Hello, Artists!
What are you driven to create?
deep dark part of night
haunted by ideas begging
for me to birth them
Our Responsibility to Ideas
When it comes to creativity, I’m a bit of a hybrid between a mystic and a pragmatist. I don’t believe in writer’s block, but I do believe we can shut ourselves off from the channel of creativity.
I don’t believe in waiting for inspiration. I believe if you want to make art, you have to show up and work, whether or not inspiration does the same. And I absolutely believe in inspiration. It’s flighty, capricious, and life changing.
My most mystic belief when it comes to creativity is that we owe a responsibility to ideas. Ideas are marvelous things and terribly common things. There are ideas, and then there are Ideas.
Not all ideas are good ones, most are fairly terrible. However, a handful of ideas will ferment into Ideas, and sometimes Ideas will show up almost fully formed as you walk, have your morning coffee, or roll around in bed, not sleeping.
Wherever they come from, we owe it to Ideas to take them seriously, to give them the best of ourselves, because these beautiful things have a will of their own, and they will come into the world one way or another. If you will not give them life, they will find someone else to do it.
Elizabeth Gilbert talks about her version of this belief in her transformative book, Big Magic. No matter what you do in your life, as a human, you will receive a handful of Ideas, and you owe it to them, yourself, and the rest of us, to take them seriously. If you fail in this responsibility, you will find that fewer Ideas find their way to you. But if you take a risk, and give all of yourself to Ideas, magic happens.
I’m not saying you’ll get rich or famous. In my experience, often very few people will notice your execution of an Idea. But, it will change you and the way you see the world. And, most important of all, you will change the lives of one or maybe two other people.
Your Ideas aren’t really about you at all, and that’s what makes having them such a sacred responsibility.
What are you driven to create? What can you do today to make some magic in the world?
Small News
The publication Curious, over on Medium, published an article I wrote and illustrated. If you’ve been a subscriber here for a while, you may recognize some of the art. The story is called, Ask This One Question at the End of Each Day. It’s about finding a framework that is not productivity for evaluating the way you spend your time. This link will let you sneak past the paywall.1
Big News
The first digital issue of my monthly haiku comics zine is out!
The digital version has 36 haiku comics and can be yours for just $3 in the Weirdo Poetry Store. More than half of these comics have never been published anywhere else, not even in this fine newsletter. Paying subscribers to this newsletter received their free issues yesterday. Click here if you haven’t downloaded yours yet.
A paperback version will be available later in the week.
I love making these poetry comics and publishing daily poetry comics available to everyone for free, but it is only possible because of your support. When you purchase one of my books or zines, or you buy a subscription to this newsletter, it allows me to pay my bills, make more art, and keep this whole thing moving forward.
Here are some pictures of inside the zine:
Get Your Digital Copy Right Now!
Thank you for all your support! Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
There’s nothing nefarious here. I have a friend’s link I’m allowed to use how I like. I’m getting paid for this article based on the number of paying Medium subscribers who read it. But, sneaking past the paywall sounds more intriguing, don’t you think?
Our Responsibility to Ideas
The two articles dovetail so well. Thank you for generously sharing the link. Together, these articles definitely compose an **Idea**
I’m flying back home today after spending the weekend with my father who’s in the hospital fighting a very long illness.
Your words are medicine to me.
Re ideas: that Elizabeth Gilbert story in Big Magic about ideas coming into the world through one writer or the other has always worried me because I’ve been working on my novel for five years and I am not done. I’m hoping my story is patient for just a little longer.