I am going to be lynched for saying this, but there is really such a thing as too much creativity. Now I use the words "too much" in reference to a hindering amount of creativity. If you have an overabundance of creativity and you let it drag you down and draw you away from your self-designated important projects, that is having too much creativity. If you have a thousand book beginnings (like the first three or so chapters) and no almost complete book projects, then you are suffering from too much creativity.
Well, that's the end of this blog and here comes the lynch mob! No, no, I do not believe there is such a thing as having excessive or "too much" creativity. The problem comes when you let that high level of creativity control you and your work. This is also a cause of writer's block. The trick with too much creativity is learning to channel it. You see, if you must work on every idea that comes to mind you will end up never doing any real work on anything.
There are several methods you can use to channel your excessive creativity. For new book, story, or article ideas all you need to do is write a short synopsis and a title then archive it. I use an excel sheet to archive ideas by alphabetical order. It is a very efficient method if I do say so myself! You can also use Micrsoft's OneNote program and save the word documents containing these ideas in that program.
You can incorporate a new idea into a current major project, thus eliminating an excess idea flab documents that, let's be honest, you may never return to. Sure, it is a good idea to get the ideas down, but many of them won't be seen again. At least, that's the way it is with me. Now, incorporating ideas is difficult but sometimes there are benefits. Think about it. If you can incorporate a really good idea with a major project that has a really good idea behind it...ah, consider the possibilities!
Lastly, you can channel your excessive creative energies into other things like art or music, but if your focus is writing you should channel it as much as you can toward that. The two things above are more ideas on how to skim the ideas from your creativity, record them, and then channel the collaborative mass into a major project of yours. This idea is more of an outlet escape to keep you from suffering from too much creativity. There I go again, getting myself lynched.
Well, I will return Friday with another blog post. That is, if I survive the lynching.
Sincerely,
Joshua A. Spotts
Thanks to meditation, I can shut my brain off at will. It really comes in handy when I need to focus on one project without ideas for others jumping to my mind. Sad part is, it's not always that easy to turn the mind on again...
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting post, Josh!
Interesting - but I don't think too much Creativity is the problem. My opinion is that the problem is not enough discipline. Discipline is not encouraged at home or in the schools so too many people have not learned that it takes discipline to finish a job.
ReplyDeleteCyn
Thank you for your comment, Cyn. I totally agree with you. I was approaching the subject too much creativity from an unusual perspective. I decided to look at it in a negative way. I am a hardy supporter of discipline. See my posts of writer's block.
ReplyDeleteBeing an overcreative person and never taught how to discipline myself, this blog post really rings home. They are all good ideas, but I think the writing synopses is most applicable for me. I need to get my ideas down or else I just fantasize about them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it rang home for you. The most dangerous thing a writer can do is only think about his ideas. We are writer's are we not? We write. I've come to realize that many writers have different methods. But we all need to get something down.
DeleteIf I have an idea I really like for a novel I put it down in bullet points highlighting the main concepts and plot points and then I go ahead and pound out the first chapter. Then I let it rest dormant until I've finished something else.
Keep writing, friend!