Creative play is a concept that is virtually foreign to many of us who strive to be more creative. When we create, we become obsessed with choosing the best idea to start developing, planning every part of a new creative project in great detail, and not letting a project be done until every aspect is “perfect.”
Our entire approach is geared towards creating an ideal result, a perfect end product that we can be proud of.
Now of course we want to create the best of what we are capable of, that is an honorable ambition in everything we create.
But often getting caught up in too much detail, and hoping to plan ahead perfectly, is the very thing that most limits and damages our free flow of creativity.
So what is the alternative? Surely we have to plan to some extent? Surely we have to start with an idea and a goal?
All creation begins somewhere, with some idea or concept. But that doesn’t have to be an idea that’s already fully realized in your mind before you start creating. Sometimes the idea comes, sometimes the BEST ideas come, in the midst of creation.
How do you “just create”?
Try taking some materials, giving yourself some edges to work with and just create. For example, take a blank canvas, a tube of blue paint, and a tube of white paint and start a new project with the goal of exploring the many hues that can be produced by mixing them on the canvas.
As you experiment, as you create with a game attitude, not a product attitude, ideas will naturally form.
In painting, you will find a particular shade that you really love, or a collision of two colors that evoke a particular emotion. As you write, you’ll discover new rhyming rhythms when you dare to break away and play. In the dance you will find variations of well-known movements that make the dance even more personal and unique to your own style.
With all this, it can only happen when you create with an attitude of experimentation and play.
Would you rather experiment, create 5 new projects and through them discover a couple of new and exciting techniques that you have never tried before? Or create 5 “safe” projects, like the previous 5 you created, with a proven and predictable approach that always gives the same predictable result?
carljung said: “The creation of something new is not achieved by the intellect but by the play instinct that acts by internal necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
Isn’t it time you gave your creative mind a chance to play with what YOU love? The potential benefits are huge, so forget about the final creative “product” and start playing!
