D
ear reader, for the last
year you've seen me
blather on endlessly on
a diverse array of subjects, but
there's one that I always seem
to come back to - creativity.
Indeed, my first ever contribu-
tion to this eminent publication
was a treatise on creativity itself,
where I offered up a malevolent
morsel of mathematical malfea-
sance to prove my point: 1 + 1 = 3.
Needless to say (hence why I'm
saying it), the subject of cre-
ativity is one that I am passion-
ate about, if I may employ a
sadly tired and overused term.
However, every rose has its
thorn, and creativity is no dif-
ferent. For all its amazing-
ness, there is a sting in the tail.
Yes ladies and gentlebeings, the
time has come to talk about the
elephant in the room. Seriously,
it's making a mess on the couch.
No! I mean the OTHER ele-
phant in the room... creative, or
for the purposes of this partic-
ular discourse, writer's block.
Now, being the savvy, perspica-
cious carbon-based lifeforms that
you are, you will no doubt recall
that I've tackled this very subject
before in these pages, specifi-
cally in my Tony-award winning
exposition, "Away With Words,”
currently being optioned by 21st
Century Fox as a film starring the
late Marlon Brando as a semicolon.
This time out I'd like to come
at it from a different direc-
tion (specifically, southwest).
As you're no doubt aware, busi-
ness bright spark and gener-
al deep-thinking brainbox Seth
Godin has put forward the theo-
ry that creative blocks are a rel-
atively new phenomenon. He
posits that the difficulty occurred
when we began to raise the
stakes for the work we produced.
As the importance (real or other-
wise) increases, fear grows - fear
that it won't be good enough,
fear that it won't have the de-
sired impact - and it's this fear
that blocks the creative process.
That all seems straightfor-
ward, but let me hit you with a
slightly different analogy. Imag-
ine... doing stand up comedy.
Now if you're like most people,
the thought of standing on a stage
armed with nothing but a micro-
phone and a few jokes will likely
leave you shuddering with ter-
ror. Now let me up the ante a lit-
tle and suggest... improvisational
comedy. Now you don't even have
written and tested jokes to rely on.
Horror.
Nervousness.
A sudden desire to join the Foreign
Legion.
For
those
of
you
unfamiliar,
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