HOW DO WE HARNESS CREATIVITY?

How do people who have written, produced, or created any form of art, those we call ‘geniuses’ or ‘masters’ to do their work? Is there a formula? Is it a gift? Is there methods to home in on our creativity?

Rick Rubin. Photograph: Robbie Fimmano

I turned to authors, artists, podcasts, and motivational speakers to understand how to cultivate the creative flow so many of us seek and how to see projects through.
Here are my findings amongst my personal reflections…

When I think back on moments when I’ve been struck by a creative concept or an idea that ignites an intense desire to write or create, it usually comes at strange and seemingly random times of day: the middle of the night, while driving, during meditation, while talking to someone, or cooking. There’s a sudden urgency to capture this idea; I pull out my phone and quickly type it into my notes app before returning to whatever I was doing, making sure I don’t forget it—or I abandon the task at hand and start working on the new idea immediately. Often, the idea gets lost in the depths of my notes app, buried among daily to-do lists, recipes, tattoo ideas, books to read, quotes, and often a lot of nonsense, it is rife with brain farts and, sometimes, good or exciting creative ideas, few of which have actually made it to a Pages document or onto paper for further exploration. The projects I start in the moment they arrive often end up being laid to waste as some other new distraction enters my day. When it comes to executing ideas, I fall short. By the time I sit down to start or continue a project, another idea has popped up, seeming far more exciting and dopamine-inducing than the current one, so I let the former disappear into the graveyard of other abandoned ideas, alongside last week’s groceries. I’ve been frustrated with myself because I desperately want to create something that I see through to the end. Why can’t I?

I was diagnosed with ADHD last year, which made a lot of sense to me and came as no surprise to my closest friends who know me best. Understanding ADHD and beginning to research ways to hack my brain to complete tasks has been a long and ongoing journey. ADHD symptoms in women often revolve around an issue called executive dysfunction. Executive functions help manage focus, concentration, emotional regulation, impulse control, and self-motivation. I began to understand that my inability to finish a project wasn’t due to laziness; if it were laziness, I wouldn’t feel bad about not doing it. The fact that I wanted so desperately to create but found myself unable to do so made me feel terrible. Like many other people with ADHD, I struggle with routine, motivation, and order. The number of daily routines I’ve jotted down in my notes app and journals is ridiculous, and very few of them are ever seen through. They’re forgotten the next day because I’m fixated on a new hobby or interest or distracted by an appointment at 4pm, feeling incapable of achieving anything before then. However, many neurodivergent individuals harness their minds and create despite this “disorder,” leading me to realise the need to dive deeper into my research on fostering creativity and finding flow while acknowledging and not judging my ADHD brain.

I was curious to understand how people who have written, produced, or created art managed to do so. Is there a formula? Is it a gift? I began reading online to see what others suggest and advise; I turned to authors, artists, podcasts, and motivational speakers to understand how to cultivate the creative flow so many of us seek and how to see projects through. I can think of so many friends and acquaintances of all ages who have expressed how much they wish they could write, paint, or create something artistic yet feel they don’t have the time or don’t believe in their creativity. I wondered if there was a way for all of us to explore our creativity and if there was, that in sharing it might give us all that little boost to write the play, paint the art, direct a movie and so on.

The common theme I was surprised to encounter frequently among authors such as Robert Greene, Rick Rubin, Nick Cave, Brianna West, and Julia Cameron, was the importance of routine, repetition, and discipline in achieving creative flow in whatever outlet calls to your soul. This slightly surprised me; I often imagined that masters of their crafts—songwriters, authors, artists, visionaries—had some innate talent that allowed them to conjure magic effortlessly. The image of the free-spirited artist who doesn’t abide by societal rules was at the forefront of my mind when thinking about artists I respect and love, and I naively believed there wasn’t more of a formula or process available to some but not to all.

MASTERY

Upon reading Robert Greene’s Mastery, I quickly realised how wrong I was. A particular Nietzsche quote from the early pages stood out:
“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became ‘geniuses’ (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman, who first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it…”
Taking this on board, I released my misconception and began to explore the idea of “allowing time” for something, as well as letting go of the need for a completed outcome and focusing instead on working at the parts properly.

101 ESSAYS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK

Next, I read 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna West, and was immediately educated.
“The most successful people in history—the ones many refer to as ‘geniuses’ in their fields, masters of their crafts—had one thing in common, other than talent: Most adhered to rigid (and specific) routines.”
It was fascinating to realise that routine played such an important role, especially given my incorrect assumption that creatives were the types to disregard routine. As the essay continues, it provides deeper insight into what happens in the mind when we carve out a routine and stick with it until it becomes a habit—it becomes second nature. By creating a routine and being disciplined about it, we create space for our creative projects, allowing the process of creating or making art to also become a habit. When we do this, we train our minds to create habitually; the subconscious quiets, the nervous system relaxes, and we can enter the flow state that all creative people hope to experience more frequently.

