How To Be Creative

There’s this word that’s been around for a very long time…

Creative

It’s a word we all know and we use it all the time, especially in the church world being on a “creative” team. It’s a word we use to describe out meetings, our work, our church services, our products, our clothes, our blogs. We use it to describe people we know. We’ve even started using it as a category of people. Instead of calling someone a “Creative Person”, we simply call them a “Creative”.

I love the word “Creative” in all it’s forms, but it’s starting to be incredibly overused.

I really see this when people describe their own work, and even themselves, as creative. But people are sneaky about it. They’ll talk about how “Creatives” are unorganized people, and that’s why I’m so unorganized, because it’s just the life of a “Creative”, which I must be since I’m so unorganized. Or based on their job title or description, they must be a creative person, because only creative people ever work in those positions or have those responsibilities. But I have a huge problem with this.

Saying something, or someone, is creative doesn’t make it so.

Calling yourself, or your project, creative is excessively narcissistic, especially when your talking to others who work in “creative” fields.

If I feel the need to explain to you why I’m a creative person, ie all creative people are disorganized and I’m disorganized therefore I must be a creative person, then chances are I’m not really that creative. Maybe I’m just lazy.

The root of the problem with this word “Creative” is that there is such a stigma on people in particular fields to be creative. And ironically enough, there are certain guidelines you must follow in order for you or your project to be called creative. So allow me to help you become known as a “Creative” in you life, work, and personal projects…

First, you must speak in acid trip-like terms. Talking very whimsically and using “imaginative” words is a must. Basically, you must stay away from talking about specifics. If you have an idea for a video, stick to talking about the big idea of the video and never get involved in what the video is actually about or what it really looks like, that kind of work is for people who are less creative than yourself.

Second, you and your projects must be so “out there” that the average person doesn’t understand what the meaning is or what you are even about. If the average radio listener listens to your song and understands what the meaning of that song is, then you weren’t creative enough. You must make people think very hard to even begin to grasp the incredibly deep meaning of your project. This is very akin to staying away from specifics.

Third, you have to constantly be coming up with new grandiose ideas every week. Whether it’s another short film, song, save-the-whatever project, change the way we (fill in the blank) forever, or this-or-that will never be the same again kind of idea. But as we’ll see later, none of these project can be allowed to actually come to completion because of your “creative” unorganization.

Fourth, you must show great interest in things that other people will think are “weird”. Maybe you collect only ’70’s vinyl records, or you only listen to psychedelic bands from Switzerland, or you always find the strange “out there” short films. And you’re furniture must be equally “odd” to match the strange memorabilia  of your Swedish bands.

Fifth, you must only wear clothes you bought from a thrift store or found in a garbage bag full of your dad’s old clothes. Yes, there are “cool” new clothes out there with the graphic shirts and tight pants, but nothing says, “I’m a Creative” like old, smelly, thrift store clothing. And again, due to your unorganization, your clothes don’t washed often enough to stay clean anyways.

Sixth, and most importantly, you must be incredibly unorganized. This isn’t just the, “Where did I put the water bill?” unorganized. In this kind of unorganization, you must constantly forget to call or email someone because you were too busy, often using your current creative project of the week as an excuse. Perhaps you even forget to pick up your kids from their grandparents because you had a stroke of genius that just could wait so you lost track of time. But most importantly, you are never able to fully realize any of your genius creative ideas because you just aren’t organized enough, or you don’t have enough time, or you just don’t have the resources to pull it off. Or maybe you even blame it on other people who just don’t understand your brilliant creativity and therefor won’t support your endeavors.

If you follow these 6 rules of how to be creative, then you are sure to revered and respected by all.

Actually, you’ll probably never earn any respect because you’ll become known as a person who doesn’t return phone calls, is to unorganized to complete even the simplest task, and isn’t willing to stick with a project through the hard times to see it become reality. But that’s not your fault…

It’s just the life of a Creative(and they just don’t understand).

Please note that this post is labeled in the “Creative”  category, because that’s just what it is.

Also, let it be known that this post is directed towards absolutely no one in particular, rather towards a thought. If you think this was about you, well, don’t flatter yourself.