Crafty Tuesday When One’s Muse takes a Coffee Break

There comes a point in every creative person’s life where it feels like the spark that drives their work becomes a dull ember.

It can be for a million different reasons.

Re-sparking can be easy or hard depending on circumstance.

I had a creative drought or rather an execution drought after Peter’s stroke. I had ideas but I didn’t see the point.

I am always full of ideas. That is something I never have to worry about.

Making the things in my head is where, at times, I have to really push hard to do or I will end up doing nothing.

Peter is often asked what he does for writer’s block. He says, “I take a sack of bills due and put them next to me on the desk and start writing.” Writing is his job. There is no block. There may be shifting between projects to take the problem project on with fresh eyes after writing something else.

I don’t have to be in the mood to create. Give me a project and I get going on it. I don’t understand that concept of having to be in the right frame of mind. Getting started tends to snap me back to it.

Are there projects that feel like I am pulling teeth? Oh, heck yeah. But once started I have to complete it. It feels wrong to leave it half done. Unless it is a total disaster then I walk away knowing that I tried my best.

Skills work best if used. If one hasn’t done something in a while, it can take a bit to get back in the groove. Things that have been learned over time tend to snap back but the more one creates the easier it is because one can quickly get through the beginning steps to get to the fun part.

Someone asked me how many puppets I have built and I had to say that honestly I have lost count. I could probably figure who I have given puppets to but I would miss one or two.

But in building all those puppets I have refined and improved my ability to build puppets. I can build things now that I could not thirty years ago. New materials have helped. Polar fleece is a godsend for making puppets. None of that matters if I cannot make a puppet in a timely fashion.

Mental health can play a role in creativity for the good or the bad. The trope of the trouble artist is still romanticized to this day. I know more than one creative person who feel that their problems are what they draw on for their creative mojo. I have seen people self-medicate with drink or drugs because they think that is the thing that helps them be creative. Some have figured out that is not so and others still wallow in their creative ‘pain’.

I think I have been actively creative since I realized how far down I was in the pit of despair and got some help. A number of friends have comments that I am acting more like myself these days rather than the ghost of myself that had been walking around. I have found the joy in what I do again. I hadn’t noticed it was missing until I discovered it again.

I am grateful for the creative drive when it is in drive rather than in neutral.