Your Path To Creativity
How I’m using new words to take me to new worlds.
You might be more creative than you think. And you can be more creative than you are. Thankfully, we can grow our creative ability. And we need to because if we aren’t, we’re selling ourselves short and coming up empty.
The Need For Creativity
The world forces us to troubleshoot in a moment. It demands we make judgments in an instant. If you struggle to be creative, you can feel at a loss. Not only is creativity crucial for survival, but it is also topping the charts for desired traits in the workplace.
In our world today, creativity is king. And if you’re not growing your creative ability, you’re getting left behind. Sadly, most of us are looking for creativity in the wrong place.
The Problem With Your Creativity
We regard creativity as a matter of the heart. Which, of course, it is. Right? Somewhere hidden deep within the labyrinth of the subconscious is this swirling pool of genius waiting to be discovered. But labyrinths are meant to confuse you, and they suck to navigate (according to the movies).
But growing research is showing how creativity is also a matter of the head. This suggests your creative block might be more in your brain than your heart. So if you are putting all your energy into mustering up some creative spark from within, no wonder you’re getting stalled.
Creativity is as much a part of your head as it is your heart. It’s only a matter of forging the paths to get there.
Recent research shows the work of creative thinking happens within the “high-creative” network of the brain. What’s happening in this region is astounding. Those who proved themselves more creative in the study demonstrated a unique ability in their thinking.
According to the study, “Highly creative people are better able to co-activate brain networks that usually work separately.” Meaning, they can simultaneously activate the part of the brain that drives wandering imagination and the part that enables you to laser focus on something.
True creativity isn’t either-or. It is both-and. It is both head and heart. It is both imagination and focus. It’s like taking LeBron James with his limitless basketball skills and then placing him within the boundaries of a court with rules. That’s where his creativity soars.
True creativity comes from focused imagination. As with other parts of the brain, you can strengthen these neurological pathways through exercises like a muscle. All you need is a challenge.
The Solution To Growing Your Creativity
I have no clue when the idea hit me. I know I wanted to grow as a writer and I was also looking for inspiration. These two pursuits fused into a personal challenge that took me places as a writer I never expected. I’ll reveal the premises to some of those stories later on.
But the challenge did more than inspire my writing and improve it. I noticed the sparks of creativity increasing when I sat down to do the challenge. How was creativity a by-product of what seemed to be an innocent challenge? It’s because it was focused imagination. I was putting boundaries around my imagination and forcing my brain to fire opposing portions at the same time.
So what’s the challenge? Simple:
I decided to look up the Dictionary.com word of the day and create short stories from whatever it was.
This challenge is not merely including the word of the day in what I’m already writing. That would come off as pretentious and illusory, like some kind of sentence-strengthening botox. Instead, I let the word inspire an entire story as if that single word was the heart of the narrative. Without it, the story would fall apart, unravel. This is not a challenge to buff up your vocabulary to word shame others. (Unless they deserve it, of course.) If that is your goal, use a thesaurus.
Rather, this is to make you a better writer. (Who couldn’t use a little bit of help there?) It’s a challenge to focus on becoming more innovative and creative. And as you forge these paths of creativity, you will fall in love with words and what they can do, what they can say, and what they can create.
This challenge has not made me any money. But it has grown my reverence for the worlds hidden within words. It has also made me more creative by leading me into new styles of writing I hadn’t considered before. And it has led me into stories I never thought I’d go into.
It’s led me to an estranged adult who never knew the truth of his parents’ love until he uncovered an old stack of their correspondence in the attic. The word of the day was “epistolary.”
It’s taken me to New Orleans where a desperate man is conniving ways to leverage friendships. He must betray those closest to him to get into exclusive parties at Mardi Gras to save his perishing sister. He must question how far down the road of evil love would take him. The word of the day was “krewe.”
It’s taken me to a smalltown diner where belonging is all that matters. For an elderly woman sitting in her usual seat, belonging is all she’s ever wanted. She’s a regular at the diner who has watched an entire towns’ lives played out before her. She knows everyone’s story, but does anyone know hers? The word of the day was “habitué.”
The purpose is the process. The joy is the journey. What’s important is growth as a creative.
I may never get to see how those stories come together. Or I may get to explore and create those worlds and stories unto their final words without ever making them public. Or maybe they will take the grand stage one day as a novel or a production. It doesn’t matter. (At least not as much as I think it does.) The purpose is the process. The joy is the journey. What’s important is growth as a creative.
The world around you needs your creativity. Are you growing it? Are you stretching it and pushing it to new heights? Are you plunging it to unfathomed depths? I’m trying to. I hope you will too. No one likes to journey alone.
