CREATIVE FICTION

The stories we’ve been told about creativity… and the ones we keep telling ourselves.

There are many misconceptions about creativity; what it is, what it isn’t, who gets to have it, who doesn’t, how much we have, how much we are even allowed to have. All these misconceptions skew our understanding of creativity but most significantly, distort and dilute the relationship we have with our own.

For the sake of being able to access and use our creativity, freely, fully and in its wildest form, we need to debunk some of the stories we’ve created. Stories that are nothing more than creative fiction quietly cutting us off from a part of ourselves.

Let’s start with one of the biggest misconceptions out there; creativity means being good at art.

No it doesn’t.

Simple as that.

Creativity is not limited to being good at art. Being creative is not limited to being artistic in any way come to that. Of course it can be and for some it is, but the point is, it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to be remotely artistic and you are still creative.

Next…

Creativity and craft are not the same thing. Having a craft is a channel for your creativity to be expressed, not the totality of your creativity.

You can be creative (which we all are) without having any expression for your creativity (which only some of us do). Meaning, you don’t need anything to show for your creativity, and you are still creative. What a liberating thought.

Creativity is not the same as having a talent, genius, or gift, again, these are vehicles through which you can experience and express your creativity, but they do not in themselves represent the totality of creativity and they certainly do not define what creativity is.

You do not have to make money from your creativity in order for your creativity to have value and for it to matter. Similarly, your creativity does not need to matter to anyone else in order for it to matter and have value.

 Being Creative doesn’t come with a dress code or a requirement to look a certain way. There is no set image or identity you need to construct in order to be creative. Of course, you can if that’s how you choose to express your creativity but it’s entirely optional. Not essential. Just like, it is not essential that you live in Shoreditch, or Brooklyn or Santa Fe or any other place on planet earth that attracts creative souls, in order for you be a creative soul. Your postcode is utterly irrelevant.

As is your job title.

You are still creative without the word appearing in your email signature, sitting in a creative department, working in a creative industry or even having a creative career.

No one has the monopoly on creativity. And there is no such thing as a creative hierarchy – it is an imaginary construct designed and reinforced by these very misconceptions.

You don’t need to study a creative subject, acquire formal training or have any formal qualifications to prove your creativity exists  – you are still a creative being.  Your creativity doesn’t need to be recognised to be real, except by you.

You can be practical, academic, good with logistics, organised, think with the left side of your brain, have a corporate job, have a full-time job, be an accountant, be a full-time stay-at-home mum, be financially secure, successful even, and guess what, you can even be good at maths, and you will still be creative.

Put another way, you can be exactly who you already are and you’re still creative. Wildly creative.

Providing you’re able to separate fact from fiction that is.