Creative work is often solitary work. It requires a lot of time with one’s soul. It requires reflection, work and then more reflection, and much of this happens when the artist is alone. And even when an artist is out with friends or going about other business, there is often that other self that keeps musing on the work in progress.
It takes confidence in yourself as a creative person to make the time and space needed for your process to work itself out. Your creative process is as individual as you are. And while you can talk to other creatives and learn from them, in the end you must settle for yourself what your process actually is and what you must do to facilitate it.
This means that, deep down, you have to believe that there is a process and that this process is yours to own. You have to be willing to take a stand and put boundaries around your time and energy. When people ask what you’re doing, you can give them an answer or not, but you must know for yourself what the answer is.
– from “The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life” by Vinita Hampton Wright Loyola Press