THE RED HAND FILES

In Nick Cave’s recent The Red Hand Files #302, a brilliant email newsletter that he writes in response to fan questions, Cave stated:
“I feel free to express myself and can access a greater quality of imagination when certain restrictions are put into place. As many of you know, I observe specific protocols to open the creative mind—I sit at a desk in my office and write, working exclusively between 9 AM and 5 PM. Within ‘office hours,’ I find my mind becomes genuinely free, and I feel a creativity that is qualitatively richer than anything I may experience outside of this time, in the disorder and distraction of the ordinary world. For me, what must appear to some as forced labour is where all the imaginative mischief, beauty, and love are free to happen. Freedom finds itself in captivity. Disorder, randomness, chaos, and anarchy are where the imagination goes to die, or so I’ve found.”
This was fascinating to read, arriving in my inbox the day I sat down to write this—perhaps an extra nudge from the universe.

THE CREATIVE ACT: A WAY OF BEING

Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being also emphasises the importance of being and doing in order to create art in whatever form it may take:
“Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not.”
The emphasis on the significance of practice and habit is clear:
“Good habits create good art.”
Rubin, one of my favourite humans on the planet, inspires me deeply; this book really shifted something within me, leading me to be more confident in my writing. I began writing because I loved it, not because I wanted a specific outcome. I started carving out more time to write and am grateful I took the time to read this book; some phrases resonate with me daily, reminding me of the creative process.

THE ARTIST’S WAY

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a more hands-on twelve-week course that encourages the reader to engage with their creativity, forming habits that unlock and unblock repressed creativity. One of these tools is the Morning Pages, which involves writing three pages of longhand stream-of-consciousness writing before doing anything else in the day. This practice creates discipline, habit, and helps release blockages that prevent us from writing or being more artistic. Morning Pages are about;
“anything and everything that crosses your mind—and they are for your eyes only. They provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritise, and synchronise the day at hand.”
When this practice becomes a habit, it clears the decks for the day, allowing you to start with writing. I’ve gone through The Artist’s Way once before but dropped off due to the same issues I mentioned earlier: distraction and impulsivity to start the next new thing. I am beginning the course again now and cannot recommend it enough.

The main themes emerging from all this research have boiled down to routine and discipline—two things available to everyone if we strive to understand ourselves well enough to implement them. Can we find a time in our week to sit down and create? Can we gift ourselves that time without an expected outcome, focusing instead on creating a space within our lives that breeds habits for our projects to come to light?

I realised that I was not treating writing time as a part of my routine. I would sit down to write only if the urge struck me randomly, like on a Sunday afternoon or just before bed on a random Tuesday. I didn’t create specific time within my week to focus on writing; I treated the waves of creativity that would occasionally crash into my day as a rarity—when it strikes, write; if it doesn’t, don’t. I did not prioritise writing or give these projects any particular importance or intention; I just let the ideas come and go quickly, leaving them to sit, dwell, and die. The stagnation of ideas did not stem solely from a lack of routine or concentration; it also arose from a lack of self-confidence in my creativity, compounded by the belief drilled into me—like many of us as children—that art is not a career but a hobby. The more I try to unpack this belief and write more, making it a part of my routine, the more joy and happiness I experience.

By understanding and working with my ADHD brain, I began to make my new routine fun and engaging by setting timers and writing out challenges with a box next to them so I can tick it and feel that little dopamine hit. I would create a reward for myself once I had completed a task. For example, if I finish 2,000 words of my novel, which I strive to work on every day, then I can indulge in a sweet treat, walk my dogs, drink my favourite tea, or watch an episode of a show I love. I’ve usually found that when I do this, my brain is tricked into focusing; it transitions from working for a reward into a flow state, allowing me to write 5,000 words or sometimes more. If the creativity runs dry for the novel but I have yet to finish the task, then I will write anything that comes to mind within the time I have set for myself before I take a break. I will draft a short poem or just write ‘blah blah blah’ if I have to, but I do not stop writing. Discipline doesn’t have to be strict and rigid towards one particular project, and I have found that by continuing to write when I say I will, writing comes quicker each day. A storyline develops with greater creative language attached, and I ultimately feel happier and more accomplished throughout my day.

I have since realised that I no longer need to give myself a reward or trick my brain; writing time is becoming more than just disciplined time in my routine; it is becoming a habit. It is happening more naturally because my initial need for discipline to create a routine for my work has become nearly second nature, and I am sure it will continue to evolve.

I cannot express how beneficial all this research has been for me, and I hope that if you are looking to create, make, write, produce, or pursue whatever creative endeavour you have always dreamed of, these books and this little reflection piece of mine will help you too.

Frankie x