Ah yes- the ever popular WordPress subject of creativity.  Where do creative ideas come from?  How do people create things?

There may be a million different answers, but I’d like to describe two that make sense to me.  One is a fairly common perspective. The other is something I discovered on my own; a crude but very natural analogy.

First, the more common thought.

Many artists have said that writing new material is not really an effort in the way we might think it would be.  Rather than working to build something, the artist instead just tries to stay connected and aware.  They speak of tapping in to the beyond- whether you call that God, the Universe, etc..  

If they can do that, new material just presents itself to them- like an apple on a tree.  All the artist has to do is reach out and take it.  Some speak of finding or being given entire pieces of completed work in one shot; a whole song, or a finished story.  Maybe Handel was experiencing this when he composed his monumental work, “Messiah” in just 24 days!

This “Tapping Into The Beyond” idea makes sense to me and I can relate to it somewhat, although I’m certainly no expert at channelling the universe. 

There’s also a lot to be said for the good old hard work of experimenting, tweaking, and trial and error; the creative equivalent of rubbing two sticks together until they eventually catch fire.

But for me, the best way to describe the creative process is……well, here goes….

Taking a shit. 

Now, if you think I’m being crude for no reason, just hear me out- biology first.

The Ultimate (God/the Universe, etc.) has created all that there is- the sun, the earth, and everything on it.  From those come elements like light, rain and soil, which work together to provide us with food. We ingest that material and it nourishes us.  It accumulates and makes new things within us. Then, when the time is right, we head to the bathroom to “discharge” some of what was made.

To me, creating happens the same way.  We live in the world and experience it in many ways.  We ingest our experiences of every kind.  They effect us and become part of us; assuming of course that we are awake, aware, and not desensitized to life. Those experiences are the nutrients of our creativity.  

Our creative consciousness works with those nutrients until eventually, something is made; a thought, a song, a story, etc. When that happens, we go to the studio and let the thing come out in the same way we head to bathroom when a serious #2 is about to arrive.

Have you ever been constipated?  You feel sluggish and weighed down; not quite yourself.  But when you hit the bathroom and things finally get moving, you feel fantastic afterwards!

I have many times felt sluggish and weighed down, with something feeling “pent up” within me.  In those situations, there’s nothing more satisfying than a great jazz gig, blogging a good story, or writing new music .  It’s a cleanser for the creative soul in the same way a bowl of bran flakes might cleanse the colon.

It may not be the classiest or even the most mature way to view the creative process, but it is the one that seems most accurate to me. 

How about you? How do you view or experience the creative process?

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