In my own life I have noticed that if I go
too long without fresh creative input, I start to feel stale and dispirited. It
starts to infect my work, even if I am working on something dry like a journal
article. Taking the time to fill my well, even if it’s as simple as watching a
movie that is quite different from the kind I usually watch, can inject fresh
enthusiasm and ideas.
I have even started to intuitively feel the
level at which my well is filled - half, three-quarters, full to the brim. When
I am feeling full to the brim of ideas and thoughts, I can actually overcome
the usual crippling writer's block that assails me most days. Skipping with
enthusiasm and admiration for the talent and creativity of others' work, I feel
slightly braver and want to attempt my own. To me, this is the main advantage
of filling the well - keeping the sniping Critic at bay.
The other side of this though, is that you
can be endlessly filling the well, but never drawing from it. It's much less
risky to keep reading books, watching movies and listening to other people's
music, and never putting yourself on the line by attempting any art of your own.
Thus, you are basically overflowing your well - you keep adding to it, but
never withdrawing and using any of the creative sparks generated by all this
input. Without output of a fairly regular nature, you're not able to use the
excess input, which simply drains away.
I was like this for many years, and am even
guilty of it now at times. It can be tempting to have lots of exciting ideas,
write them down on a notepad or Evernote, and then keep diving into ever more
exciting creative entrees, gorging on the smorgasbord of art available for
consumption in the digital age. You may think by writing the idea down you have
made sure it doesn't escape, but what about the raw materials of injected
creativity which are now lost? It's like a dancer warming up for a dance
session, and then sitting on the sofa and watching a documentary on History
Channel. The effort put into the warm-up is wasted if the dancer doesn't then
practice her dance routine, taking advantage of her warmed up muscles.
Creating art needs a delicate balance - we
must take in enough input to keep the ideas flowing, keep our muscles warm and
ready, and we must also exercise those muscles on a regular basis to be ready
for the fabulous ideas when they come to us - fed on a mulch of great art. The
past few weeks I had been dangerously close to overfilling the well, but a
spate of productivity (driven by deadlines) in the past week, have withdrawn
enough to keep the well just at three-quarters level. I believe that has earned
me a curl-up in my bed with a good book - just as soon as I outline my next
chapter...
Where
are you on the spectrum - filling your well too little or too much?
