raise your hand if...

This week I thought I'd take an informal survey of your thoughts about the creative process, whether you write, paint, sculpt, compose, sing, dance, or act--whatever it is you do to indulge your creative spirit. So...please raise your hand: 



--if you sometimes feel like you're the slowest writer (or artist, composer, choreographer, photographer...) on the face of the planet

--if you sometimes feel physically drained after writing an emotionally charged scene (or struggling with a complicated melody, or agonizing over just the right color...)

--if you ever burned a meal while trying to put the finishing touches on a chapter (or a sketch or a tune or a scene...)

http://ironfiremen.com

--if you have been known to curse at the dog (like I just did!) because the poor thing needed to go out and you were in the middle of an imaginery conversation with your character that couldn't wait

 

http://www.chaar.us

--if you sometimes make up excuses (oh, all right...if you sometimes lie) to avoiding engaging with family or friends who don't seem to understand how important your work is

http://bestwaytogetridof.com

--if, at all times, you carry at least five pens (or the eqivalent--camera cards or canvases). Six to ten is even better. Go ahead. Check your purse or briefcase now.

--if you have enough pens with you but sometimes you forget to carry paper. Therefore, sizable chunks of your manuscript (or sketches or melodies) are recorded on napkins, on the back of receipts, on cancelled envelopes…and when that fails—on the back of your hand.

--if you have perfected the ability to record plot points, dialog, and gorgeous prose (or lyrics or landscapes) whenever and wherever the muse is kind enough to share them with you…and you can do it without taking your eyes off the road.

--if Soduko makes you cringe

--if you are reluctant but willing to concede that your laptop/word processor is a convenience, but you will defend the merits of pen and paper to the end. Remember the likes of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?

--if, when you’re writing or drawing or composing you sometimes make yourself cry

--if you sometimes make yourself laugh

--if you look over what you’ve created later on…and it happens again

--if "I wasted the whole day,” is not part of your vocabulary

Raise your hand if any of this sounds like you...because next week you get to take a bow!

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"If you cannot tell the truth about yourself,

you cannot tell it about other people."

--Virginia Woolf--

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After you raise your hand, take a bow.

jan