The Infinite Well of Creativity

It grows as you use it, so don’t worry

This story is behind Medium’s membership paywall, which means the writer earns through our Partner Program. To become a Medium member, click here.

When I first started writing, I imagined that I was dipping my pen into a finite pool of creative ink. I thought creativity — in my case, writing — was something akin to a natural resource like petroleum: Limited, precious, unrenewable. It made me nervous. I sized up every assignment I was offered with that scarcity in mind. Was doing this story worth depleting my supply of creative juice? Would it be a net gain, considering that I would be spending a rare commodity on it?

I’m not sure where I got this notion. I suspect that it was partly a response to my noticing that talented people had a tendency to fizzle out, as if they’d drawn too lavishly from the well too soon. What else could explain it? Certainly, I understood that age played a role, that the sharpest minds could be dulled with time, and that the edgy hunger that pushed creativity could be throttled back by too much success and comfort. But otherwise, why would you lose your mojo? If you knew how to put together a gorgeous sentence early in your life, why wouldn’t you still know how to do it later, unless you were dealing with a dwindling source of creative energy?

After a while, though, I started thinking about it differently. Was creativity a fixed quantity that you had to measure out carefully? Or maybe, just maybe, it was a more muscular thing, a particular attribute that could strengthen with use. I was thrilled by this new idea, because it made all writing worth doing, like reps at the gym. In fact, it suggested that it was essential that I write as much as I possibly could. This new perspective made more sense to me. The fact is, I was experiencing my work that way: The more I wrote, the better I was at doing it. It seemed like writing a lot was enhancing my ability rather than depleting it. Every piece came a little easier. I learned to edit myself, work through my weaknesses, correct my bad habits. It certainly didn’t feel like I was emptying out; I felt more limber and capable the more I practiced.

There is no question that creative people can wear themselves out, usually because they get lazy or bored or simply lose interest in their work. There is a lot of fuel in being young and eager and striving hard, and you do run out of that fuel as you get older and don’t have as many goals that you’re reaching for. Contentment is wonderful, but it doesn’t drive you. You have to figure out some way to stay excited by your work once you’ve done it for a long time. But I’m certain now that creativity gets better the more you use it. What a relief.