Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Creative Process (Stream of Consciousness Style)

I have been working - nay, wrestling - over my website.

If all goes to plan, this will be the first of many.

But the first one is the hardest.

Oh, I know I can pay someone to do it.

But that would be too easy, and I wouldn't learn half as much.

Or have as much fun.

I want to do it the right way.

Not just getting the technical bits right, which is completely out of my depth.

I'm thinking more about the writing aspect.

I want to write from the heart.

Share what is true.

Talk truthfully and objectively about what has worked for me and what hasn't.

Create something that will be of real use and benefit to others.

Not just something that pulls traffic and brings in dollars.

Although that would be a nice bonus!

It's got to be perfect (that reminds me of a song...) in every way.

Honouring to God.

Edifying to people.

Satisfying for me in a creative, artistic sense.

That is why it's so hard.

And also because I suffer from some form of attention deficit disorder.

I start brainstorming Theme A, then get sidetracked into "How about Theme B? That would be a good one too, lots of content and ideas..."

It has happened over and over for the past year.

Theme A gets abandoned in favour of Theme B, which in turn gets overwhelmed by Theme C, then after a huge U-turn, I come back to Theme A - or some variant of it.

I am trying to enjoy the uncertainty of the creative process, while keeping one eye on the practical.

My husband reminds me to Focus.

He knows me well.

I could sit and dream up a dozen different ideas to save the world and change lives, but it's not going to matter if none of those ideas makes it to implementation.

I have to just launch Something, put Something out there, and see what happens.

Going forward and reverse engineering at the same time.

It's so exciting when the seed of an idea starts to form.

You could go anywhere with it.

Do anything with it.

Let it take you on adventures.

Whatever you do, just don't tell it to go away.

It might not come back!

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