On Writing and Creativity

Writer: Mirinda Kossoff

The poet Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” I’ve found that to be true, both in my writing and my other creative endeavors—metalsmithing, painting and collage. My personal definition of creativity is about linking two different ideas or things in a new way, what some like to call “thinking outside the box.”

For years, as a single parent in a series of demanding jobs, I didn’t have much time for creative pursuits and only managed to squeeze in some writing and jewelry making around the edges. Being able to do even a little creative work was a balm to my soul. Now I have the luxury of time, but I often stall. How many ways can I find to clean the bathroom before sitting down to write? Why is that? Fear of failure?

Most experts on creativity tell us that we must be willing to fail in order to be creative. “Dare to fail” is a powerful and paradoxical slogan. It doesn’t mean you should try to fail but that screwing up is part of the creative journey. You learn from your mistakes. You cannot expect to come out of the gate a successful inventor, artist or writer without making a few—or many—mistakes along the way. You could also call it intellectual risk-taking. The artist Pablo Picasso described risk-taking when he said: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

The same holds true for writing. Confronting a blank page is much like confronting a blank canvas. Where do I start? How do I start? The answer is you know more than you think you know about how to start. You may make a number of false starts before things feel right, but that’s okay. Getting started is the hardest part.

People often say to me, “I’m not creative,” or “I could never write a book.” I respond by asking, “how do you know if you haven’t tried?” You may try. You may fail. You may learn something. You may try again with a new approach. You may succeed.

I cannot count how many drafts I wrote before my memoir started to take shape. Sometimes I got frustrated, but I never wanted to quit. Writing my memoir was a calling, and I was willing to keep plugging away even when I thought it was going nowhere, which brings me to the last piece of advice about creativity—that you have to practice it, just like exercising a muscle.

The more you practice, the easier it is to be creative, because you’ve gotten used to it. That’s why I maintain the daily habit of writing timed morning pages. Some days, I have nothing remotely brilliant to say other than complaining that I have to write the pages. Other days, an interesting idea pops up or a great metaphor spills out of my pen, one I can use in my writing. Memories float up from somewhere, even the names of people I thought I’d long ago forgotten.

If I get stalled or too frustrated with my writing, I go into my studio and pound metal or paint. That creative break usually brings me back around to writing. Do I get stuck sometimes? Absolutely. Sometimes I think my creative flow has dried up forever. I’ve talked to my artist friends and learned that they have arid spells also. The trick is to keep showing up for the work or take a short break doing something completely different—a weekend trip or going out into nature—that might refresh your brain and get the tap running again.

The insights I found as I was writing my book were the endpoint of a long term, iterative process, rather than the starting point. As the neuroscientist David Eagleman puts it in The Secret Lives of the Brain: “When an idea is served up from behind the scenes, the neural circuitry has been working on the problems for hours or days or years, consolidating information and trying out new combinations. But you merely take credit without further wonderment at the vast, hidden political machinery behind the scenes.” In my case, the neural circuitry had been working for nearly two decades before I began seriously writing my book.

Now, I’m taking my own advice and starting another book. I will have learned from my mistakes writing the first one, but I will make new ones.

About the Writer

Mirinda-Kossoff-BlogMirinda Kossoff has written for newspapers and national magazines. She had a weekly column in The Spectator (Raleigh, NC) and has been an essayist and public radio commentator. She also taught essay writing at Duke University Continuing Studies. Recently, she published a book titled: The Rope of Life: A Memoir.

Website: mirindakossoff.com