The Column is a monthly feature that explores the world of creativity and aesthetics.

How To Be Creative
Mike de Sousa, Director, AbleStable

Be yourself...

Creativity is not confined to the chosen few who articulate their experiences in words, music, or another medium. We are all creative. Finding the time to encourage that creativity in ourselves is however often a challenge, but if we fail to flex our creative muscles, the enemy of inertia grabs a hold. This column provides a compact first aid box for that circumstance and aims to counter any uncertainty that your creativity is boundless.

Self Doubt

I have used many mediums to express my creativity, but no matter how happy I am with the results of my prior efforts, there are periods when I doubt my potential to produce work that I and others will value. It has taken a very long time to realize that self doubt is a friend that walks with me in the creative process rather than an enemy that dulls my edge.

Imagine This

All creativity starts with an impulse from within. You and I look at this monitor, I mine, and you, yours. I write, you read. We are connected and yet we remain apart. I take a breath as do you. We both breathe, now. It is as real as the flashing photons that flood our eyes. The difference is our time, but there is more than time alone. Imagine this:

On your keyboard a thousand words lay hidden just beneath the surface like the shape within a block of marble to the sculptor. The words are there, waiting to be uncovered by the tap of your finger tips. Look down for a moment, you can almost hear their call. Listen. Look. Now, there between the dark spaces of the keys, the words await you. One thing is certain, those words, your words, are there for you to uncover. Start with one. Perhaps "The", or "A", or any other little word that comes to mind. Simple is best, but writing simply is the hardest writing task of all.

Picture This

Jared Tarbel developed an elegant plaything that might help. Click inside the black rectangle below, then type a word or sentence without a comma or full stop:

A visual record of the journey that your fingertips take will remain above as a shadow of the words you write. The frequent letters that you enter emerge out of the dark, but the meaning of your words remain far from view. It is a context where you enter words without concern for how others view them, a free expression, a place where you may dare to write what is most close to your heart. A place of secrets and reflection.

Building something unexpected from a random rush of keys, your instinct of curiosity becomes enlivened, your journey into thought begins.

Rest Assured

Although creativity flourishes in the most unexpected of places, the words I've written here may not marry with your moment today. On occasion something in us stops us short. When that happens to me I pause. Most often I experience writers block because I rush too fast and don't breathe in the air. We all share that same air that is the oxygen to our creativity, and you are no exception...


Feedback

AbleStable® welcomes feedback on The Column. Go to Feedback, complete the form, and make your views known.