Writer's block or any kind of "creative crisis" is part of being creative; it will never disappear. I have suffered from this "creative crisis" many times, and this is what I do.
I always start working on a book with my best intentions, but then, sometimes I encounter unsurmountable mental resistance. Early in my career I despaired when this occurred, but later on I discovered how to overcome this anguish.
The first step is simply to give in. I’d tell myself that, "Yes, it is true that I am not talented, that I cannot do it, that my brain has died and my sense of color is off."
After sleepless nights, and days of raving against my destiny, I may call my editor and tell her that I have “lost it” and will never do a book again. I surrender to my fate. And that is exactly the point where recovery happens and creativity starts to flow again!
Thank you Mr. Carle for sharing this post with us! Your work has inspired me to do collage :) Love your books!
ReplyDeleteHaha that's great!...I get into creative crises too...I stop for a few days and get angry at myself and decide to prove myself wrong...that I can do it!
ReplyDeleteI'm rather stubborn!
Keep up the amazing work:)
My 6 year old daughter is in love with you! Every time we go to the library we leave with a couple of your books. She know right where to go to the Eric Carle section. I wished we lived close to you so she can see the museum unfortunately we live in Texas. She says that she is your biggest fan!
ReplyDeleteLieber Herr Carle,
ReplyDeletediesen gezeichneten Affen finde ich großartig!
What great advice. If a creative genius can have a creative crisis, the rest of us can certainly do so as well.
ReplyDeleteLove this method of relaxing into your worries about creativity.
ReplyDeleteDanke!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear these words flowing out of your writing feather (keyboard).
Aha! YOU play a version of my late daughter's and my favorite game, "What's the worse that can happen." Usually, because either one of us was pathetically stupid and wholly without redeeming value, we would wind up homeless and friendless on the street, ransacking old garbage pails for open cans that once held chicken soup... the more ridiculous we got, the further we wandered from our original fear. As she got older she helped ME play when I had writers' or painters' block, asking me the question... To this day, When I am afraid that nothing I do will work and that I have nothing left to contribute, I can hear her. You have wonderfully useful bits of your life in here. I have just been to the museum with a friend, came home and started the last part of a painting I'd doing for a friend's new grandson. Looking at illustrations and books made me write a poeme to go with the picture, which led me to what it needs for it to be done... yet I had thought I Had not one more idea about it in my head until today! THANK you for reminding me how much fun and how productive it can be to simply run with that "I am flotsam, without a clue" train of thought!
ReplyDeleteI am experiencing this today. :(
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