Twice this week, I’ve read that we
physically need creativity, play and rest.
Considering that last week, I posited the mental health issues of
writers, this is good news. The caveat
here is that when we downgrade writing from creativity and play into work, it’s
like what happens after Daddy took the T-Bird away.
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A few months ago, Amanda Palmer used her
TED talk to urge the arts community to give their work back to the people,
asking for only what we need. Then
Palmer paid her local front bands with hugs and beer, which drew comparisons
between the financially successful musician and the record labels she meant to
combat.
What Palmer suggests does appeal on an
emotional level, but practically speaking, someone has to pay for our beans on
toast. In response to Palmer’s TED Talk,
Cord Jefferson writes that the voice of American journalism now comes from the ‘trust
fund babies’, as entry level jobs in the field have dried up in favour of
unpaid internships. To build a writing
portfolio, the budding journalist must have financial back-up to allow her to
give her words away. Not only does this
practice silence voices from lower economic brackets, usually voices of colour,
but it devalues the work of writing.
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| http://gawker.com/5989280/when-people-write-for-free-who-pays |
This dilemma isn’t the sole prize of
writers. The entire crop of fledgling artists face the choice of putting all their eggs in the arts basket or
having a day job while trying to enter the arts work force through an after-hours
doorway. A young friend of mine who chose
the former path, still lives with his parents, puts all his energy into
breaking into his field, and says he has no social life outside of contacts in
the arts community. While we can admire
his dedication, this time of his life isn’t balanced; it forces him to make
decisions about his life that his age peers in other professions don’t have to
make, and pressures him to succeed or give up his chosen career.
Doesn’t sound much like creativity, play
and rest. More like grappling for
survival. While the general consensus outside the creative community is
that artists should live a life of deprivation in order to create, I say, bullshit. There are things we can do to
lobby for more support of the arts, a long but needed process. In the meantime, let’s also take care of
ourselves. 
Creative people are great for thinking
outside the box. Ellen Langer in her
book, On Becoming An Artist, suggests
we remember to ‘pursue art for life’s sake’.
As a writer, you know the feeling of your senses opening up in order to
transform external stimulus into art. Creativity
makes us more aware of our life, which improves its quality, but also lets us see possibilities and solutions that a non-creative approach doesn't illuminate. The trick is to step
outside the box, but not lose sight of the practicalities involved. In other words, pay the front bands more than hugs.
Brené Brown writes in The Gifts of Imperfection that we should
make a list of things that we think will improve our lives, then reduce from
that list the number of ‘accomplishments and acquisitions’, replace them with
things that provide ‘joy and meaning’. Once
we’ve adjusted the list, it’s important that we also implement the list. In other words, do we really need to submit work
to forty-five magazines in the space of six weeks or would we have better
mental health and practice greater creativity if we only wrote one kickass piece
in that time?
Okay, so one piece doesn’t pay the
bills. I don’t suggest that we eliminate
the accomplishment and acquisitions list.
We subdue it slightly. We change our focus from what we do, to what we experience and feel. From what job we hold, what awards we win,
what publications we’ve broken into, to who we are as people, what voice we
cultivate as writers, what stories we tell, what messages we relate, how well
we create, play and rest. It is the
creative person’s equivalent to an athlete’s fitness regime.
Research from the National Institute for
Play in California shows that play shapes our brains in a way that promotes
empathy, helps us understand complex social interactions, underlies creativity
and innovation in the arts, science, maths and more.
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| http://www.nifplay.org/contactus.html |
What that means is play makes us higher
functioning human beings who can understand the internal life of others better, move successfully through difficult social situations, think outside the box AND communicate this information in an artistic way that can be understood and assimilated by other people. Creativity,
play and rest could actually be the salvation not just of writers, but of the
race.
Go forth and ply your trade. Write, submit, worry about deadlines, build your writing history. But play. Be silly. Laugh. Crack silly jokes. Dress in costume. Sing in the grocery store. Hang on to your T-Bird. Have fun, fun, fun while eating your beans
and toast.
