Author reflections

Free to explore?

On creativity as freedom vs. discipline.

Freedom to explore new ideas and the choice of what to work on can be very important to me.

I said as much in another recent article, “Why I Write”:

However, it occurred to me, on reflection, that I often force myself not to be as free as I could be. For example, I have also pointed out that writing something often involves narrowing down your ideas. And I often advise others not to allow their ideas to get too broad. Instead, to focus.

So, why the inconsistency?

I believe the reason has to do with a balance between two things: creativity and productivity.

Imagine two very different individuals:

• A highly creative person who never finishes a project.
• A person who is very disciplined and productive, but who doesn’t do anything original.

It’s easy to see that neither of these people is going to have a successful creative career. You need to think creatively, yes, but you also need to focus, narrow down, and complete a project from time to time.

You know, I’m an author.

And I’m sure that I’m not the only one who can be tens of thousands of words deep into a novel, only to have a new idea…

So beautiful! So new, and shiny!!

It’s so tempting to put the laborious work-in-progress aside and to have a bit of fun with the new idea of the day.

Too tempting, sometimes!

But in my writing — and I imagine it is much the same for artists, playwrights, composers, and so on — it’s just as important to complete the current work as it is to have a bunch of creative ideas for the next one.

Sure, you might have a lot of fun jumping from one idea to the next, and that is completely fine. We don’t all need to make a career of our creativity. However, if you do want to complete a significant project, I think that’s not just about having good ideas.

It’s also about the skills to see them through to the end.

A shoutout to Ophélie Quillier — I really enjoyed her article “How to publish every day without compromising quality.”

Also, to Sandra Wendel for the really useful “How to tell if you’re doing copyright all wrong”.

And finally to author and poet Divya Goswami for the lovely “Winter Magic”.

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