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Leonie,
on January 16, 2012 -
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8 comments

Creativity: The Work of the Possessed?

I’ve had a month off business as usual with limited screen time. It’s been a time filled with family, holidays, nature and special moments.

Aside from daily journal scribbles I did no other form of writing for an entire month! For the past week I’ve been back in the writing saddle, writing daily. At first nothing wanted to come out. I felt my writing muscles had become weak.

Although it was a lovely rest and special time with special people, when I at last attempted to form some coherent thoughts to write down I noticed my brain felt scrambled. Like it needed a good spring clean.

For the first couple of days either nothing wanted to come out or what did should have stayed where it came from… Most likely the nook in my brain, just like in my house, where collections of miscellaneous items congregate… Do you have one of those?

On about day three I woke up with thoughts buzzing around me. Fantastic! I jumped out of bed to do my normal morning Yoga practice intending to start writing straight after. But I just could not concentrate. My heart was even beating faster than normal.

Eventually I could stand it no longer. I got up jotted down all the thoughts in my head. No wordsmithing, just bullet points and words that I knew would trigger my memory later. After that, my mind was at peace and I was able to concentrate on my Yoga practice.

Afterwards, as soon as I started writing, ideas and words streamed out of me. It got me thinking about creativity. What was with the scrambled brain feeling? The difficulty getting started? Was it weakened ‘writing muscles’, lost neural pathways, or was it something else? Something external?

What is that sudden burst of inspiration after a period of difficulty? Where does it come from?

Ruth Stone

The poet Ruth Stone said of her poems: “I never felt that I wrote them anyways. I would feel them coming from way off, and then they would come toward me, and if I didn’t catch them they went through me and went on, so I just figured they were part of the universe, and not me.”

I wrote a blog about creative genius a while back. I referred to Elizabeth Gilbert’s (Author of “Eat, Pray, Love”) TED talk on creativity being more of a genie than genius. A sprite of creativity that flutters in. You have to catch it. Otherwise it is lost.

She referred to interviews she’d done with Ruth Stone and Tom Waits. Ruth spoke of sometimes catching the poem by the tail and having to write it down backwards. Tom talked about telling the ‘sprite’ to come back at a more convenient time (if he was driving for example).

Is creativity a genie and are we merely channels?

I agree with this to an extent, but I also think creativity comes from our unique, personal life experiences. And that is what makes for ‘good’ art… Personal self expression from the artist.

BUT, if an idea strikes, and I can feel it as inspiration, I get a flutter in my stomach and a zap of energy in my head… If I don’t write it down… Pft!! It’s gone. So perhaps it is more genie than genius.

What do you think? Does your creativity come of you or through you?

Happy late January to you.

Leonie :)

LEONIE ORTON is a business writer and marketer.
She extracts your thoughts, gives them structure
and then converts them into words that connect.
Find out more about her here.

Connect with her on Facebook & Twitter.

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8 comments

Annie Clark
January 17, 2012
oh hello Leonie, I have to write to you and say how much I enjoyed your post… I’m trying to re-vamp my book THE POO IN YOU… I just need a clear run to write the extra 20 or so pages I want to write, and do the research I need to to, it’s a book I wrote back in 1998, and I’m now down to about 10 copies of the original, which has motivated me to get back into the revised edition… writers block? No, I just need to start…. UGhh… thank you. blessings Annie 0402 166 187

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Leonie
February 15, 2012
Hi Annie, love the sound of your book. A health expert friend of mine says that good health is directly proportionate to your body’s ability to eliminate waste!! Starting is the hardest! But if you just sit down and start, it gets easier from there. I hope it’s going well. :))

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Madonna
January 17, 2012
Hi Leonie,
I have the same experience as you. I now carry a notebook to write down my ideas and I do get up in the middle of the night to write others down, otherwise I find I lose it.
Because I come from a spiritual perspective, I think it comes through us, not because of us, although our experiences form part of how we interpret the world.
Thanks for your post. Loved it.
Madonna

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Shannon
January 17, 2012
Hi Leonie, loved your post and the questions you pose about creativity

