December 29, 2011

• The Creative Personality

  An old friend of mine emailed me this article. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199607/the-creative-personality

  I’ll only talk about one section of it since it has me deeply concerned.

  From the second page: “And they’re usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them.”

  Ack! The way I’m approaching my upcoming novel is that this is my one shot to write a book. I’m only 30, but for all I know 2012 will be my last year here…who knows when their time is up afterall. So my mindset is that this is my one shot to get it right, and I’m going to do just that. If I make it to my Eightieth birthday I want to be able to look back on this novel and say “Yeah I remember that game and I really enjoyed writing the novel loosely based upon it.”

  I absolutely never want to look back on it and say, “Yeah that was nice, but what’s next?” I think about the stories I have already written and the songs I’ve already composed and am proud of them. I don’t like the idea of seeing them as ‘in the past’. Sure they have flaws, but they’re a part of me. I don’t ever want to be at the point where I listen to one of my songs and say, “Blah, what’s next.”

  So my question to the creative types out there: In whatever field your creativity shows itself, do you find your work from the past as “okay” and say to yourself, “that was nice, but what’s next?” I would kind of like to know if I’m alone on this issue.

  • 8:52 am
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