Sunday Blog 97 – Sunday 13th August 2023
Forgive me because I can’t easily lay my hand on the link – but etched onto my memory is Liz Gilbert’s description of the creative process. Imagine being up the top of a steep incline, a cardboard box or a toboggan your only tool. Creativity is egging you on. “Do you want to slide down? Do you?”
You do. And down you go. Whistling at a reckless speed, always moments from wipeout. Just at the end of the steep incline you hit a bump, become airborne and crash land with no actual injuries, but shaking from head to foot.
“Wasn’t that FUN?” Creativity asks. “Do you want to do it again?”
Creativity takes you on a journey where they PROMISE it will be interesting and fun. Creativity however offers no promises of how it will all end up. Will you end up bleeding or with spinal injuries? Maybe. Maybe not. But won’t it be FUN?
After eight years, endless false starts and an Emerging Writers Program opportunity I have finished the damn book. But, I have had my first rejection from a publisher. I am rising from the snow, shaking from head to foot. Will I head up to the top of the slope again?
You bet.
Plus, how I loved this quote from Flaubert I read this week.
Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeoisie, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
Flaubert
Creativity never promises certainty. Just variety, challenge and something new.
I’m in.