I am in two minds as to whether my creativity comes from or through me, perhaps because I think it is both. Sometimes it comes through me and sometimes from, or of, me. I work with a lot of creative people as a coach and trainer and have myself, been traditionally creative all my life and I feel that creativity is a challeging thing to hold down and grasp

I believe we are all creative and that it is our unique way of expressing ourselves in the world, whatever that is, that is the essence of our creativity and something I call our Creative Possibility (also the name of my business). I believe that if something is meant to be then we will be able to access it, even if we feel it is lost to us

Sometimes thoughts, inspirations, visions, ideas, and the like come to us for fleeting moments, only to seem to slip away in an instant, almost out of reach. Perhaps they were not quite yet ready to be here, to be shared? perhaps they were only ever for us to experience personally?

Believe it’s possible and believe you can create and be open to flow and be patient and if necessary wait to see what happens. Thanks again, loved your post and look forward to reading more;

Shannon

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Pauline Bright
January 17, 2012
Leonie, thanks so much for this post. It got me thinking…and I like that.

I oftem wake up with a fully formed peice of writing in my head – and the words just fall together beautifully – sadly by the time I come to write them down, they dont always fit together so well. But I know that they are still there somewhere so making time to write and explore my thoughts doily at the moment is really helping.

Am I a genuis – I’d love to think so, and I think we all are – but I think there’s a lot of Genie in there making magic happen.

I dont mind where it comes from as long as it keeps coming.

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Leonie
February 15, 2012
Thanks for your comment Pauline. :) Yes, sometimes you’ve got to be quick to catch the inspiration! The poet Ruth Stone that I referred to in this post has said that sometimes she almost misses the poems and has to catch them by the tail and they come out of her written backwards!!

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Carolina HeartStrings
January 17, 2012
Interesting concept. I think since the result of creativity is so unique it is more from the individual than a “source”. However the concept of a muse “stirring the pot” is plausible.

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Leonie
February 15, 2012
I know what you mean. Those moments of absolute inspiration make me wonder where that came from. :)

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Creativity: The Work of the Possessed?

I’ve had a month off business as usual with limited screen time. It’s been a time filled with family, holidays, nature and special moments.

Aside from daily journal scribbles I did no other form of writing for an entire month! For the past week I’ve been back in the writing saddle, writing daily. At first nothing wanted to come out. I felt my writing muscles had become weak.

Although it was a lovely rest and special time with special people, when I at last attempted to form some coherent thoughts to write down I noticed my brain felt scrambled. Like it needed a good spring clean.

For the first couple of days either nothing wanted to come out or what did should have stayed where it came from… Most likely the nook in my brain, just like in my house, where collections of miscellaneous items congregate… Do you have one of those?

On about day three I woke up with thoughts buzzing around me. Fantastic! I jumped out of bed to do my normal morning Yoga practice intending to start writing straight after. But I just could not concentrate. My heart was even beating faster than normal.

Eventually I could stand it no longer. I got up jotted down all the thoughts in my head. No wordsmithing, just bullet points and words that I knew would trigger my memory later. After that, my mind was at peace and I was able to concentrate on my Yoga practice.

Afterwards, as soon as I started writing, ideas and words streamed out of me. It got me thinking about creativity. What was with the scrambled brain feeling? The difficulty getting started? Was it weakened ‘writing muscles’, lost neural pathways, or was it something else? Something external?

What is that sudden burst of inspiration after a period of difficulty? Where does it come from?

The poet Ruth Stone said of her poems: “I never felt that I wrote them anyways. I would feel them coming from way off, and then they would come toward me, and if I didn’t catch them they went through me and went on, so I just figured they were part of the universe, and not me.”

I wrote a blog about creative genius a while back. I referred to Elizabeth Gilbert’s (Author of “Eat, Pray, Love”) TED talk on creativity being more of a genie than genius. A sprite of creativity that flutters in. You have to catch it. Otherwise it is lost.

She referred to interviews she’d done with Ruth Stone and Tom Waits. Ruth spoke of sometimes catching the poem by the tail and having to write it down backwards. Tom talked about telling the ‘sprite’ to come back at a more convenient time (if he was driving for example).

