Most of the time it feels like my creativity is alive, like a giant, happy friend who picks me up and helps me make things.
But recently I've been going through a stretch where I feel very uninspired. I look around for my creativity but it feels like this friend is gone.
It honestly has felt like I've forgotten how to do the one thing I know I'm good at. The blank canvas – something that used to excite me – now stresses me out.
What’s worse is that in the place of a giant happy friend, I have new visitors. These are my fears.
Like the fear that I've used up all of my best ideas.
I fight that fear off, but instantly there’s another fear – that rather than growing, I’m regressing in my ability to create.
So I fight that one off but then another fear comes up behind me – the fear of making something new that I'm proud of but that doesn't make any sense to anyone else.
Instead of creating, I feel like I spend most of my time just fighting off these fears.
And yet, as I stand back and look at the mess the fight has made over the past few months, I am beginning to see something new.
I'm starting to see that fighting my creative despair has helped me think new thoughts. And in telling about how I fight those fears, I can string together a narrative. Maybe right now, the fight is my story.
If you're feeling uninspired today, take heart. The happy side of creativity will come and go. But your story – whatever chapter you are in – is worth telling. Keep going, creators.
