Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Creating Worlds

Lately I've been taking walks through my neighborhood on Sunday mornings. There's usually no one out, aside from the occasional dog-walker (and not even they come out when the weather is rotten, which is has been this past month.)

It's a solitary time, set apart from the busy week. I've thought about listening to an audiobook or music, but instead I choose to focus on the birds in the trees and the wind as it wafts across the rooftops. Some might even call it meditation. As I walk, my mind wanders over random questions that fill my soul and long to be answered.

And here's what I've been thinking about recently:

The innate need to create.


Yes, I said need.

Writers, musicians, painters, sculptors--anyone artistic will agree:



Creativity is a need--perhaps even an instinct. It's as important for human wellbeing as food or shelter or love or light.


Ever since I was a little girl, I've been driven to create.

Making sandals out of a cereal box and tape.

Inventing a recipe for dried apples.

Mixing the lotions and talcum and toners under my mom's sink to create a magic potion.

Not to mention the hours and hours spent drawing and painting pictures, making up dances, or toying around on the piano.

The other day I even found a scrap of staff paper with my very first musical composition for piano. My mother had the presence of mind to save it for me.

Regardless of the medium, I've always needed to create. It makes me happy, challenges my senses, and feeds my soul.

As writers, we create entire worlds. People, settings, magic systems, languages. We stretch our abilities, savoring the power that comes from inside us--that spark of uniqueness that only we can harbor and nourish.


The human spirit craves creativity like we were born to it. And perhaps we are.

So even as you scramble to find the time to write 1000 words or meet a deadline, make sure you're getting the most out of it. Would you shovel down a gourmet meal without tasting it? Remember your creative time can charge your batteries and fill your vessel with light--if you let it.

In today's world, you need it more than you know.