by Felicia Day
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Write ten words below describing how you feel about “creativity.”
Chances are some negative words come up. That’s okay! In fact, it’s great! That gives us something to work on! We can’t have a makeover montage if we already look Instagram-filter perfect.
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Having something to work toward is motivating and makes us feel “together.” We want to be fit. We want to be more organized. We want to learn five languages, play one thousand video games, and visit every bakery in the world to sample every single delicious dessert. (Oops, that’s my list. And now that I think about it, the bakery thing conflicts with the whole “fit” thing, dammit.)
For most things in our lives, we depend on other people to hold our feet to the fire. First with grades in school, then with deadlines at work. We send the IDEA of our long-term goals out in the world loose and vague, like the consistency of whipped-cream frosting rather than firm, sculpted fondant. (The bakery thing is bleeding over, sorry.) The problem is, there’s no way to make ourselves follow through unless we make the reasons for doing something specific and actionable and IMPORTANT. So let’s specifically action up this important creativity thing, STAT!
We are here to unlock our weird, creative voices. And that means allowing everyone to be a little bit selfish in making this a life priority. Yes, I’m giving us permission to be a little bit selfish! I know it’s drummed into us that being selfish is a terrible character trait and that’s why I have to divide up my tater tots with my toddler daughter even though I REALLY want them all for myself. But there’s a big difference between prioritizing our nutritional need for fried potatoes and hoarding them because screw babies, they can just eat slop. (Here are all my tater tots, I love you.)
The truth is that freeing ourselves up to create is a form of self-care. We NEED to do it. So we can be our best and happiest selves. We need to feel that truth deep in our bones in order to get started. How? Well, to start…
Our Voices Are Unique
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Write about a cat below. A cat you know personally or just make one up! Describe the way it looks and acts, its likes and dislikes.
True story: no one else has ever described a cat exactly the way you just described a cat. Never in history. Never again. Isn’t that amazing? We are genetically programmed to describe cats completely differently from each other! Why would evolution bring us here? (Unless the universe is run by cats. Hmm…)
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If I were to read someone else’s story about a hero standing on the beach bare-headed, mushing sand in their toes, about to jump in the ocean, I would definitely think… YUCK! Why aren’t they wearing sunscreen? Don’t they know about melanoma? And why are we on the beach? Sand is awful. Also, the ocean is not a bathtub. It’s cold and full of dolphin pee. Why would someone put a hero THERE when they could have just as much fun inside with air-conditioning? This theoretical story sounds more like how I would introduce a supervillain. I’d title the book Twisted Beach. Totally normal thoughts.
But the cool part is that maybe reading that story could make me change my mind about beaches. Or maybe sharing my own viewpoint on that story could persuade others that sand is, indeed, horrible. (Better outcome.) In short, everything that happens, happens because SOMEONE shared their creativity first. What a beautiful reason to raise our voices! (Also now you know why I’ve never walked on the beach in Los Angeles even though I’ve lived here for more than fifteen years.)
At the heart of it, being creative allows us to understand ourselves better. Just like fingerprints or personalized music playlists, our creativity couldn’t come from anyone else. The world deserves to hear our voice during our time here on this earth. Not to guilt-trip anyone (okay, it’s a little bit of a guilt trip), but by not creating, we are robbing the world of our unique point of view. Why hold out like that, friendo?
We’re Already Doing It
When I hear people say, “I’m not creative!” I get really frustrated and want to hug them tight and whisper in their ear, “Please rethink that. I know you could create something beautiful if you’d just allow yourself to try. I bet you’ve already done five creative things today that you don’t appreciate and if I had the time I’d sit down and we could figure it out together. But this hug is getting way too long. I need to let go now.”
We are creative EVERY DAY. Creativity isn’t just about painting a Picasso (only Picasso could do that), it’s about the way we uniquely navigate our day-to-day worlds. The way we put an outfit together. Where we pick to go on vacation. What we choose to put on our tacos. (I love ranch dressing on chicken fajitas AND I’M NOT ASHAMED OF IT!) Every small impression of “ME!” that we exert on the world around us requires a dollop of creativity. It’s unconscious. And wondrous. And super unappreciated. Why?
“Weird! Odd! Bizarre! Eccentric! Quirky! Strange!” As I see my toddler daughter grow up and start to become familiar with the world around her, I notice that she focuses on aberrations. They fascinate her. She points out that a car doesn’t have a roof. Wonders why one bunny in a book has a top hat and others don’t. She wants to know why Mama has so many pictures of herself around the house, and when I explain that it isn’t about my face, people made those pictures for me and I appreciate their art, and that most people don’t really do this (and probably shouldn’t), she nods and goes back to playing with Legos. She isn’t pointing these things out like the differences are bad (unless I indicate they are, like french fries found on the sidewalk are NOT a good snack), she’s just constantly trying to understand how the world works.
