Creative writing - From think to ink - Lindstrom Simeon 2015

Introduction: what is creativity anyway, and why create at all?

When you were a tiny baby, your head was full of mostly nothing and the world was new and unknown. You barely had the skill to move yourself around the environment, and you most definitely lacked the skill to do what humans are most know for — communication.

As you grew and developed, though, something strange started to happen. The people around you, the things in your world - you began to understand that they could be reached. That in your infant isolation there was still a way to reach out and touch someone else’s experience. You saw all around you evidence of this magical skill that you had yet to develop: language.

Almost every infant learns to talk, and many believe that impulse comes from this original yearning to reach out and connect, to speak and be heard, to breach the abyss between one and the other.

At the root of all creative expression is a deep, inborn and very human desire to be heard.

Since before we were old enough to understand it, we’ve tried to master this almost god-like ability to shape symbols and concepts, reach into the mind of someone else and affect their hearts and minds, to bring about changes in the world, to connect and understand and share with another human being.

I believe that it’s at this early stage that writers are born. Children gradually learn that some words are more correct than others, that some have greater effect, that some words get you into trouble and some words bring you closer to what you want. And when you eventually developed a sense of identity, you realized that words are the special tool that allows you to speak your mind, to make your desires known.

Language is a window into the soul.

For the writers among us, the urge to communicate more clearly, more beautifully, and in new ways never really left us. With the right words, new worlds can be created, new ideas can be incubated and grown, great heights and depths can be reached. Every brilliant idea had its first home in the written or spoken word, and if you are a writer or aspire to be one, you most likely understand this power better than anything.

So, why write?

Why be creative at all?

Creativity is perhaps the most uniquely human characteristic, and it’s no exaggeration that many have linked it to the divine. Creativity is the ability to look out over the vista of reality, and have the courage to wonder, “what if this was some other way?”

All change and growth begins with the creativity of imagining something different. In this book, we’ll be talking about writing specifically, but creativity isn’t fussy, and it’s quite likely that opening the door on your innate creativity will invite all sorts of new skills and insights into your life, not just the verbal ones.

Let’s start at the very beginning.

Our creativity journey will begin in infancy, and we’ll go back to that wondering child who made the first momentous leap with his first word.

Today’s exercise is broad and simple, but ponder it long enough and you’ll start to uncover new, unexpected aspects. Ask yourself this simple question: why write at all?

Take a moment or two to answer this for yourself, but don’t be satisfied with a superficial answer. It’s great if your answer is, “to share my message,” but take it further — what does that really mean? Why bother sharing your message? What’s so special about that message anyway?

Once you’ve condensed down some of these sentiments, you’ll have found something that will be incredibly valuable to your writing career, wherever it takes you: your purpose. Tapping into the deep roots of why you are compelled to write at all is a brilliant way to unlock your true motivations and your ultimate reason for that urge to take what’s in your head and put it out there in the world.

How to find that “Big Why”

·  What is the response to your writing you hope to receive, if any?

·  How will you feel if nobody ever reads your work or understands what you’re trying to get across?

·  What, in essence, is your message?

·  In the most general sense, do you feel heard in the world? Who do you have something to say to? Why? If you had the attention of the entire world for five whole minutes, what would you want to say to everybody?

·  Picture people reading the best possible work you could hope to produce in this lifetime. Now, think carefully, what is their ideal reaction? In what ways do you want to move them? How will you know you’ve been successful?

Bear with me a little while I dwell on the fluffy stuff. Plenty of writing advice out there is focused on the nuts and bolts of writing — how to do it, when, how to market it and where, etc. But this is not that sort of book. If you want to learn to write more compellingly, with more skill and expertise, you can do it, easily. The really tricky bit, though, is understanding why.

Uncover this why for yourself and you get in touch with the inexhaustible engine of your creativity. The human core of why we bother to create at all. Get to know this root well and you will not need gimmicky books full of writing prompts to blast away your writer’s block. You will not need “inspiration” or 31 awesome tips and tricks. When you were a baby, something made you open your mouth and speak. Understand the thing that inspired you to do this, and you’re more than half way to being the creative, productive and generative human being you were destined to be.