This is something I’ve thought of before, but I was reminded of it while reading a chapter in The Everything Guide to Magazine Writing.
People who intend to sell their stories, paintings, jewelry, or who dance or sing for a living, have made a business out of their creativity. It’s most certainly what I am trying to do.
What happens when you do that? What happens to your creativity when you endeavor to sell the results? Does it hamper it or increase it?
Another of my creative outlets is making jewelry/beadwork. I have sold some pieces I’ve made, but I don’t push it as a business, despite encouragement to do so from several people. Why not?
Making jewelry with the intent to sell it hampers my creativity. It makes it more work than play, more formula than fun. The best way for me to make my necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc., is to do it when I want and how I want. I love it when people want to buy the results, and I do sell pieces that way. I’m not at a point, though, where I can consider it a business venture yet.
It’s different with my writing, perhaps because I’ve been writing since high school. For a long time, I didn’t want anyone to know about it. As I grew in my skills and became more confident in myself, I started putting myself out there. My first publication was a poem (or was it two?) in the yearly anthology put out by the college I attended. After that, I went back to keeping it to myself for a while.
Now, though? I feel like I legitimately have something to say. Intending for other people to read/buy my words does not hamper my creativity as the corresponding intent does for my jewelry. Rather, the intent actually increases my creativity when it comes to writing. I don’t know how or why it works that way, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over time, it’s not to question it. Questioning the how and why of creativity squashes it nearly out of existence.
At least, that is how it works for me.
