The Creative Process: Permission to PLAY
Overcoming creative inertia
It is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
— Mary Oliver, the Invitation
Well hello,
It is a fresh morning here on Portugal’s west coast.
It’s been a while. I have written and created a lot this year, shared very little. As I move into a new era of work and existence, this will change, so brace yourselves.
While resuscitating these letters and a few other projects that ended up in my virtual desk drawer, I thought about why it is so difficult to get into a creative habit and easy to abandon one’s projects.
We have ideas that seem important enough for us not to ditch but difficult enough to abandon for long stretches of time.
I know I’m not the only one so let’s talk about it.
But first, to clarify:
Creativity is not just for the creative
If you feel the urge to write a poem or draw your cat, try your hand at theatre or woodwork, knitting, ceramics, learn how to dance or play the dulcimer, you name it — don’t squash the thought. If you deny yourself this time, you will never experience the joy and contentment that comes from expressing yourself creatively.
This is not a luxury either. Creativity solves problems and fuels change. It’s good for the soul. It heals. Anyone, at any time in their lives, can benefit from it.
According to the godfather of creativity and flow (I am paraphrasing as I have the German translation of his book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”):
“Creative people have the incredible ability to adapt to almost any possible situation, to use whatever is available in that moment, to reach their goals.”
Granted, it’s easier for some than for others. And especially if you need it for work, establishing a daily practice is the key to a consistent output of work.
The usual suspects
There are different reasons why we find ourselves in these creative funks in the first place. Some that I have experienced:
Paralysis after a fail or a success
lack of community
prolonged illness or burnout
moving to a place that doesn’t inspire or support us in our creative endeavours
the list goes on…
The usual suspects, however, evergreen and present across cultures and age groups are procrastination and perfectionism. A whole industry thrives on providing solutions and products to beat either of them.
I’ve learned that when we procrastinate, one of three things is usually going on:
lack of clarity resulting in emotional overwhelm
inner conflict regarding values or purpose (when it’s a should and not a must)
not having learned yet how to manage our specific brains (hello ADHD friends).
So rather than beating ourselves up about it, detangling these feelings will help us get into action mode.
How? Journal about it, chat with a good friend or book an hour with a mentor or coach to speed up the process. Combine all three and you’re golden.
If you find you don’t have the patience to write and have no one to talk to, go on a walk and talk to yourself. Record it to refer back to it. Take notes later. It may sound silly but it works. Often, we already know the answers, we just have to extract it from all the noise in our heads. Walking helps with that.
Perfectionism to me is really just fear in fancy clothing. Fear of judgement, fear of rejection, fear of silence (the worst for most artists). Fear of not meeting our own high expectations. The phase where we keep tweaking and improving our work is a safe space — much safer than actually shipping the work.
It also comes disguised as “loving the process rather than the end result”: my personal brand of perfectionism (this letter has taken me a VERY long time to write). Of course, art is never done. Knowing when to stop is part of the process.
Some people wear their perfectionism like a badge of honour. I see it as a massive handicap. It comes with suppressed feelings, we disappoint ourselves and it slows us down so I’d rather wrestle that inner critic to the ground with all my strength, tape some duct tape across its imaginary mouth and not let become part of my identity.
You’re on to something
All of these feelings of resistance and avoidance usually point to one thing: we’re working on something (or thinking about something) that is worthy of taking up headspace. Something that could potentially change our lives. Change is scary.
In the long run, holding back is much more tiring than pushing through creative lulls or perceived below par work. Nothing can relieve that mounting internal pressure that comes from not working on our craft — except to work on it.
So if we can’t make the conscious decision to quit, we only have one other option:
Just do it — a slogan wasted on a giant sports brand when artists and creatives need to have it tattooed on the back of their eyeballs. In the “just doing” lies the answer.
Practice does not make you perfect, it makes you free.
I can write about it like an expert because I am: I spent years developing mechanisms to push through these obstacles. Time and again, I have had to “create myself” out of a corner.
What is easily overlooked, however, is that when artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers etc release their work into the world, they always share parts of themselves.
This makes us vulnerable. And vulnerability is SCARY! So not only do we have to put in the work, we also have to be brave and face the fear.
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
—Joseph Chilton Pearce
Once we overstep the pain threshold, where the discomfort of NOT doing is worse than the fear of doing, we are ready to go pro.
Here’s something that helps:
Give yourself permission to play
This does not mean to be childish but childlike. Curious. Exploring and experimenting. Creating without thinking about the result, potential failure or who will clean up after.
An idea I keep coming back to regularly, I was reminded of the benefits recently when I spent a day with my friend’s kids. Three very clever, fun little characters! If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my story. We packed a nutritionally balanced picnic (bananas and crisps) and headed to a place nearby where you can see several sauropod footprints — randomly, in the middle of nowhere, on a cliff by the water.
Portugal really is The Land Before Time (remember that cute animated show? It’s like Bambi but with dinosaurs).
We brought a Lego triceratops (as you do) and took photos of it walking in its real life ancestors’ foot steps.
Then we went home and painted (with coffee and black ink as we had no paint), researched animals, played chess. It was a lovely day of creative chaos and when I returned to my (messy) desk the next day, productivity was off the charts.
Until they are told otherwise, children are free in their creative expression.
It’s just a natural part of their life. They are happy to experiment, build and abandon prototypes, grab whatever materials they can find to bring their ideas to life, and generally follow their curiosity.
Pearce, quoted above, believed that active, imaginative play is the most important of all childhood activities because it cultivates mastery of one's environment, which he terms "creative competence."
I would never criticise a child’s work of art or discourage them from continuing, just because it’s not (yet!) great work (who decides that, anyway?).
So why do it to myself?
I am on a mission to nurture that creative soul — mine and that of others.
Here’s to asking more questions, to experimenting and honing our craft. To make bad art, to fail freely and practice consistently until we get better.
(I’ll go first by sending this letter.)
So if you’re in a creative funk or you’re at the very beginning of your creative journey, spend some time practicing playfulness: easy if you have children of your own or can borrow some. If not: play with a pet, buy some art supplies, spend a day exploring your city, meander across fields and forests and notice small things, take bad photos, collect interesting pebbles on the beach.
Thankfully, there is no time or age limit on creativity. Just yesterday I met a lovely gentleman in his 80s who is working on his model sailing ship and has an easel set up ready to start paining.
The more we create, the more creative we become and the more content we will be.
Artists add beauty to a broken world and it’s generous to share it, despite our fears.
Thank you for reading,
Hadassa x
PS / What’s New
“Create or Die”
If you’d like some creative support:
I’ve been offering coaching sessions casually on and off over the years, helping people with creativity, ideas, process and direction. I am now getting back into it more seriously and am offering 1:1 calls (90 minutes) as well as a 4-week creativity package.
If you have a creative idea, project, client or problem that you would like to delve into, unpack or get feedback on, then I can help. I’ll come armed with the right questions, a structure to aid progress and a few years decades (*cough*) of experience.
NEW: I wrote an e-book with my friend:
“Thriving on Social Media as an Artist, Artisan or Creative”
For all those struggling with the beast that is social media. You can check it out here.
Excellent piece, how one does feel understood and inspired by your words. Thanks