#thoughts on creativity

[natalieintheopen]

creative with a twist

i don’t want to spend my life

wringing out my brain

for drops of nectar

to use as bait

for likes and subscribers

that will never come

so i can sell every ounce

of creativity

that runs through my veins

to live comfortably

and not go insane

doing corporate bullshit

in a colony of ants.

i want to live for pleasure,

not just to survive

but to enjoy freedom

and do things

that make me feel alive.

i don’t want to feel pressure

to monetize every thought

or every feeling.

to spill my guts for compensation

when the alternative

is dealing with oppressive structures

making money for the wealthy.

[laurasauras]

i believe this SO MUCH. making things is so important. not to be all “get off your phone” but also ....

the act of creating provides meaning and tangible impact

there’s something strange about this culture, and it’s been true for hundreds and hundreds of years, where we dismiss the importance of emotions. i don’t understand that. emotions inform everything we do. everything. all policies, all charity, all ambition, all friendship, all distrust, it’s all emotive.

what about ai?

amie has a beautiful definition of art: creating something with the intention to connect.

i believe ai cannot be considered art and it’s not because it’s not “good” enough. there is ai art and writing that is pleasing to consume. it’s not about quality.

imagine you ask chatgpt to write a children’s story about a cat who is a pirate on a quest to find treasure, because you love your one-eyed cat and you want everyone to love her, and you think kids would enjoy this kind of story.

so chatgpt writes it. and it’s a pretty good story, especially considering you didn’t bother to tell it how it should end. but it’s not your cat in the story, it’s not her mannerisms or how you imagine she’d talk. it has a moral, but you didn’t choose it. so you ask it to make a couple of changes and it kind of feels like a collaboration, so it feels like you ... did it. you made this thing. right?

but you didn’t. for starters, it’s not really different to if you’d hired a person to ghostwrite it for you--they would have done it, not you. if you had written it from the beginning, you would have chosen words influenced by who you are, what you’ve read, how you feel about your cat. it might end up very similar to the one chatgpt made that you shaped a little, but it’s different. because you gave a shit. you made something that mattered to you and it took effort and that’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s yours.

people use ai to do creative acts when they feel their own attempts would be inadequate.

people use ai to do creative acts when they are desperate to connect with people but they feel they can’t do the work.

and we’re all desperate to connect with people.

i’ve written a novel and it’s currently with advance reader copy (ARC) readers so that i can drum up some reviews before it goes on sale in july. (it’s a swords and sorcery fantasy romance (queer) written in contemporary language, set in fantasy!australia, lmk if you want to read it early and for free in exchange for a review.) and i’ve told them, as i told me beta readers, that if they’re giving me feedback and feel like they want to tidy their language up, i would rather they give me the prompt they were going to put into chatgpt than whatever the robot spits out. i want honesty, even if it’s clumsy. i’d rather you stumble over your words and not quite express what you want and have a conversation to tease it out than have someone else write it for you. i want to connect! that’s why i spent five years writing the damn thing!

it is fucking scary to create things with the intention of connecting with people. it’s the most vulnerable thing we can do. because what if it’s shit? what if i give my character a backstory similar to mine and someone says that what they went through is no big deal? what if someone reads it and gets a completely different message out of it than i intended, and worse, what if i can see how they got there and i have to reckon with the fact that i made something people can interpret as harmful? or what if no one reads it? what if people think it’s cringe that i spent five years writing about queer magicians and i actually really care about it and think it’s worth money? god that’s an embarrassing thing to do!

but what if someone reads it and they love it? if they feel seen? if their stomach drops at the right parts and they laugh at the right parts and sometimes they have to put it down for a minute just to let their brain rest, because they get it and they know i get them, too?

it’s worth it. it’s so worth it. and it doesn’t matter if chatgpt floods amazon and people read it because it’s free and human art costs money, i’ll write until i physically can’t anymore.

because it’s an expression of my feelings and my perspective and i want to show that to people and connect with them

[abrighterspark]

we seek a space

to grow, to bloom

a change of place

that gives us room

to shift and shake

and switch up pace;

to create, without

to be consumed

[abrighterspark]

27. the absolute limit

creativity is not an equation

but an exchange with salvation;

a gentle persuasion...

admire to inspire; appreciate, create

feel all emotion; flow, fill, abate

[vmures]

There’s a distance, right? When you’re creating something. Whether that’s writing in some way or crafting or making art. You control what you’re doing. It’s a safe space. Sure, you’re pouring your heart and soul into it, but you decide how that goes. You decide what happens. You have a certain distance from it, one way or another. Being able to work through something that’s happening to you or has happened to you, even if it’s not something super traumatic, via something you have total control over? Something you can take a step back from? It helps. It brings a sense of safety. It gives you time to understand what the fuck is going on with your feelings and in your head. You can’t run from your own thoughts, but you can put them down in a notebook and leave that notebook under your bed or something. Does that make sense?  --from THE CRAWL: The (Un)Censored Oral History of Corroded Coffin's Rise to Fame by wearing_tearing

This quote from Eddie explaining why exploring your trauma through creative expression is so healing and helpful just hit home for me. It's often so hard to explain to people why one would write/draw/create darker things or explore darker topics in their art, and this really captures the why of it all. It's a way to get the thoughts out. It's catharsis. A necessary bloodletting, so to speak. It also helps you gain distance and perspective and wrap your head around what you experienced. It's so very helpful for healing.

The fic in question can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45614653

It's a damn fun read, and I highly recommend it.

[adawneveryday]

Looking at Expressionist

enjoying exploring expressionism and finding some amazing expressionist painters

for journaling, it has to be my favorite

and while I enjoy applying it to my artwork, I do like having it as part of a whole

we feel rather that see what is in our peripheral vision

there are things we feel rather than see when we are highly emotional

in some ways, expressionism is more of realistic that strict realism

humans are not reliable eyewitnesses

we feel rather than see the world

until we tune in and focus

and them we impose how we see on others

just like i’m doing right now

darn it

i do find expressionist inspiring

but it is like mayonaise 

too much is just too much

even in egg salad 

who needs that in their oeuvre ? 

[firjii]

Someone else: Creative accountability isn't always about the nature of the content you make or people's reactions to it. Sometimes, it's just about being able to say "yeah, I made that" without adding "but I cheated a little" or "but I had some help" or "but it sucks."

Me: WHAT IS THIS NEW SORCERY YOU SPEAK OF?!?!!!