A Note on Creativity

21 May 2020

Two blog posts in a week? I’m on a roll.

I had a really great conversation with my older brother last night, and I wanted to share some of our discussion with all of you.

We’d been discussing creativity. Brad and I both inherited musical genes from our grandmother, though we explore and express it in different ways. He’s been involved with Guitar Craft, and later Guitar Circles in various cities, and he has learned a very interesting intentional way of approaching creativity. I asked him to expound on a phrase I’ve heard him use, “entering the space,” and what that means to him in terms of his practice. He explained to me that there’s a concept of crossing the liminal threshold when beginning a performance, which can help your brain get into a creative space. Sort of a signal like, “This is where we do creativity. Now, be free to do the thing.” When it comes to performing on a stage, that threshold is obvious–the edge of the stage or performance space. But when it comes to practicing, the same intention can be set in your mind by some sort of little ritual or signal that you give yourself that says, “It’s time to begin.”

One theme I hear in discussions lately around working from home is that it’s hard to feel like there’s a boundary between work and not-work time, because these activities are happening in the same space. Thus, it feels like we’re working all of the time without breaks and burnout feels inevitable. My experience has been specifically that it’s difficult to get motivated to begin at the start of the day, because everything feels blended together. During the discussion last night, I realized that one of the reasons why it’s so hard is because there’s no liminal threshold to cross; I’m not going to the office, or even leaving my block most mornings, so there’s been no intentional separation of work and not-work time or space. I pointed this out to Brad, and asked if he had any advice. My job as an engineer is inherently creative, after all, so it seems self-evident that traditionally creative practices (art, music, etc.) can teach me how to be a better engineer.

He forwarded me this email from his friend Trey Gunn (who has since given permission for me to share with you all), and he said that the lesson he took from it was simple but obvious: create intentional spaces for your process, and your creativity will flourish.

I hope this resonates with you as much as it does with me. <3

I’ve been seeing a lot of people this past week and one thing has come up quite a bit. I think worth sharing. Or really re-iterating for many of you, as I speak about this point a fair bit.

And this is the idea of protecting the various stages of the creative process from each other. I agree that it sounds slightly obtuse that the creative process could infect itself. And, of course, that probably isn’t how things go off course, or get stuck. It is probably more to do with our own part of the equation!

Either way, how I see it is like this.

You have a kind of assembly line with different rooms. I used to think of it as 3 rooms, but now I think of it as 4.

The first room is the sandbox. This is where pure Play takes place. No concern for the repercussions of what you are doing and no concern for “making” anything. This can also function as R&D. A place to experiment and follow ideas along wherever they may take you.

The next room is the assembly room. Where you are in the process of construction. The raw ideas from Room 1 get put together into larger forms and larger meanings.

Room 3 is what I think of as production. Where the work is put into its final frame and form.

And finally, Room 4 is where you take the thing out into the world.

These are all generalizations, of course. And every form colors what goes on in each room.

But, here is the immediate relevant point. We have to be careful and clean with each of these rooms, so that one doesn’t start butting into one of the other rooms. If the producer (Room 3) shows up in the Play room, then pure play isn’t possible. If the Play character shows up in Production and starts throwing out a whole bunch of new possibilities then production goes all to hell. And on and on.

So, we have to be careful here in two ways. The first is to make sure that each room is free to do what it’s meant to. And not be infected with strategies from the other rooms. The second is to make sure that every room gets attended to. Even if in just small amounts. As long as each room knows that it is going to be fed and worked with properly then it kind of chills out and doesn’t start knocking on one of the other rooms.

Also, one final point. It is in no way necessary to use all the rooms. A pure amateur can live just fine in the Play Room. And never be concerned with the others. And that is a beautiful thing. Or one can choose to only live in the first two rooms. But, in my experience, if you start working with all of these then some order needs to be observed.

Cheers,

Trey Gunn

Original Voice Coaching