Getting in the Groove

Photo by Tyler Milligan

The creative mind can be a blessing and a curse.

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The ‘blessings’ are obvious, but the ‘curse’ comes when your mind conjures up so many magnificent ideas that it doesn’t know where to begin with any of them.

But finally, when something percolates to the top of the list, and a few brush strokes have struck the canvas, or a few notes to that song in your head have been plucked or plinked, or the first line to a bestselling story is on the computer or notepad, the awwwwes that come forth and the relief you feel in your brain are worth a sit-back-and-think moment. I did it! I’ve begun a project! I’ve found the groove.

But can you stay there?

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That euphoric feeling of beginning a dream for real is amazing. You continue. It goes well. But then your rapt attention to the project at hand becomes joggled, the groove tilts. And because it was easier than expected to actually get started, you’ve allowed your thoughts to conjure up yet another brilliant idea you’d like to see through.

And just so you won’t forget that fabulous new spark of genius, you begin writing it down, sketching it, or making note of those notes that your mind is singing. But, before you realize it, your first project is forgotten for the moment because this new idea is emerging into something grand. The original groove is gone.

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The amazement of your talents can bloom into a promising blossom or a budding fruit from which to marvel or taste when fully grown. But that comes when the project is finished, when you’ve stuck to the groove. Before the magic of that promise of good things can come, you must burst through a cycle of tedium for keeping the excitement alive to get to the end. And that takes hard work, dedication, and determination for maintaining your groove.

When you realize you now have two exciting projects started, you find it hard to choose which one to get back to, which one you want to finish first. Then, perhaps because you are equally excited about both, and not wanting to negate one project for the other, you start a new one just to be fair. Besides, the ideas keep popping when you are on a creative roll, right!? You don’t want to leave any brilliant stones unturned.

By the end of a year, you look back at all that you have accomplished, and you feel proud yet flustered…your handiworks are vast, but there is not a single piece on which you’ve labored over, that you can hold in your hands to raise up for the glory of sharing because nothing is finished, you’ve not stayed in the groove.

Photo by James Qualtrough

Sharing only the beginnings of things you’ve created leave people wanting more, yet you have nothing more to share except snippets of other starts. When the next nubbin is shown, it brings disappointment and eventual disinterest in seeing only those starts with no ends. People like exciting beginnings, but they also need closures…the final product. That requires much emotional and physical exertion and maintaining that groove, which you’d left behind long ago.

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Then there are those people who understand the purpose of keeping a groove to finish each project, who start another and another, finishing all, but they do nothing with them. One wonders why such talent is wasted when those finished products sit in a closet or on a shelf instead of being shared.

There are a couple of reasons that come to mind: fear and ignorance. Fear of the unknown about people’s reactions to a finished piece of work you have poured your heart and soul into…will it be loved as much as you love it, or will it be rejected as tripe? A good reason, you rationalize, for not finishing a piece, or for not seeking out the avenue for sharing your wonderful creations. But that excuse, although real enough, is hogwash. The adage ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ could not be more accurate in these cases, so just go for it and whatever happens, in the end, will either make you stronger or at least more determined; either one is good. And then you press on. If, from lack of enthusiasm, you give up because you aren’t strong enough to take the criticisms and build on them, then at least you will have made the effort and can move on to something else.

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The other possibility for not getting something finished or out there for review is being ignorant, or knowledgeless of what to do or where to go with whatever you have to finish or show.

Yet the solution to that is too easy to discount. The internet is filled with those who could be of help with whatever you need help with. That will likely cost money since each of those ‘experts’ need to make a living, but it may be worth checking out. Or it may not cost anything just to get an opinion, depending on the product. But the point is the importance of making a move and trying something for getting back into a productive groove and having something to show for it.

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I am not on the proverbial ‘band wagon’ writing these things because I am an expert, a psychologist, or in a business to help someone, I am speaking from my own experiences.

I am on my third book. One was started and finished thirty years ago; another started and finished twenty years ago; the current book was started but not finished ten years ago, all dusty with inactivity. I didn’t try to get any of them published before now, because I didn’t know how to make that happen. I was too much into doing the creating to be bothered with finding a way to get any of them to a publisher or agent for consideration. I’m certain that that was from a lack of determination, a bit of fear, and a little bit of laziness.

But then two years ago I found a facilitator who told me what he could do for me, and I signed up. It was time to make a move, to get back into a groove, to ‘put up or shut up’, to use yet another apt cliché. The price quoted seemed worth the try, and he has been a Godsend to my creative abilities…and to my hopes for getting my books seen. I have accomplished a lot with blogs like this one; I have my own website; along with other ways for getting my name out there that he has set up.

Now, as I finish my shortest book and look forward to its edits, and getting it ready for the next step, I am feeling euphoric about the accomplishment of reaching this point at long last, of finding the groove that I’d left behind years ago. I can see a spear of light at the end of that cold dark cave I’d put myself into.

Photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown