Coercing Creativity

The cause of this blog, for me, is to think about topics that strike my fancy and then analyze them as many ways as I can. At this point I've hopefully asked several questions, and potentially answered a few of them, in an effort to gain better or new perspectives about some topic. Unfortunately, I am not always at a computer or in the mood to write about these things. Which brings me towards something I want to talk about: How can you get into the right mindset to tackle a topic in a creative way? I am making the assumption that in order to write about something interesting and try and analyze it somewhat, you should be in a certain mood, else your posting will be lackluster.

I suppose that a lot of good writing comes from inherent writing ability and critical thinking skills, along with practice... but people still talk about the elusive 'Zone'. I believe that when you're in the zone, your writing and thought process or flow in a certain topic will be significantly better. So, if you need to get into the zone to reach a personal standard of writing, then the question becomes how to get to this point? I suppose this brings us back to inherent writing skills and practice. It is quite possible that some of the skill you get through practice is the ability to 'get into the zone' more effectively, and even on demand.

I am not a preforming monkey! However, I would like to be able to discuss topics more frequently and improve on my abilities as a whole. I guess at this point I'm feeling like a catch-22 has arisen... I want to write more, but I need to keep up to my own expectations and be in the zone. I can't get into the zone and write up to my expectations unless I write more. Something has to give.

I suppose creativity can be forced, and things can be written when one isn't in the zone, and it can still reach a level of self expectation, but there is a risk of loosing the satisfaction of writing in itself. Do the ends justify the means? If I force myself to write more in order to learn how to get into the right mindset for a longer period of time and more effectively, will my lack of enthusiasm in this process due to its forced nature be made up in the long run? I will write better as a result, but it will force me to do something when not inspired and therefore loose satisfaction of posting to some extent. I suppose it will also get me to reach higher levels at a faster rate, but I'm forcing myself to be creative in non creative times, in an effort to 'learn' how to will my creativity in any time I wish.

Would the ability to think creatively be obtained without force? If I were to continue to write in this blog solely at points I was in the mood and felt inspired, would I still eventually arrive at the same point of writing skill and ability to think critically? It would naturally be a longer journey for me, and I may not reach the same level as someone who practices writing much more rigorously, but would I still be going down the same path? Do skills which are not initially present arise only through forced practice? Or can they arise through a more interested will?

Sure if someone is driven to learn a new skill or topic of knowledge, they will be even more productive than the other two modes I've discussed above, but take this for example; If two people are learning guitar and one is picking up the guitar only when he is in the mood to play and wants to learn, while another guy goes to lessons, or forces himself to play guitar once a week/day whatever... will they both eventually approach the same destination? The guy making himself play guitar on a regular basis is bound to have times where he really wouldn't want to play but makes himself play anyway, whereas the other guy will only play when interested. It is Likely that they will both EVENTUALLY learn how to play guitar, but the one who just plays when inspired may take a longer time to reach his level of guitar mastery. I guess this can't really be compared because all people are different and peoples potentials are different too (or at least the effort required to reach a certain level is different for different people). However, the point which hopefully was made, is that forcing ones self to do something comes at a cost, and this cost is the enjoyment of the journey. The cost of enjoying the journey might not need to be paid arriving at the same outcome. You might argue that there is a sense of character building that comes from the forced guitar playing, which allows that person an additional bonus or skill which the other guy will not benefit from, which may be true, i am not sure. This actually reminds me of an XKCD comic... the one from earlier this week. Here it is:



How do you want to spend your life? How many times do you need to stick with something or force something to gain a skill or achieve a goal before you obtain enough character or skill? Is this necessary for learning a skill which may not be at the top of your list? Clearly those lesser priorities in life are, at times less desirable to do, and therefore would require forced creativity or learning to obtain, else going at a much slower pace. What is most important to you? I suppose once we all reach that answer then we will be able to decide how we want to get there...

I want to regress back to an earlier paragraph in a sense. When I was discussing the ability to learn something through forced creativity, I questioned if you can reach the same destination through inspiration alone or if the same level can be reached via forcing oneself to preform a task to almost manufacture creativity. Think of this as like a creativity switch; if you force yourself to paint a picture or practice art more and more, and in some cases you are not exactly looking forward to this, but you are still forcing the creativity, will you eventually learn how to be creative... in a sense? When comparing this to a person who only paints when inspired, they will tend to paint amazing things. Some of the best work is tapped through extreme emotions and essentially, a persons mood or inspiration on a topic or project. Assuming that the skill is there, being in the mood will dramatically improve ones creativity, so what about when someone practices more and more but its forced? Is it possible to learn so much about how to be creative and essentially turn it into a skill of turning on creativity, therefore raising your potential and reaching the same level of inspired creativity? I think that its probably not something that happens often or is difficult to learn. It is quite possible to confuse the idea of improving ones skills in creating things and creativity itself. Even though creativity and skill go hand in hand, they are not exactly the same thing. In writing, though I think that there may be an exception being that through training oneself. With enough practice in writing, it might be possible to take yourself to a place where writing can unlock creativity and perpetuate a mood of being in the zone. This is such a tricky topic since it is so hard to separate skill and creativity being that those with skill are the ones who pursue that field. At least by in large, people who are better at something will pick that to be what they do and will get by without having to feel inspired all the time.

To conclude,I want to make those who are unaware that I actually have another blog on which I talk about my day to day goings on. The link for that is http://www.xanga.com/Cromwell_the_3rd Feel free to frequent that for more frequent updates, because its purpose is different than this blog. Hope everyone is enjoying the Spring, cause man it's just great outside, and to be honest, the white and pink blossoms on the trees by work are nice to smell and are quite beautiful.