Creating Creativity

How does a person become artistically creative?  I’m a music composer, so I’ll use music composition as my example.  The same principles apply to fiction writers, painters, or whoever.

Skills: Spend 5-10 years developing skills:

• Learn techniques: Take lessons, read books, watch videos, and get advice from your musical friends.  Practice diligently, meaning that you pay attention to what you’re doing and you’re constantly trying to improve.  Learn some new techniques, then go back to the basics … do this again and again.
•  Imitate what you like.  Try to play or sing your favorite songs.  Start with the easy stuff, and gradually improve.  Don’t worry now about developing your own style; that will come later. 
• Actively listen.  If a song works or doesn’t work for you, ask yourself why.  Listen to individual parts, and listen for how parts work together. Keep an open mind and listen to other musical styles, and think about how one technique works in one style but not in another style.  Most importantly, you’ll develop your artistic taste by actively listening, i.e., you’ll refine what you like and dislike.

Style: OK, you’ve learned to play by the rules.  Now you can create your own style by breaking some of the rules.  

• Style is the combination of technique and artistic taste.  Put another way, it’s what you can make happen, combined with what you want to happen. 
• Explore: Try combining techniques from different styles.  Try combining old rules with new techniques.  Experiment, to see what’s possible.  If you can’t create the artistic statement that you want, keep searching.  Find an idea, explore it, make something if you can from it, and move on to the next idea.  Find a way to work around your artistic limitations. 
• Caution: if you break all the rules, nobody can relate.  If you break none of the rules, nobody is interested. 

Your artistic process: Create a way for you to create.  Find a way to create time/space in your life to work on your art.