11. Are you an artist or creative?
You don't have to feel a burning desire to create
Are you an artist or a creative person? This question has been bouncing around in my head for the past week and it’s helped me to see myself in a new light and to also decide what I want to steer away from and where I feel comfortable going.
In the world of art, there are a lot of stuck up know-it-alls who are actually pretty intimidating. This is probably a big reason to why I’ve never liked to consider my writing anything artistic. I’m still not very comfortable with saying that I’m a writer. It makes me cringe, but why? First of all nobody tells you when you’re little that you *can* become a writer as you can become a doctor or an engineer. Writing is never going to be successful unless you’re J.K. Rowling and “get lucky” writing in a café for 10 years. And then, secondly, I don’t want to create “art” - or at least what most people consider as art.
A few clarifications, I find it very hard to believe that J.K. Rowling has magical powers as her world of Harry Potter does, she may have an innate talent to write along with a bloody good imagination but she has also had to work extremely hard day after day for years until she’s become the renown writer that she is today.
Writing, a long with any type of project or goal in life, is very motivating and fills you up with energy, but it can also knock you so hard that you’re left trembling and wondering whether you’re wasting your time on something worthless. This of course doesn’t just go for Rowling but for any writer or person that creates things.
This last thought leads me to my question: are you an artist or a creative person? I’ve recently been considering this idea and I think that there’s a difference between the two. In my humble opinion, an artist is someone who feels an inner fire and real necessity to create things and get them out of their system, even if they don’t share them with anybody. They need to always be doing and they never stop.
On the other hand a creative person is someone who doesn’t feel this need as strongly, they love to create -which is why they do it- but they can also live their lives without and not feel any type of resistance. But when they sit down to create, they do it with ease and well.
I see this distinction very clearly between my boyfriend and I. His brain is thinking 90% of the time and creating things, anything; he never stops. He can be falling asleep and wake up to quickly write down an idea he’s had. He observes absolutely everything, when we go out he’s constantly staring at shop windows, posters, stickers that are stuck on lampposts, and a very long etc, because they inspire him and spark ideas. I on the other hand am pretty chill, I write when I feel inspired or I want to, I don’t really write down many ideas and inspirations and I’m able to switch off and forget all about writing - this I think would be very very difficult for him to do. And that’s the difference between an artist and a creative person and the most important thing is that THAT’S OKAY!
This idea that to be an artistic person you must be an endless pit of knowledge, wise, creative non-stop, inspiring, interesting, super intelligent… isn’t actually completely true. Of course, if you study and investigate you’ll learn more and most probably be able to try more things and feel more comfortable with what you do, but it’s not a necessity. You don’t have to have studied at the most prestigious university to be good, most people don’t (wow, shocking I know). You don’t have to know everything about the history of painting to be a great painter, you don’t have to feel a burning desire to create to be a creative person. Just the fact that you want to, have the motivation to do it, find the time to create and feel happy doing it, is enough.
I’m not an artist. I love to read and get lost in character’s worlds, I love to watch YouTube videos and vlogs, I love to drink coffee and stare at my phone, I love doing crosswords, I love to sleep and have a lay-in in the mornings, I love to do many things that aren’t creative. But I also love to write and hope to become a better writer and share a bloody good novel with you some day soon; and that’s okay too. None of us are the same person, we all have different capacities, rhythms, needs, wants and desires and we each need to get to know ourselves and know where we want to go and respect our own boundaries. Only you know what is best for you, so as they say: you do you.
Thank you for being here for another week
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See you on Monday,
Ejjjjjjhd.
P.S. Here’s a song for you