My Sole Moments of Creativity
As many of you may know, I am not creative. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'm not creative," when they really mean, "I'm not Monet, but I have creative aspects." When I say that I'm not creative, I mean "I really am not creative." I cannot paint, sculpt, draw or design. Given, I can draw a very cartoony banana, but that comes from the fact that when I was in fourth grade, I ran for ASB vice president, and my posters had cartoon bananas on them. I learned this from my mother (who is creative) drawing a cartoon banana, which I then traced using a light table so many times that I can now draw cartoon bananas.
I cannot sew. I can follow a pattern, but I cannot actually come up with anything, and I need the fabric to be chosen for me before hand. I have zero ability to assemble outfits in the morning that match, and I cannot do artsy hairstyles or makeup. I cannot dance. I have become a passable Irish dancer, but that's solely muscle memory and I have no artistic ability to choreograph, and no natural ability for it. I cannot write music. Though I can play both the violin and the piano, I can only play what is directly written on a page, nothing else.
I cannot create food. I can cook. In fact, though my sisters Beth and Carol both out-cooked me consistently growing up, I have been told by many people at college that I am a good cook. Even my father, previously very critical of my domestic skills has admitted that I can make good food. And I do make my own recipes. However, I am heavily influenced by previously accepted combinations of flavors that one would see on the Food Network. If I were to try such out-of-the-box flavor experimentation as seen on Food Network game shows, I would very quickly fill up the apartment complex's dumpster with food not fit for those starving in Ghana.
All this said, there is one "creative outlet" which I can pursue. For what it is worth, I can write, and I love doing it. And to celebrate this craziness, every November, I participate in National Novel Writing Month. For some reason, writers all over the world decide to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And, for some reason, we enjoy it! This year marks my 7th year attempting and successfully completing NaNoWriMo. I do not know that everything I wrote is really worth keeping, but that's not the point. The point is that creativity is being attempted. Too many people say, "I'm not creative," because they get stuck in perfectionism. I'm probably one of these people to some extent, but another part of me is simply a science mind. If designing experiments and the like counts as creative, completely disregard all prior claims. However, the point of National Novel Writing Month is, "Before you can edit, you have to write." So, I wrote.
This year, I decided to work on a project that I had wanted to write for a long time. Basically, it is a Santa Claus story--in my world, Santa Claus is an inherited position that goes father-to-son. I also infused a lot of LDS theology into it. Anyways, since people always ask: You may read it when it is fit for normal human reading. At the moment, it makes little sense to anyone but me.
So, I'm not creative, but I can try, can't I?
I cannot sew. I can follow a pattern, but I cannot actually come up with anything, and I need the fabric to be chosen for me before hand. I have zero ability to assemble outfits in the morning that match, and I cannot do artsy hairstyles or makeup. I cannot dance. I have become a passable Irish dancer, but that's solely muscle memory and I have no artistic ability to choreograph, and no natural ability for it. I cannot write music. Though I can play both the violin and the piano, I can only play what is directly written on a page, nothing else.
I cannot create food. I can cook. In fact, though my sisters Beth and Carol both out-cooked me consistently growing up, I have been told by many people at college that I am a good cook. Even my father, previously very critical of my domestic skills has admitted that I can make good food. And I do make my own recipes. However, I am heavily influenced by previously accepted combinations of flavors that one would see on the Food Network. If I were to try such out-of-the-box flavor experimentation as seen on Food Network game shows, I would very quickly fill up the apartment complex's dumpster with food not fit for those starving in Ghana.
All this said, there is one "creative outlet" which I can pursue. For what it is worth, I can write, and I love doing it. And to celebrate this craziness, every November, I participate in National Novel Writing Month. For some reason, writers all over the world decide to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And, for some reason, we enjoy it! This year marks my 7th year attempting and successfully completing NaNoWriMo. I do not know that everything I wrote is really worth keeping, but that's not the point. The point is that creativity is being attempted. Too many people say, "I'm not creative," because they get stuck in perfectionism. I'm probably one of these people to some extent, but another part of me is simply a science mind. If designing experiments and the like counts as creative, completely disregard all prior claims. However, the point of National Novel Writing Month is, "Before you can edit, you have to write." So, I wrote.
This year, I decided to work on a project that I had wanted to write for a long time. Basically, it is a Santa Claus story--in my world, Santa Claus is an inherited position that goes father-to-son. I also infused a lot of LDS theology into it. Anyways, since people always ask: You may read it when it is fit for normal human reading. At the moment, it makes little sense to anyone but me.
So, I'm not creative, but I can try, can't I?
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