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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2

When God started he created the heavens and the earth. That’s just two things. It says here, one out of the two things, the earth, was formless and empty. That’s an entire half of his creative process. As creators, it’s important to remember that the beginning is supposed to be messy, chaotic, and formless. The end goal is supposed to be a stark contrast from the beginning.

As creators in the beginning stages, we start with a general idea and then we mold and shape and build. The way we mold, shape, and build looks different for everyone but even so that’s where we start. Some people mold and shape with outlines. Some people mold and shape with images of scenes or characters scattered about. Some people develop characters and let them tell the story. That’s the fascinating part of the creative process. However there’s the fascination.

The creative process is exciting when you’re looking from the outside in, but when you’re the one in the muck and chaos, it can drown you but only if you let it. Let’s note that muck and chaos are not negative or positive, they’re just ideas without order. It’s when you allow doubt into the muck and chaos that it can grow into something that feels out of control and unattainable. Confidence is key. Confidence and trusting the process. You gotta let the chaos reign for it’s allotted time, so you can find it’s weaknesses and build around them.

All the chaos and muck is worth wading through to get to the final product. Well, that’s what I’ve learned while being part of the creative community (and now the entrepreneur community). The reason why creativity is hard is not because no one has good ideas. There’s a million great ideas out there. The hard part is taking those good ideas and putting them out into the the world in way that the world can digest them. That’s the challenging part.

So I write this as a reminder to stay encouraged. It doesn’t matter what part of the creative process you’re in. It’s all hard. It takes guts to share your ideas. It takes boldness to show up to your creative endeavors. It takes heart to stay focused on your purpose. It’s no small feat but I know you’re capable.

I leave you with this weeks affirmations from the inspiring Julia Cameron,

Creativity is God’s will for your life

You got this

As a kid, I loved imagination play when no one was looking. My favorite part of my room was where we set up house corner. I didn’t always have that room, but when I did, that was my favorite part. All the fake kitchen stuff was set up in a way that separated house corner from the rest of my room. My room was always a mess clothes, shoes, toys, everywhere but sometimes I’d climb over my mess and clean up my house corner to play in.

As a mom, I learned that we shouldn’t interrupt our children’s imagination play. It tears them from their world where all the magic happens. The same goes for my writing time. When I get interrupted, I’m torn from my world of imagination and creation. An entire plan can be lost in an instant. The best way I can describe it, is like a sea anemone going back into hidinh. (Thankfully, I’ve learned to write when the house settles down so I’m rarely interrupted at night.)

I think it’s silly how closely related the creative process is to being a child. Yes, we read bigger books and do research to figure how to portray what’s important to us. We work on our craft and on ourselves. We are putting in so much effort but is it just to get to the same place we were as children in house corner. Picasso once said,

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

I wonder what he meant by that?

I’m taking my artist on a date tomorrow morning. One of the activities from the “Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, is going on artist dates. Here’s what she has to say about artist dates.

The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore
something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly
“artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the
imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it.

Julia Cameron

She says doing these dates along with morning pages helps to keep the well full. When we aren’t out there experiencing the world in a way that bring us joy, we have less to write about.

It honestly feels like so much to ask. I feel bad asking for time to inspire myself while also having mom duties. But it’s important for me as an artist to have fun doing the things that make me feel adventurous and excited about life. I believe in the artist dates but at the same time I struggle with being consistent with my artist dates because it feels like a lot to ask.