“I WISH I COULD DO THAT”

I showed my book, Jesters Incognito, to a new friend recently. She held it in her hands, felt the satisfyingly slippery covers with her palm, flipped through the pages with a clear expression of amazement on her face and then looked up at me and said, “Feel like a jello bath?”  No, she didn’t say that.  Sorry.  It’s too easy to slip in silly when leading up to dialogue.  No, she said the classic phrase of all time.  ”I wish I could do that.”

Being creative is so simple, in actuality.  It is not at all like shaving a berserk camel. As far as I’m concerned, for anyone who desires a creative hobby or passion, it should not be a daunting task.

It’s a matter of commitment, like trying to hit the gym regularly to feel better, to drink green shakes to look better, and refraining from holding the door open for old ladies and waiting until just the right moment before letting go and watching the door slam them in the face.  Being creative is about developing a new habit, is what I’m trying to say with my tongue pressed firmly up against the inside of my cheek.

Allow me state the bold claim that EVERYBODY CAN BE CREATIVE.  By virtue of being human, every single warm body on the planet can be creative.  Next to being aware of our mortality, it’s the other quality humans have that set us apart from animals.  I’m not saying every creative endeavour in the world is astounding or mind-blowing, but it still holds immense value to the person who has created it and to those who see it and experience an emotional response.  And it’s unarguable that some people are more creative than others.  Yet even gifted artists who don’t need to try hard at expressing themselves still struggle with their creative ideals until it pushes them to the edge, to drugs, to total imaginative paralysis/writer’s block.

Creativity is an elusive goal, to be sure.  But the key word in my claim is ‘can’.  I’ll say it again.  Everyone can be creative.

I’m not being trite.  It’s not a back handed way to ask for another compliment.  The only reason I can now consider myself a creative person is because I’ve always wanted to be creative.  I’ve always been attracted to art, in all it’s glorious forms, and for whatever reason I’ve just stayed at it.  Despite the many obstacles I have had, I’ve always kept practicing my art.

‘So, how did you do it?’ I’ve been asked.

Well, [big breath] I drew and wrote a  lot of stories as a kid.  Read a lot and listened to a lot of music and decided I wanted to do some of those things.  Then I busted a nerve early on in my career as a trumpet player, at the end of high school.  So what did I do?  I sang instead.  Then I practiced my terrible cartooning skills and eventually published a few indie comics.  Then I started a comedy troupe and got into storytelling.  We wrote radio plays and sketch comedy shows.  At the end of university, I was diagnosed with Bipolar.  I spent the next decade in and out of mental hospitals seriously without hope.  I kept drawing.  I journaled.  Finally, healthy and back on my feet (thankfully!), I started to refine my drawing and started to see a style emerge.  That was so amazing!  I was about 30 yrs old at that point.  With at least twenty sketchbooks filled I found some cool ideas for a story.  There were some big ones in there.  I wrote and wrote and wrote and decided I could pull off a novel, that the idea was good enough.  Long nights followed, and to be honest I kind of got obsessed ~ I wanted to finish it so badly because I had had so many road blocks, disappointments, failures up until then with my creativity.  I obviously pushed myself too hard, because then I got sick with an auto-immune disorder and almost died.  Luckily I finished a first draft before I was put in a coma.  A year later, a dramatic year later, I finished it.  I’m 37 years old.

So, how do I do it?

Simple.  I keep doing it.

Do you wish you could be creative?  It takes DETERMINATION.  That’s all.  Your work is going to be rough at the start, everybody’s is.  Try to take comfort in that.

Maybe the real response to ‘I wish I could do that,’ should be ‘Why don’t you?’

This is a cool quick video by Ira Glass I found that supports this idea completely.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ResTHKVxf4

You can be creative, anonymous and supposed non-creative reader!  Pick up a pen or an instrument this weekend and enjoy the mess you make.