NOTE: This is a continuation and conclusion of a previous post. See “Embrace Your Creative Demon’s Rhythm (1)” for the contextual lead-in to what follows.

The myth of constant creative output

It’s common for those of us who are driven to pursue work in the creative arts to have in mind an ideal goal that we’re aiming for. Along with hopes of having our efforts recognized by an appreciative audience, probably one of the most common desires is to achieve a state of regular, and even constant, creative flow.

The reasons for this are obvious. As a matter of phenomenological fact, writing or other creative work can make you high. Even those writers (and there are plenty of them/us) for whom the actual act of writing is sometimes or always a matter of sheer drudgery have experienced those moments of deep satisfaction when everything comes together, the stars align, the chi flows, and it’s as if the universe is doing the work through you. It’s only natural to wish that it could always be this flowing, this fulfilling, this easy.

Natural — but dangerous and unrealistic. A number of unexamined assumptions lie behind the myth of perpetual creative production, and it’s hard to judge which is the more pernicious and damaging to deep and authentic creativity. The basic problem is that a person in this state is judging himself or herself according to an artificial, external, and impracticable standard. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: alice flaherty, amy lowell, charles dickens, Dealing with Creative Block, dreams, h.p. lovecraft, harper lee, hypergraphia, inspiration, joe hill, maurice levy, muse, philip larkin, stephen king, unconscious mind, victoria nelson, writer's block