I have been feeling a little reflective today. A good friend of ours recently told of the lack of creativity in his life, and the need for order. We replied that we were perhaps too far the other way. I do wonder sometimes if I need to just stop everything for a week and have a damn good tidy up. I have, as is regularly referred to in this blog, been a little more organised this past year, but there are still mountains of paperwork to organise/shred/file, and things to tidy. When I know that I have writing to do, I prevaricate, and leave it till the last minute. Sometimes I wonder what people see from the outside? Do we look as though we have the perfect artistic life, leaping from our beds in the morning to create more and more beautiful things? I wish it were like that of course, but real life has a habit of getting in the way. I had plans to have got half of my writing done by this stage in the Summer Holiday. I have written down a brief outline of some ideas, and had a brief chat with Mrs Plug about the plot outlines for the two plays. This is all good, but I really would like to have got it all done by now. We have lots of admin to do as well this week, and I realise that save for a couple of days after the summer workshop, we are really booked up until the end of August already. Not much time! So here I am again, thinking how hard life is, and realising how weak and pathetic that sounds when you consider all those around you and their issues and concerns. The other man's grass is always greener. Mrs Plug has been prolific in the Studio for the last few weeks, and this is fantastic for all of us. She seems to have relaxed for the first time in about five years, and looks younger! She used to come up with a list of reasons why she was unable to "Create". Money worries, Stress, Time management, Motherhood, childcare, housework etc etc. The list was endless, and it used to irritate me. I now find that I am using many of the same reasons as to why I am not getting things done. I think I am looking for the perfect scenario in which to create. A place of peace and tranquility, and a mind bursting forth with wonderful, beautiful and creative thoughts. Of course this will never happen, and I shall remain slightly frustrated that I have not yet written my first novel or finished the latest play. I think that basically we are all a little creatively blocked, and perhaps we look to make excuses for it. I am not suggesting for a moment that our friend is in this situation where he is making excuses. Far from it. I think that we are all conditioned to tuck creativity away, and not to put any importance on it. I can understand why. A nation could not survive with a population largely made up of poets and painters, but I do think that creativity is deliberately blocked. I see my job as trying to right that in a small way. If I can just get some young people to think in a more creative way, who knows what benefits that might bring in later life? I shall look forward to our friend's "Unblocking"...I have always felt my creative life has been less rich for his absence.
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