The importance of being creative.

I was going to take a few words this post to address some of the narrative issues involved with storytelling in comics. Before I could put my plan into practice, however, I was confronted with an even more pressing concern in the sphere of creative decision making. The issue now at hand is Creative Space.

If you are involved at any serious level in any creative enterprise you will by now have discovered that you don't seem to want to work just anywhere. There are special places or certain variables that need to be fulfilled before you feel that you are in the right mind to write or draw or compose that ode to your long dead childhood pet that you have postponed writing until conditions were more favorable. Recognizing that this is true is an important step to resolving the conflict that wages within your raging creative bosom. An only slightly less important step is that, once having ceded this incontestable truth, you immediately set about identifying the variables that are so key to success in your own creative endeavors. Meeting the identified criteria is often not that hard, but identifying these criteria often leaves you in the role of the illustrious Dupin, sleuthing out answers to the unsolvable where others have failed, and failed miserably. These answers, obviously, will not be the same for everyone.

Sometimes they are very bizarre.

Counter to what you may initially think, location is not the most important variable to nail down. In point of fact almost any location can be made suitable for work if the other important factors are identified and met. Perhaps I can lend a hand, from my own experience, as you attempt to make your way through twisting labyrinths of illogically deduced riddles. But more likely, far more likely due to the personal nature of one's Creative Space, this will be a textbook case of the blind leading the blind.

I first thought that one of the criteria necessary for me to get comfortable in my own Creative Space was to have everything put in order. Dishes cleaned, bills paid, hydrangeas watered. The opposite is true. The people who look the busiest are quite often the greatest procrastinators alive. But what they have found, which makes them so productive, is an eternal wellspring of energy that (and I say this at the risk of redundancy) can never be exhausted. They have found something that they can always put off.

As long as my immediate Creative Space is in order, as long as my horticulture is taken care of, all I need is a list of things that desperately need to be done. Then, I can avoid doing these things by working hard on my comic. The level to which I am capable of doing this is epic. On some days I find myself putting off making the list of things that I need to put off. On these days, great feats are accomplished.

Creating a consistent atmosphere is key to providing the focus necessary for Creative Space. For me, the largest part of this Space is my music. In this modern world of scientific wonderments, music is portable. This is a benefit that allows you to take some of your Creative Space with you. After all, it is sometimes necessary to have more than one creative arena. A place at work, home, and school for instance. This being said, there is one area that will be the Capitol of your small creative City State. This is the area where I keep my hanging plants. Hanging plants may not be your thing and I understand that. But whatever these elements are you need to identify and procure them. No amount of fussing should be considered over-indulgent.

Once this area is settled upon I recommend you move in the bulk of your creative implements. This infestation of artistic accessories will cement this space as your own in much the way that I imagine wasps secure their hive to your home, stuck to your gutter near the door you need the most. Waiting.

You will undoubtedly find that once you are comfortable, and this area has become familiar, you may not want to work anywhere else. Do not be alarmed. That was half of the point. The purpose of your creative space is for it to help you when you are there. By definition your creative space cannot be everywhere. If it means that you have a tough time "getting creative" in the check-out isle, well, sacrifices must be made.

Once you have christened this space you may find that you are able to get down to work there in a way that you cannot rival anywhere else. That is the ultimate point of your Creative Space. The value of having a workplace where you can create effectively far outweighs the downside of not feeling in the mood to work when you are not there.