The way in which you create, and the collective body of work you’ve produced is completely unique to you. That said, there are certain common elements that all of need to have in our creative lives to get the most from our creative potential.
One of these Keys To Creativity is learning to reject the restrictions you place on yourself with labels like “writer”, “painter” or “musician” and realising that you’re MULTI-creative, not limited to creating in only one or two forms.
What typically happens in our creative lives is this: You find a form that you’re comfortable with and realise you have a certain talent in, and spend all your creative time focusing on this one medium. Maybe it’s writing, maybe it’s painting, maybe it’s dancing.
As you develop, you specialise further. So you go from being a “Writer” to becoming a “Romantic Novelist”. “Painter” evolves into “Coastal Landscape Artist”. And “Dancer” becomes “Modern Jive Dancer”.
This is all great and as you delve deeper into these specialised areas of creativity you find more effective and enjoyable ways of expressing the true creative you.
So where’s the problem?
The difficulties start when, however much you love your romantic novel writing, coastal landscape painting or modern jive dancing, you also long to explore other creative forms. But you feel you’ve painted yourself into a corner (er, even if you’re not a painter!).
By creating such a tightly defined label for yourself you now feel trapped and like you can’t branch out and try other areas of creativity.
In time, however much you enjoy the creative form you’re spending all your time and energy on, and however talented you are in it, you’ll begin to resent the limitations it imposes. So you create less in this form. And because it’s the only way you create, this means you create less and less overall.
So how can you avoid the pitfalls of this potentially very negative cycle?
Quite simply, accept that you’re MULTI-creative. Each of us can create in a number of different ways and disciplines. Including you. Just because you’ve done more creative writing than you’ve created in any other form, it doesn’t mean you can’t also enjoy painting and dancing. And vice versa.
What happens when you experiment in different creative media also is that gain new perspectives in creating.
For example a musician who decides to experiment in abstract colour field painting learns new ways of layering his creative ideas that he can then take back to enhance his music.
The short story writer who decides to take a course in modern Latin dance discovers a flow and spontaneity she can take back to give fresh energy to her writing.
Don’t put a straitjacket on your creativity by labelling yourself as “just” a writer, dancer or painter.
Decide today to explore a new creative form that you’ve always wanted to try. You’ll not only discover a new way to create and express yourself, but you’ll return to the rest of your creative projects more enriched and with a deeper understanding of what creating means to you.