A friend asked me, “How are you so creative?” First of all, I thanked my friend. If he thinks I am creative, I’m doing something right. (I have my detractors and am fine with them, too. Jerks). I looked at him and rubbed my chin (a gesture to make me look smarter).
Then I answered as honestly as I could:
“Remember 6th grade P.E.?” My friend nodded and said, “Who could forget it?”
“Remember how you had to run a mile and nearly barfed a lung?” This got big-time nods.
“Now, I know you recently ran a Half Marathon.” A smile of pride came to his face.
“What was the difference? How were you able to run now as opposed to back then?”
“I trained for it.”
“Bingo. You trained for it. Like a muscle, your creativity grows with use (and some rest.) I am sure I was born with a little creativity — my parents are creative people. But most of that I can do is because I do it nearly every single day. Ever quit running for a few weeks?”
My friend said, “Yeah.”
“Remember how fast you fell out of shape? Well that’s me when I take time off from writing or drawing.”
I went on to explain that most of my ideas come from a place in my head that I really can’t explain. And that I can only gain access to it is through practice. Honestly, I don’t know how how creative I really am. I never have taken a creativity test. But I am prolific. And if I do 400 cartoons, at least I know one of them will be good. (Unless you are one of my detractors and then you’ll think all 400 of them suck.)
The secret is frequency. Now, I need to go be creative.