I waited for my hold to come in at the library, took a trip to pick it up and had three weeks to read it.

After two days, without even cracking the spine, I returned it.

It was a book on creativity and I think the reason I put a hold on it was from the suggestion of a writer I follow and respect. She was speaking about it in her blog posts, highlighting key points and extrapolating with her own thoughts.

Then it occurred to me she’s using it as a reflection piece more than a tome of advice.

If you had to press me, I would do more for my creativity by doing creative acts rather than finding a systematized (or academic) approach to the subject. Children, for instance, aren’t taught how to be creative – they’re taught how not to be.

Follow this formula, do these steps and stick to the procedure.

It gets so ingrained into them by the time they hit middle school, where I get them, there is an expectation of instructions. They get nervous and refuse to play and explore avenues because that’s not how they were taught to get an A.

The Lego movie is the perfect example of this dichotomy where the villain wants his perfect instructions and sets while the heroes want to play
(oddly enough, Lego went from “here’s a bunch of blocks now go play” to “here’s a block set with specific instructions to follow”).

Creativity is all sorts of things, inspired by many different actions. I’ve always been an advocate of playing, but even I’ll admit that’s just one way to do it.

It’s taking ideas and merging them together, mimicking others in your own way, following rules and then changing them, refusing to follow convention, having strict boundaries to see what you can do with in it, having open boundaries to roam free, putting a twist on something familiar, dreaming up something that’s never been done and immersing yourself in other creative works.

It can’t be taught, it just needs to be done.