I’m back listening again to The Writer’s Almanac. It’s fun and heartening for anyone writing, whether that’s in a journal or something larger. In addition to reading a poem every day, the host, Garrison Keillor, always includes anecdotes about writers, how we fumble and fail, stumble on success or don’t. If you write to be published, there is an enormous amount of work that is completely unseen, that which is dropped, changed, rewritten dozens of times. Anyway, this quote was up on the site, and it touched a nerve.
Writers end up writing stories or rather stories’ shadows, and they’re grateful if they can, but is is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough.
I think it’s speaking of the gap between the vision and the finished project…….do you know what I mean? Is it always impossible to grasp the vision? An artist I know says she has learned she can’t control creativity. What do you think?
Karleen Koen — writing life 
I love Writer’s Almanac, but I missed this–thanks for sharing it. Creativity is a wild horse. Maybe it can be bridled, but it is always straining and aching to break loose and gallop.
When you get right down to it – what can you control? My dog, sometimes. That’s about it.
It’s certainly true of theatre. And sometimes the product exceeds expectations, because it’s always growing and changing.
I find I can’t always “control” creativity. But I have found ways to jump start it. Or at least give it a swift kick in the pants. 😉 When a deadline is looming and creativity wanes, here are my primary go-to remedies: 1) An Artist’s Date, even if a short one. A 1 hr date with myself at the art museum, or even a walk through Texas Art Supply, tends to spur creativity. 2) Something repetitive and mindless that is exercise — a walk in Memorial Park. Even something repetitive that isn’t exercise, like crochet, helps. 3) Meditation becomes more critical. 4) Brain Wave app on my i-phone. 54) I go on a strict tv diet. I live alone, so the tv is often on, even if in the background. When it’s time to focus, I severely limit the time the tv is on, if at all. That silence helps the creative juices. Wish I could be more disciplined about that without a deadline!
If I could control creativity, then all my knitting, sewing, painting, gardening and writing projects would be done.
I find If I PLAN– it does not work so much as if I just continue doing
the little, mundane routine things — something lets loose and magic happens. The trick is in the simple, mundane (mindless) chores…
doing something difficult (like balancing the checkbook) completely blocks it…Having accomplished the difficult thing frees me up AFTERWARDS…
So its very weird. I try not to dwell on it…just accept that for me, this is how it is….
I think that when you step into the vortex of focused creativity, it whirls you around and when it finally spits you out, you are a different person, knowing and seeing things that you have missed before.