What can creativity do? Provide me with insight into yet to be imagined stories, allow me to develop amusing ways to express unpopular opinions, fill up my time when I am bored, or fritter away my precious time when I have work I must get done that I simply don’t want to do. 

People are often classified as creative according to their occupation, with writers, artists and composers getting top billing. Not everyone in these professions is imaginative. Although some people may be more inherently creative than others, I would not classify them according to their occupation. How inventive a person is depends on how much they esteem originality. However, at some point, their ideas need to actually work. Creativity in literature can be unnerving to readers shy away from techniques like stream of consciousness or story told completely as dialog. Extreme experimentation means extreme confusion for some readers, while a few still enjoy works that push the envelope.

      The ability to create and innovate appears in all fields. As an electrical engineer my father developed new household appliances/products. One of those I tested was the portable vacuum designed to replace the clunking roll-around canister type. It hung from my shoulder by a strap as I walked through the house poking the long hose like an elephant nose into dusty crevices. His inventions required a knowledge of both engineering and creativity. He probably assumed what was manageable for me as a ten-year-old would work as a new design. However, it also required the approval of the marketing department, and that never occurred. 

      My father wanted me to be an engineer, too. However, I gave into the lure of a typical creative field and majored in art in college. Then, I spent several years working both as a graphic designer and a photographer. Fortunately, I had some positions where my artistic projects required imagination, and I was not just cranking out ads all day long. However, this field changed and new computer technology could do the work that used to require many graphic artists. My company at the time tried to place most of us no longer needed artists in new positions. But, I also had a degree in English, I ended up writing lesson delivered via computer.

      As a graphic designer and photographer, I wrote and publish poetry and flash fiction on the side. However, when my new profession required eight hours at a desk writing, I found myself drawn to watercolor painting and nature photography outdoors. No matter the reputation that my profession had as far as creativity, I preferred exploring the arts in a manner that wasn’t currently paying the bills. Making a living producing new and unusual written work is not a form of play. It takes as much discipline as it does imagination. But if the thoughts inside must find their way out as words on a page, you are stuck with being creative.

Photo of artwork by Colleen McCubbin Stepanic by J.W. Listman