![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Creative work and exposure
Jun. 18th, 2005 11:39 amYesterday, I was musing about creativity and how I use mine. A few days back, I sketched an anthropomorphic anteater sitting in the lotus position and signing "interpret". It was a very elegant anteater, but the entire concept was rather silly and definitely inspired by Ursula Vernon. (I may have to scan and paint it.)
I thought: when I'm exposed at length to art, it makes me want to draw. When I'm exposed at length to interactive fiction, it makes me want to write interactive fiction. And when I read... I want to read. Not to write. Just to read.
This is probably why I will never be published, despite believing until I was about seventeen that I would grow up to be a bestselling fantasy/science fiction author. I've grown older, I've experienced more of the world, and I have a greater well of creativity to draw upon now. (I could probably debate this point with people cooing about the joyous creativity of children until the cows come home, but I don't see the point. Instead, I will simply say that I am quite sure that I am a more creative person now than I ever have been, and leave them to snuggle their wubsy wells of lost creativity in peace.) What I lack is discipline. Until I was about thirteen, I was extremely disciplined about writing. I lost it in high school at roughly the same time as I discovered the concept of having a social life.
I do write. It comes in odd little fits and starts. I have strange ideas and they trickle onto the page every now and then when they really want to trickle. I do draw, though nowhere near as much as when one of my closest friends was headed off to become a professional artist. I do write interactive fiction, though I haven't finished anything. When I expose myself to any given art form at length, I am likely to produce more of it. Except writing. I wonder if I burned myself out on it?
I do sign. That's not quite a creative process, but I think it uses some of the same parts of my brain that dancing uses, and it feels like an art form to me, even if it's not creative per se. I spend more time signing than I do drawing, writing, or programming.
I had a dream last night that involved little bugs flying around branches in the dark. Their wings were dusty, like the wings of moths, and the dust settled onto the tree leaves. Then they flashed like fireflies, and the dust lit up just like their bodies did. I worked on painting it today and it made me happy. It's only about a third finished, and the bugs aren't in place, but I like the way the leaves look.
I'm not sure where I was going with any of this, but that's okay.
I thought: when I'm exposed at length to art, it makes me want to draw. When I'm exposed at length to interactive fiction, it makes me want to write interactive fiction. And when I read... I want to read. Not to write. Just to read.
This is probably why I will never be published, despite believing until I was about seventeen that I would grow up to be a bestselling fantasy/science fiction author. I've grown older, I've experienced more of the world, and I have a greater well of creativity to draw upon now. (I could probably debate this point with people cooing about the joyous creativity of children until the cows come home, but I don't see the point. Instead, I will simply say that I am quite sure that I am a more creative person now than I ever have been, and leave them to snuggle their wubsy wells of lost creativity in peace.) What I lack is discipline. Until I was about thirteen, I was extremely disciplined about writing. I lost it in high school at roughly the same time as I discovered the concept of having a social life.
I do write. It comes in odd little fits and starts. I have strange ideas and they trickle onto the page every now and then when they really want to trickle. I do draw, though nowhere near as much as when one of my closest friends was headed off to become a professional artist. I do write interactive fiction, though I haven't finished anything. When I expose myself to any given art form at length, I am likely to produce more of it. Except writing. I wonder if I burned myself out on it?
I do sign. That's not quite a creative process, but I think it uses some of the same parts of my brain that dancing uses, and it feels like an art form to me, even if it's not creative per se. I spend more time signing than I do drawing, writing, or programming.
I had a dream last night that involved little bugs flying around branches in the dark. Their wings were dusty, like the wings of moths, and the dust settled onto the tree leaves. Then they flashed like fireflies, and the dust lit up just like their bodies did. I worked on painting it today and it made me happy. It's only about a third finished, and the bugs aren't in place, but I like the way the leaves look.
I'm not sure where I was going with any of this, but that's okay.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
