As a teen, I'd have these sudden, indescribable urges. They went on into my twenties. Now I know what you're probably thinking and ... GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!!! I don't mean those urges. It was something like this:
I'd feel a painful, internal yearning, like my heart was trying to claw its way out of my body, and the only thing that would fix it was to sit down at the piano and play for an hour.
Other times everything around me would become overwhelmingly bright, bringing me close to tears, and I'd grab a pen and paper and try my best to create some artistic masterpiece (and fail miserably).
And then I discovered writing. And for the first time in my life I understood what that feeling was--
The Drive to Create.
Writing eats it up. Funny thing is, the more I channel it into writing, to more of it I have.
How about you? How else does your creative bug manifest itself? How old were you when it started? And when did realize what it was?
16 comments:
oh ya, I know that urge...when I get it, I know that the work will be good because the spark ignited it....without the spark happening, the work may be mediocre. That spark is the sign of an artist....
You captured it so beautifully! I felt the same power surges of emotion. They've calmed down into a more constructive and organized creativity in my old age :). I also feel like creativity is like exercise - the longer you stay away from it, the harder it is to get started again. I spent my first couple of years after college not doing anything creative, focusing on my job, and I was completely miserable. Doing something (anything) creative helps keep me sane!
I love that picture, by the way.
Yep, same here.
I always felt a little disgruntled, until I started writing. It's good to have a creative outlet and such a joy when you write something and think, 'wow, I did that?' Of course some days for me, those words are accompanied with a look of horror and a face-palm, but them's the breaks.
I still feel a touch grumpy when I can't get my writing time in.
It really is a drive to write when you get these character voices inside you and they just won't leave you alone! It started when I was fifteen, and though I stopped writing fiction and went to school for art, I've gotten back to writing in the past five years, and I can't believe how much I missed it.
Great post!
I think all of the arts are so connected. For me when I was a teen, it was ballet. I still can't see dancers without a deep stirring to capture beauty and to create.
It's so true. No matter who you are, there is an innate ability and desire to create. I feel like I'm in a dark abyss when I'm not creating something. Great post.
I've always loved to write, but at a younger age my passion was dance. Still is to some extent, but only for pleasure, no more profession. Painting works for me, too. I love painting murals. But writing has finally found me again and I know I'm at home. ";-)
I do feel this. I've heard some people speak about this topic, as it applies to women. Very interesting.
I feel this too. Going to check out the linkage now. :)
I have always been the exact same way!
I've been an opera singer, a photographer and now a writer. And while I've never really pursued art, I have been known to sketch now and then.
It's weird, eh? But like you, writing fills that drive to create more than anything else.
Oh, love this post. Not sure when I first realized I have it, but I do know that BOTH my parents have it, so I was exposed to it early on.
I LOVE this post. It's so true. For a long time, I fought it. Or jotted little snippets of stories on index cards and hid them away. I got very into crafting (which I still do on occasion), but there's nothing like creating a world.
I love that high feeling you get when words are just pouring out or you design the most perfect scene and your soul is on paper. It is perfection.
Isn't it funny... for a long time I thought I was the only one like this. I was SO wrong.
I've always been the creative one in the family (I take after my mom). It wasn't until a few years ago that I started writing fiction. I never had time before that. First with university and grad school, and then with my 45+ hours a week drug rep job. Heck, I didn't even have time to read a novel, let alone write one.
Fortunately for my kids, I am creative. Believe me, it's not my husband who buys craft supplies and makes crafts with them. ;)
There is nothing better than the wonderful feeling after a creative "purge"!
At the age of 36, when i told my mom i was going to write, she simply said, "That's what I always thought you should do." Thanks Mom for giving me a heads up!
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