A couple of weeks ago the Magic Pen Critique Group had an insightful discussion regarding cultivating creativity
. Since that evening I have continued to mull over that topic in my mind. It seems to me that creativity is a bit like love; the passion has to be there, but a good amount of work is required as well. What I mean by that is that having only passion puts you at the mercy of your moods. (I used to be that type of writer, so I'm speaking from experience!) If you feel like writing you do, if you don't you say,"I'm just not inspired today," or "I have writer's block." If your life is like mine, it doesn't take much to be distracted: family, friends, bills,etc.etc. It wasn't until I carved out a specific block of time for writing, and told my family and friends about it, that I began to make progress as a writer.
On the other end of the equation is the variable of effort. Lots of writing, without stopping for reflection or inspiration, can cause your writing to come off somewhat dry, like reading a math book! For me finding the
balance in writing was tied to finding the balance in my own life. Every writer comes to his or her own writing desk from a different place - that's what makes us all unique. Hopefully what we all have in common is passion and discipline. Stay tuned to see if this philosophy gets me published!
