Another Girl at Play - Women Artists Making Creative Dreams Real

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MARCH 2004

Out of the thousands of emails I've received, the most common one is someone asking, "Tell me the steps to be creative."

I understand where that question comes from because when you're not living creatively and want to, the task seems so daunting that you think you don't even know where to begin.

But you do.

When I first started all I knew is that I wanted to write. Write what? Well, that was an entirely different matter. I had no idea if I would write for magazines or newspapers, books or web sites. I didn't know if I'd write fiction or non-fiction. I didn't know how to query (or what a query was) and I certainly didn't know how to be a writer.

In fact, my first day on the job as a writer I was completely overwhelmed and confused. I didn't know about books on writing, I didn't have writer or creative friends. Nobody wrote online about personal creativity at the time so my resources were nil. I didn't know where to turn to, so I did what any confused person should do: I just did.

I started typing a journal online. I started to write down things I noticed on a walk. I went to the bookstore and found books on writing. I surfed the web and came across someone who I admired (she was an artist), wrote her, formed a friendship and began to meet other creative women. The more I learned the more I did but it was all trial and error as I was completely naïve to the whole process. I didn't have expectations or deadlines because I just wanted to live as a writer, whatever that meant.

Over time I understood more and more what I wanted and my needs and desires changed. The writing I began doing was something I didn't want to continue so I found a different niche to write in. I expanded to art projects, photography and building web sites dedicated to helping others get creative. Above all, I just did.

I understand the want people have of being told the steps to take to being creative or successful but what people are really asking for is for a guarantee that their dream will turn out OK. There is no such guarantee. You can't read a book that will give you ten steps and expect to have a dream at the end of it. You can't read a book that will give you a 12 month program and expect to have everything at the end of it. You can't mimic someone else and have what they have. Why? Because you are you. Your circumstances, responsibilities, talents, desires and work style are going to be different. And they should be - you're creative after all, aren't you? Why follow a linear path when you have it in you to create you own.

People always ask me for advice and I never give it because I cannot tell someone else how to live. I can tell people that feeling scared is normal, that worrying when you first start is normal, that being overwhelmed is normal, that having lots of rocky patches is normal, that feeling guilty over the freedom you now have is normal, that working too much is normal, that wondering if you're doing it right is normal. But I can't tell anyone how to get past that because each of those things is personal and I promise you that people already know how to survive those things. They just don't trust it.

Somehow I sat down to write without any knowledge whatsoever and 3 years later, I'm thriving. Oh, there are still worries and doubts and days when I flail my limbs upon the floor but I'm living the life I want to live authentically. There's no mimicking someone else or wondering if I'm doing it right. However I do it, is how I do it and if it feels right for me, it's right.

And that goes for you, too.