As we get older, though, that open-hearted fascination with things that are different somehow morphs into disdain. And that’s when labels of “oddball” and “weird” start to be slapped on people. To set them apart. This is tough to stand up against. No one wants to be singled out. Just imagine going to a magic show and having the magician pick you from the audience to go on stage. Terrifying, right? Living nightmare. Someone get me a drink just thinking about it. In the face of this pressure, no wonder we shy away from acknowledging how different we are from each other! It’s so much safer to pretend we’re part of the herd! Moo moo, amiright?
But when we allow ourselves to appreciate all the unique ways we do things just by EXISTING, we can more readily accept the fact that, yes, we are all inherently creative. Ergo, we can be confident in our ability to create anything. Ipso facto, we already have what we need inside to achieve any creative dream, big or small! Carpe diem and stuff!
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In the top square below, write a way you were creative yesterday but didn’t appreciate it at the time as BEING creative. Nothing is too small to acknowledge!
Then, in the bottom square, name a huge creative project you’d like to tackle but haven’t been brave enough to try yet.
No matter how far away they seem from each other, it’s possible to connect the dots between those two things! Just do it! Go back and draw the line!
You just did it! SEE?
(Of course it’s not ACTUALLY that simple. But no matter what, it IS possible!)
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Together, we will learn to build a bridge between what is easy to do with our creativity and what seems out of reach. Stretch it like taffy! Or used chewing gum or… er, moving on.
Think Differently
We’ve established that no one else has the same inventory in their brain, with the exact same pathways that process the inventory, that we do. We are a special, one-of-a-kind flower—check. So it follows that shuffling our unique inventory into new, weird combos will make our brain even more complicated and weird, right? That’s a good thing! I mean, the opposite of that is “simple and common.” If anyone wants that… well, wrong book, dude. (Go look for Average! Impose Repression and Lock Up Your Creativity! It’s definitely in the bargain bin.)
Being creative is a magical tool for growing ourselves as people. Yes, we will grow no matter what we do, that’s a by-produc
t of existing, but isn’t it more exciting to CHOOSE how we grow? As opposed to allowing others to clip and form us to their preferences, like a sad little bonsai tree? We’ll never know exactly what we’re capable of unless we push ourselves and TRY IT ALL. Every permutation. Every connection. Shake out all the “Aha!” and “Who’da thunk!” we can get out of ourselves.
Creativity helps us combine the inventory we already have in our brains in new and interesting ways. Which, in turn, adds to our inventory. It’s a free, self-perpetuating system! In a way, we’re our own personal Frankensteins. (Don’t go overboard and turn evil with the newfound power, please! I don’t want to be responsible for creating supervillains.)
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There are two columns of words and symbols below. Draw lines between one on each side until all are paired.
PEN
MANATEES
FRUIT
TOENAILS
MONOPOLY
PURE
FEET
2,000,000,000
LUXURIOUS
REPREHENSIBLE
4
GIFT CARD
SCREWDRIVER
GENEROUS
MAGICAL
BLEEP-BLOOP-BLOP
TWIX
FOUNTAIN
COOL
BICKER
%
NANOSECOND
TREES
THE LETTER Z
UNICORN
HYPERSPACE
BRISKET
ANNUL
CHRISTMAS
WHY?
NOT SO FAST
ANSWER
ROTTEN
FUNFETTI
MAGNETS
DYNAMIC DINOSAURS!
Now pick a pair and write/draw/create anything at all combining the ideas on a separate piece of paper!
TAKE THIS IN: What you just wrote literally rewired your brain in a small way. Amazing, right? (And a little bit scary if you combined Magical and Toenails.)
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My experience of adding up gaming + filmmaking led me to create The Guild, an online web show that transformed my life and steered my career in ways I could never have dreamed. Those two interests weren’t unique to me. But I connected TO these subjects in my own unique way, and then I connected them TOGETHER in my own unique way. And that combination excited me so much that I felt compelled to share it with the world. Another person’s “gaming + filmmaking” would be totally different. Probably with fewer fart jokes. Who knows?
In no way am I guaranteeing anyone the mildish fame and mildish fortune I’ve obtained by sharing my creativity. But I WILL guarantee that if we all forge ahead in combining new things in our brains and expressing those new combinations, we will surprise ourselves with how much we can grow and reshape our day-to-day lives for the better weirder.
Live More in the Present
Mentally, we often fall into the trap of not being where we truly ARE. We brood over the past. We’re consumed with anxiety for the future. Our brains ruminate over areas of our existence that we have NO POWER TO CHANGE and ignore where we are right now! Baller technique for increasing misery, right?
The best way to give ourselves some helpful now-gravity is to dive in and create something. Anything. As big as writing a novel, as small as taking a Post-it Note and doodling our signature on it for forty-five minutes. Creativity forces us to put one mental foot in front of the other. And in the end, no matter what the result, we have a THING to show for it! We may abandon that thing or throw it out in the end (like any warped piece of pottery I’ve attempted to make over the years), but we are able to regain our focus. And, for a moment, we’re able to s t r e t c h t i m e in a semi-magical way.
