The Percolation of Creativity: How to Get Creativity to Flow

I feel the words brewing, percolating, bubbling inside my head.  They are there in limbo. Waiting for the muse to take them to their fate.  I am inspired, but only in thought.

In my mind’s eye, I can see a masterpiece, a celebration of creativity.  I feel the way the words touch and move others, if only in my intent.  I long to have the words jump off the pages into the hearts of my readers. I’ve been moved by the works of others; may my words also have that same effect.

The above is an old blog posting, yet I felt compelled to share again. This, to me, is the epitome of the creative process.

My writing comes in spurts–sometimes I can become so engrossed in my writing that time seems to slip away. Other times, writing becomes a chore with each word a struggle.

However, my admiration of others’ creativity is never waning. I admire their ability to CREATE, DO, MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN. Their work seems effortless.

But how?

How do you channel the CONSISTENCY? For me, it is finding the time.

Writing can often be difficult. It requires the right combination of concentration and free-form thinking—the perfect oxymoron.

My best writing seems to come when I PLUNGE IN and JUST WRITE—not worrying about grammar, plausibility, or even what others think. Allowing the words to be dictated by my heart.

But what about other writers?

Here are some quotes from some of the best.  What is the take-away from the following?

• That ALL writers struggle at times.
• That ALL writers need to find what works for them. 
• That PERSISTENCE is the secret to their success.  And not to be overlooked . . .
• ALL famous writers began SOMEWHERE — they were not seasoned professionals when they first began.  They just wrote and learned and persisted and CONTINUALLY IMPROVED.

“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’”

— Maya Angelou

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 Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.
– Ray Bradbury

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I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.
– Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.
– Barbara Kingsolver

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Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad,
but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.
– William Faulkner

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“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It’s that easy, and that hard.”

– Neil Gaiman

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“Start writing, no matter what.
The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

– Louis L’Amour

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It’s all about your determination, I think, as much as anything.
There are a lot of people with talent, but it’s that determination.

– Judy Blume

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“If you don’t have time to read,
you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.
Simple as that.” 
― Stephen King 

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