Do You Envy Creative People?

I’ve always had a blindside when it comes to design. I frequently get frustrated by my inability to come up with unique ways of expressing myself. Which makes it all the more strange to me that there are people who do this all the time for a living. People who run a creative agency for example must have access to some kind of mystical power that the rest of us mortals simply do not possess. How do they do it?

I envy creative people – I really do. Even when I was in school and we had some kind of art project, I would come up with only the most bland stuff whereas others (usually the girls!) would have these wild colorful models with bells and whistles. Maybe there’s an inverse correlation between being a “tech” kind of guy and having the artistic temperament. I like to think that I possess the scientific temper. It’s in my nature to take something and break it down into its component parts to understand how it works. This doesn’t just apply to tangible things, but also to ideas and code.

Nonetheless I sometimes have flashes of brilliance that I’d like to build upon. As I mentioned in an earlier post once, this usually happens in the shower when I’m “zoned out”. It may sound weird, but I’ve always found the loo a very calming place :). A room with no pretensions I say! I’ve learned that unless I write down my ideas quickly, they evaporate into thin air when I try and recall them later on. So many times when I’m wondering how to phrase the perfect title for my blog post, I “get it” while brushing my teeth and then forget to write it down to my great sorrow later on.

Being creative with anything – whether it is organizing events, or designing ad campaigns, or coming up with a theme for a festival seems to be something that is self perpetuating. Most bloggers I know of go through phases of prolific writing followed by long periods of abstinence. It’s’ only by creating a kind of routine for myself that I’ve been able to keep going for a period of seven years on this blog. Creative people probably have some kind of similar driving force that keeps them churning out great stuff.

While intuition might hit at any time, there’s no way I could make a living off it. As a freelance writer, I mostly focus on technical subjects like electronic circuits, law etc. No room for creativity. And that suits me just fine. There are those who are built for this kind of thing and those for whom it will always be an unreliable touch and go phenomena.

But that doesn’t stop me from being envious :)