Creative Writing Wizard

Do you ever feel like you want to create something, but given everything going on in the world right now, it feels difficult?

The more you see (the more news, the more social media) the less you want to create.

I’ve been dealing with this feeling on and off for about six years now, through everything that’s been happening. And I wanted to share something I’ve found that’s helped me personally, in my own creative journey as a writer.

My hope is that by sharing a bit of my story, it might help you find a way to create your own stories too, even when there’s a lot going on. It may sound a bit odd, but I’ve found that moments like these are sometimes the best times to create.

So I want to tell you a quick story about two buckets.

Two Buckets

Imagine there are two buckets in a stream of water.

One bucket has an opening at the top, allowing the water to flow in or around it. Over time, the bucket fills up with water and it no longer can hold any more.

The second bucket has an opening at the top, but also an opening at the bottom. The water flows in, around, but also through it. Over time, the bucket can fill up with water, but because it has an opening at the bottom, it allows the water levels to vary and is never filled to the brim.

Both buckets are in the same stream, but one bucket keeps filling to the point where no more can flow in.

My Story and the Buckets

Why am I talking about buckets? In this analogy, I was the first bucket.

I was paying attention to the world events around me, like everyone else, and ‘filling my bucket’ with all sorts of inputs. Some things didn’t bother me and just passed by. Other things got stuck and I just kept them inside.

Over time, that buildup made it harder to create anything. My mind felt full.

What I eventually realized was that I didn’t need to stop paying attention, I needed an outlet.

Channeling

We are all in a river of inputs, we can’t control that. But there are three hings we can control:

1. What we focus on,
2. How much input we take in (to a degree), and
3. Whether there’s an opening at the bottom of our ‘input bucket’

I didn’t have that opening at first. But I poked one. And when I did, it allowed that pressure to come out and create something emotionally powerful.

I call this channeling.

Taking the input, and channeling it into something external to allow it to flow through me and be out of my system.

In Practice

For me, in a most recent example, that outlet was poetry.

Over the last few months, I’ve had an extra helping of ‘inputs’. Some have been amazing, while others have been extremely difficult to process and are emotionally heavy.

There were times I didn’t feel like I wanted to create anything, but at the same time I felt a good deal of internal pressure from this build up of inputs.

I decided to write a poem in the moment and just let out whatever first came to mind. Doing so felt like opening up a pressure release valve.

What’s fascinating is that, once I put an opening in my ‘bucket’, the words continued to pour out! Over the span of a few days, I ended up writing 29 poems in a collection and outlined another 30 over the next week.

There’s more to this story I’ll share later, as this poetry collection is shaping into something I want to talk more about for the concept of exploring creative mediums, but in closing I want to ask you something.

How Full is Your Bucket?

We can’t always control what we see or hear, but we can channel it into something creative and constructive.

It has taken me a while to get to where I’m at, with room to grow. I hope that in hearing my story it encourages you that you can create and find what your outlet looks like, even when things are heavy.

There is a lot going on in the world right now, and it’s worth saying that it’s okay to step away from it all and take a breather if you need it.

If you’re unsure what to do or how to start on the path to recovery, read on here for how I’ve found rest and taken time for my mental health.

Photo: David Alberto Carmona Coto