Featured image photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/photos/ePkfwrVYoTc
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In today’s blog post, I want to talk about creativity and the inner voice. When looking for a suitable featured image, I instantly loved the bike at the top of my post. Connecting two great loves of mine – cycling and creativity.
Writing fiction is just one aspect of creativity. It’s easy to imagine the impoverished author – sitting in a lonely Parisian garrett, with just their imagination and a typewriter with which to express their innermost thoughts.
That can be a popular image of the creative writer, but there are others, too. Picture a five year-old Apple MacBook laptop and a large Samsung monitor atop a cheap Argos desk. Yes, I’m lucky enough to look out on trees and grass and ducks (especially the babies that always need feeding), but some of my most creative days were spent in a tiny spare bedroom (what we used to call a box room in the olden days) with nothing but a blank wall to stare at. All the creativity was happening inside my head, and I didn’t need anything external to “inspire” me. The pictures in my head were the only inspiration I needed.
Now, I spread my inspirational sources more widely, and I have a number of YouTube channels I follow regularly. By the way, do you follow mine? You should. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClqANw2VPMRsWCtF3MNebig/videos
One of those I regularly follow is photographer and videographer Thomas Heaton.
He’s a landscape photographer and also produces videos about … photography. He’s incredibly creative, and talks about ‘telling a story’ with his images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhQoktcr8TQ
If you don’t watch the complete video (and it is entertaining, even if you’re not into photography), skip forward to 19:51
The other video Tom references (Nick Carver) is here: https://youtu.be/VzJS5aap_zM?t=1181 where, in reply to a specific question, Nick talks about personal ‘style’ in photography.
Creativity isn’t, or shouldn’t be, prescriptive. There is no right way or wrong way. Your creativity can take many forms, and can proceed in different directions. It’s a good idea to experiment early in your writing career. During those times, you will read and hear about the “rules of writing”. There are no rules in writing, just as there are no rules in painting or music or photography. Many creatives love to push the boundaries of their art.
The key takeaway here is that creativity takes many forms. As an author, you shouldn’t write something because someone tells you to, or because you think you might be able to sell more books. Explore your creativity, read and write widely. Try different forms – long-form novels, short-form stories like flash fiction, poetry, screenplays … whatever you like. Eventually, you’ll settle into a style or selection of styles in which suit you feel at home writing.
I year or so ago, I took a long, hard look at the work I’d produced, and with some friends, we talked about the WHY. Why did I write the things I did? Why did I feel most passionate about thrillers and crime fiction? And, by digging deep, we found the inner, driving force which is my inspiration, and which drives my creativity. In me, it’s a sense of right and wrong, of fairness and equality.
Creativity is the power and freedom to inspire your output.
Style is the way your product is perceived by the public – something by which you can be recognised..
Voice is the deeper-rooted heart of your writing, and it is what makes your writing unique.
YOUR CREATIVE VOICE IS YOURS ALONE.
EXPLORE, EXPERIMENT, FIND THAT CREATIVE VOICE WHICH WILL INSPIRE YOU AND POWER YOUR WRITING.