life in a creative manner sounds like a great way to do it. Everything we learn can feed back to our writing and art as well.
Thanks, Nick–I agree. At it’s best, it works both ways–life and art nourish each other.
Not only do I wish I could be as creative as I was when I was a kid, I wish I believed in my creations the way I did back then. I’ve not had an easy life, and to say my view of both myself and what I create is shaky would be an understatement.
Thanks for your comment–I feel the same way. Those days of unselfconscious creating were wonderful. It never even occurred to me to think about whether something was good or not. I always felt proud of my creations.
Thanks for having the courage to share your truth–you remind me to be courageous even while I constantly second guess myself. (if it was easy, we wouldn’t need courage)
Lovely post. When I responded to this question I didn’t even think about childhood, but you make good points. It is hard to determine which came first – actual creativity (like writing, painting, etc) or the desire to express one’s self in some way (presumably through creativity). I also tend to find creativity in reading others’ blogs and seeing their responses to questions I’ve already considered. Thanks for sharing Susan!
I’ve been creative all of my life in so many ways. Has any of it made me wealthy? Nope, but I still do those things that make me content.
Great post!
It would be nice to be wealthy, but that’s never been my main goal in life. I do those things because they make me happy, too. Thanks for your comment!