Stories To Tell

The more creative projects that I find myself becoming involved with, the more I am discovering about what drives people to be creative in the first place.

Many people who get involved with art, do so to simply tell a story; Somewhere within them, there is an idea they need co communicate that can't be spelled out into cut and dry sentences. They might turn to drawing or sculpture or music or poetry... but they know that there is something narrative within them that needs to be told in order to get this idea out.

Other people fall in love with the methods and the processes of creation; They enjoy the act of putting a pen to paper or the feel of clay under their fingers or the tactile aspects of playing an instrument. To these people, the moment of turning nothing into something, and the vehicles they use to accomplish it, is almost the end unto itself.

Still others look mainly to the value of the finished work to drive them; These people create for the same reason a plumber installs a sink or a lineman connects a house... someone is willing to pay for the end result of a skill they don't posess themselves.

As for me, I can't really say what drives my creativity other than to say it is somewhat of a compultion. I have tried, mostly unsucessfully, to take a "break" from creativity for whatever reason, and I always end up writing something. As impractial as creativity often can be, it oozes out of me if I try to hold it back, and I always find I have more ideas than I'll ever end up using.

Honestly, I wish it was different. That I could take it or leave it. That I could treat it as a job. That I could even simply enjoy the creative act for what it is in the moment.

But that's not me.

I'm the guy that would write a poem on a piece of driftwood while I was being digested in the belly of a whale.

That being said, I have things to write...