June 2010

Whenever I thought of writing this post, this scene from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back always came to mind:

You think you won’t be afraid on your way to unleashing your creative monster (is that title getting old or what)? Oh you will be, you will be.

There’s a perception going around that when a creative person achieves Epic Genius rank in the dark arts of creativity, she will no longer be afraid of new projects, and all creative tasks will cower before her in fear and the lowest submission, ready to roll over and give up their gifts if she only but wishes.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that fear is a good thing. Not the gut-wrenching fear that tells you (wisely) not to step into a dark alley at night, but fear of doing things that are good for you. Things that are new. Things that will help you grow. Things that will stretch you. The fear of hitting up against the edges of your comfort zone and stepping beyond them.

In his essential book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield calls this fear the Resistance:

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

Between you and your best creative work stands the Resistance. And how will you know the Resistance? By your fear.

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My friend Donald was kind enough to leave a comment on my previous foul-mouthed post, clarifying that I’m really a much nicer person in real life.

I’d like to think so too.

So why did I swear like a sailor in writing Unleashing Your Creative Monster: Know Who’s Your Bitch?

I struggled with writing that post for the longest time. I wrote drafts and drafts of my thoughts on creativity, things I’d learned through more than 10 years of studying and working in the creative fields. The drafts hemmed and hawed, went this way and that, and turned out bloated and boring. None of them worked. Creativity is a paradoxical subject and I was trying to cover all the different points of view possible.

As a result, the drafts didn’t have one single strong point of view.

When I finally decided to heck with it, I was going to write with my foot down and dammit if I missed anything, that the draft that became Know Who’s Your Bitch came into being, easily and quickly.

You see, the secret is very simple. In real life, I can be mild-mannered, fair and non-judgmental. In a conversation, I have the time to listen, to try to understand and see all points of view. Unless I turn out extremely boring, chances are you won’t bolt (chances are too that you’ll be more interested in talking about yourself than hearing me go on about me).

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Creativity is a motherfucking bitch.

There are no two ways about. Anyone who’s ever messed about the creative process, ever tried to define it, explain it, ever tried to teach it, ever tried to wrestle it to the ground and produce heartbreaking works of staggering genius on a constant basis, is sooner or later dashed upon the rocks of paradox.

For creativity is a, but also b, is sometimes x, but other times definitely not x, and even though you can certainly nurture it with steps and best practices, because of how much creativity likes to break the rules, sometimes doing the exact opposite of those steps and best practices yields the creative results.

Creativity is a motherfucking capricious bitch.

And yet, like any other fool who’s tried to make creativity his bitch and ended up going slightly deranged with the effort of it, I too am making the attempt to teach you, oh enraptured reader, how to unleash the creative monster in you. Unleash I say, a creative monster, so you too, can go out into the world and inflict your creative gifts upon it, not unlike spreading a sheen of sheer silk onto soft yearning skin.

You’ll also be happier, less prone to hair-tearing and ear-slicing, bring more beauty into the world, and be an irresistible magnet to the sex of your choice.

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