After running across a quotation by writer Lawrence Block, I started thinking about how we treat creativity in our lives.

“If nobody reads it, it’s as if we hadn’t even written it. Then too, unpublished writing strikes us as unfinished writing.”

Unfortunately, that carries through to other forms of creativity, as well. Any of us can spend hours working on our craft, but until it is finished do we consider ourselves creative? Often we don’t. We tend to get wrapped up in the end results and do not embrace or nurture the actual process. It is within the process that our creativity and creative actions are found.
Even though–for days, months or years–no one may get a chance to hear our composition, read our book, or see our company’s product, aren’t we being creative through the actions we take to bring our project to light? If no one else ever sees it, wasn’t it still an act of creativity?
If we can shift our thinking, ever so slightly, to enjoy the flow of the creative process, then maybe we can more easily complete projects we are not as thrilled with (such as ones our boss has assigned us or having to write an application or resume). By stepping back to see the process as enjoyable, as opposed to the end-result as ridiculous or unworthy, then the process becomes what sustains us and makes our creativity thrive, instead of seeking positive external responses, which, may never come.
Since my novels have yet to be published, keeping my eye on the process and filling my notebooks with fictional plot ideas and character traits, allows me to focus on the being as creative as I can, without suffering from the doubts that might come later on from seeking external approval.
I may never publish as many books as Lawrence Block, but I can certainly sit down and try to make mine as creative and playful as I can, which is, after all, makes the art of creating fun.

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