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Set a timer for ten minutes. Then look up at the first thing you see in front of you and describe it. In the minutest of minute detail. If you get bored, start making things up about the object. What it could be used for. What it looks like on the inside. If you could sculpt it like clay, what you could turn it into. Write and write and write until the timer finishes.
DING! Now take a moment and think about those ten minutes, which would have happened whether you were creating or not. Did you notice time passing? Did it at least seem like a more enjoyable amount of time than, say, the same amount of time spent waiting at the DMV? This is what actively living in the present does for us!
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In a weirdly wonderful way, creativity slows down time. Which is, arguably, the best superpower to have. (People who want to fly? Have at it. I’ll be on the ground living it up while you try to avoid bugs splatting on your face.)
Our personal timelines have a set beginning and end. All we can do is squeeze out as much in between those two points as possible. I’m greedy. I want all the life I can get. And when we allow ourselves to dig into the present with the aid of creativity… well, I believe it’s the closest to time travel we can get.
It’s Fulfilling Work
On first impression, the subhead doesn’t really sell itself, right? Wah, work isn’t fun! It’s much more seductive to think of creativity as this untapped genius lurking inside all of us—hanging out, strumming a guitar to fill time until we finally are able to drill a hole and…
Our muses could then SPRING FORTH, brandishing our brilliance at the world! We could then create great things AUTOMATICALLY because the talent was inside us ALL ALONG, MOM!
Stop. All of that was super irritating. Now, hear me out about this work thing, ’kay?
A lot of what holds many of us back from creating is thinking that if we’re not instantly good at something, we are not “talented.” And if we’re not talented, we should abandon the effort. “Try the next hill! There might be oil/gold/magic mushrooms there instead!” This is the mythology around creativity we have to dismantle. Because that’s what it is. A Big. Fat. Myth.
We are all constantly “in progress.” We cannot fix upon the idea that we are born a certain way and merely have to uncover our “talents” to reap rewards. We have infinitely more control than that! WE drive the car. Our interests and talents are just the vehicles. Yugo, Mercedes, van with airbrushed tiger art on the side, whatever we have to work with, get in and turn the key! Because sorry, everything rewarding in life requires effort.
This was difficult for me to wrap my head around when I was yearning to write but couldn’t integrate the WORK of it into my mindset. I would start a first draft of something and get stuck in the mud by anxiety: “I don’t know what comes next!” Spend months procrastinating, then end up abandoning the project because, clearly, the story wasn’t supposed to be told if I didn’t have all the answers automatically. In short, I didn’t think I was talented because writing didn’t come easy.
But no one accomplishes anything creative without effort. Yes, even geniuses have to screw their thumbs down to get work done. Albert Einstein or Kobe Bryant or Jane Austen may have had a genetic leg up at the start, but no one’s masterpiece comes without effort. (Most of the greats also had the advantage of no social media. You KNOW Jane Austen would have been a Twitter addict too, right? I’m being defensive, aren’t I?)
Whatever our aspirations are around creativity, whether to become a professional filmmaker or to learn how to paint happy little trees during retirement, when we integrate the WORK of creativity into our lives, we are choosing to fill our time with something that yields infinite long-term satisfaction and rewards.
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Spend a few hours consuming another person’s creativity. (Yes, I’m making you play video games or watch TV. Terrible homework, right?) What did you pick? How did you feel afterward?
Now, on another night, spend a few hours working on your own creative activities. Sewing, cooking, sculpting, writing—pick one and devote your evening to it.
Which night felt like more of an accomplishment? Which allowed you to sleep better afterward?
Our inner creator wants to create. It just needs permiss
ion to do so.
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For me, a small hat I’ve knitted or a cake I’ve baked or a comic I’ve written gives me infinitely more pleasure than any award I’ve ever gotten. And that ability to enrich myself in small ways or large helps me ride the erratic waves of external praise. It allows me to value my own existence outside of other people’s opinions. And gives me a sense of control in a frequently out-of-control world.
No, I don’t think creativity is a cure-all.
But I do believe it could be a cure-most.
A lot of books on creativity dive into areas of spirituality. We won’t do that here. Well… just let me scratch the itch a bit and then we can move on.
I have an amorphous sense that we all have something more within us than just meat. An élan vital, so to speak. (In the dictionary, that’s “life essence.” I just wanted to include it in the book because it sounded fancy. If I ever make a skin cream, you can guess the name of it.) So just for a second, imagine that creativity is a way of giving our souls a voice. If we give no other consideration to the concept of “spirituality,” just try to imagine that we actually HAVE spirits and we need to treat them nicely. They are delicate. And easily bruised. And they wither when they’re made mute. Creativity gives our spirit a voice. What do we LOSE by letting it speak?