Is creativity a genie and are we merely channels?

I agree with this to an extent, but I also think creativity comes from our unique, personal life experiences. And that is what makes for ‘good’ art… Personal self expression from the artist.

BUT, if an idea strikes, and I can feel it as inspiration, I get a flutter in my stomach and a zap of energy in my head… If I don’t write it down… Pft!! It’s gone. So perhaps it is more genie than genius.

What do you think? Does your creativity come of you or through you?

Happy late January to you.

Leonie :)

LEONIE ORTON is a business writer and marketer.
She extracts your thoughts, gives them structure
and then converts them into words that connect.
Find out more about her here.

Connect with her on Facebook & Twitter.

You might also like:

8 comments

Annie Clark

Leonie

Madonna

Shannon

Pauline Bright

Leonie

Carolina HeartStrings

Leonie

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Blog

Creativity: The Work of the Possessed?

I’ve had a month off business as usual with limited screen time. It’s been a time filled with family, holidays, nature and special moments.

Aside from daily journal scribbles I did no other form of writing for an entire month! For the past week I’ve been back in the writing saddle, writing daily. At first nothing wanted to come out. I felt my writing muscles had become weak.

Although it was a lovely rest and special time with special people, when I at last attempted to form some coherent thoughts to write down I noticed my brain felt scrambled. Like it needed a good spring clean.

For the first couple of days either nothing wanted to come out or what did should have stayed where it came from… Most likely the nook in my brain, just like in my house, where collections of miscellaneous items congregate… Do you have one of those?

On about day three I woke up with thoughts buzzing around me. Fantastic! I jumped out of bed to do my normal morning Yoga practice intending to start writing straight after. But I just could not concentrate. My heart was even beating faster than normal.

Eventually I could stand it no longer. I got up jotted down all the thoughts in my head. No wordsmithing, just bullet points and words that I knew would trigger my memory later. After that, my mind was at peace and I was able to concentrate on my Yoga practice.

Afterwards, as soon as I started writing, ideas and words streamed out of me. It got me thinking about creativity. What was with the scrambled brain feeling? The difficulty getting started? Was it weakened ‘writing muscles’, lost neural pathways, or was it something else? Something external?

What is that sudden burst of inspiration after a period of difficulty? Where does it come from?

The poet Ruth Stone said of her poems: “I never felt that I wrote them anyways. I would feel them coming from way off, and then they would come toward me, and if I didn’t catch them they went through me and went on, so I just figured they were part of the universe, and not me.”

I wrote a blog about creative genius a while back. I referred to Elizabeth Gilbert’s (Author of “Eat, Pray, Love”) TED talk on creativity being more of a genie than genius. A sprite of creativity that flutters in. You have to catch it. Otherwise it is lost.

She referred to interviews she’d done with Ruth Stone and Tom Waits. Ruth spoke of sometimes catching the poem by the tail and having to write it down backwards. Tom talked about telling the ‘sprite’ to come back at a more convenient time (if he was driving for example).

Is creativity a genie and are we merely channels?

I agree with this to an extent, but I also think creativity comes from our unique, personal life experiences. And that is what makes for ‘good’ art… Personal self expression from the artist.

BUT, if an idea strikes, and I can feel it as inspiration, I get a flutter in my stomach and a zap of energy in my head… If I don’t write it down… Pft!! It’s gone. So perhaps it is more genie than genius.

What do you think? Does your creativity come of you or through you?

Happy late January to you.

Leonie :)

LEONIE ORTON is a business writer and marketer. She extracts your thoughts, gives them structure and then converts them into words that connect. Find out more about her here.

Connect with her on Facebook & Twitter.

You might also like:

8 comments

Annie Clark

Leonie

Madonna

Shannon

Pauline Bright

Leonie

Carolina HeartStrings

Leonie

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Popular Posts

Archives

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Tag Cloud

LEONIE ORTON is a business writer and marketer.
She extracts your thoughts, gives them structure
and then converts them into words that connect.
Find out more about her here.