A Word on Wednesday: Creativity

Question: Is Creativity any thing more than perspective? If all the world can see … what can an artist see differently? What gives someone the right to claim a creative life.

As a writer, I struggle to distinguish what I do.

I want to be a poet, and in so much as I write poems, I am.
I want to be novelist, and in so much as I have written a novel, I am.
But if you were to google my name you would find little evidence of this. But if you were to talk to anyone who has known me for the past twenty years, it would be as obvious as my brown hair.

I also have a day job. So, I am a creative writer and I am a receptionist. This takes the pressure off my work to create monetary value. I do not need to create the audience, only the work. The value of poetry and prose can remain obscure, self indulgent, and perhaps even pointless, though I hope not.

Creativity, to me, is simply bring to the world something that was not there before. Be it a garden, a meal, a joke, or a document precisely put together creates new material in space.

Creativity is somewhat different that artistry. I can be creative, in so much as partaking in the process alone of bringing forth new material. Artistry implies mastery. If I waited for perfection, I’d never find time to create.