Congratulations to Joyce Ward, who won yesterday’s drawing! I’ll be emailing Joyce to arrange delivery of her choice of book.
Today I wanted to talk about creativity. Everyone has a creative outlet. It’s the way we play, what we do to relax. Maybe you paint or knit or sew, sing in the church choir, cook, bake, quilt, dance, garden… There are dozens and dozens of methods to express creativity.
Obviously my method is writing. I am never happier than when I am lost in my own mind, playing pretend. I once had to have an MRI done, and I was in this tube with no music, no TV, nothing. You can’t bring metal into an MRI machine (magnetic!), and since you have to stay very still for them to get the scan, you can’t even bring a book to read. It’s boring! The only thing that saved my sanity was plotting novels in my head. I was able to completely forget where I was and get lost in my imagination.
My husband is a singer who performs in an a cappella group. My sister is a singer, too, but she sang for NJ Performing Arts Center and got to perform at Carnegie Hall once (as part of the chorus, but still…). I have another sister who is an artist. She paints portraits from pictures. People commission these from her, usually around the holidays. My mom used to make our clothes when we were little. My aunt made Christmas ornaments for us kids every year (I still have mine on my tree). I have a friend who bakes delicious treats and another who knits these amazing blankets using a photograph as the template. Another friend makes chocolate candies.
I’d love to make my living by writing, but for the moment I still work a day job. As does my husband and my sisters and all the people I mentioned above. I know lots of writers, of course, and most of them have day jobs, too. As much as I’d like to make my creative outlet my full time career, the mundane world can be unforgiving, and the artistic one sometimes fleeting. The mortgage has to be paid and people have to eat.
But I dream of it. I fantasize about where I would live and how my day would go. No more clocking in and out, no more 30-minute lunch. I could set my own hours. If I need to go to the doctor, I can adjust my schedule as necessary. If I want to go on vacation, I could just go without worrying about whether or not I would be allowed the days off. Ah, the life I could lead.
What about you? What’s your creative outlet? And do you ever daydream about what it would be like to do that for a living? Comment to be included in a drawing to win a paperback title from my backlist!
