Creativity’s Circle

In this season of thankfulness, I’ll tell you what I’m very thankful for: My creativity.

So how do I explain it? Easy. Draw a large circle. Now draw a smaller circle within it.  Done? OK.  I live in the smaller one. It’s my conscious world; the world where I work, play, sleep, etc.   The outside circle is my creativity.

Everything I do in the smaller circle leaks into the bigger one like a well refilling when it rains.  Every life experience filters into the part of my brain that stores such stuff.  Reading helps the most.  So when I’m “creative,” I’m allowed to reach out into the outside circle and bring something back.

While I can’t do it all the time, I have been able to train myself to go there at certain times of the day. I do that when I come up with my editorial cartoon ideas. (Nothing quite like the adrenaline of a deadline to make you “creative”)  And I can tell you this, If you don’t use it, you lose it. The hardest time to come up with a cartoon is after a vacation.  It can atrophy. Reaching into the outer circle is like running. The more you use it, the easier it gets.

Fatigue, stress, doubt, depression and fear can shut access to the outer circle down. I’ve been fortunate to learn how to overcome their corrosive effects. (some of my best cartoons came while I had cancer for example.)  How I’ve been creative over the past couple of years is nothing short of a miracle.

My ideas for the stories in “Fried Chicken & Wine” were gifts from the outside circle.  I’d be driving down the road and a whole story would pop into my head. I’d sit down at the keyboard and start typing a scene (like the airport at Panther Creek International Airport) and the stories would start to flow.  It was such a different process from my editorial cartoons (which usually come in a flash).

Sometimes, the story ideas seemed heaven sent.

The book will be here this week.  And I look forward to going out, reading the stories aloud and signing books.  There is nothing more fun that meeting people who want to buy your book.  I hope they enjoy the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.

I’ll keep reaching out to the outer circle and trying to pull ideas back. Because creativity is such an amazing gift. It’s a gift that I’m thankful for every single day.