by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
In the land of orange pumpkins, are you an albino pumpkin? Do you stick out among friends and family? Do you consider gazing out the window to be mind work and eavesdropping on bystanders homework? Then you might be a creative.
Learn to rejoice in your unique role. (I prefer unique to odd, sounds more French) What are our creative strengths? What traits do we bring to the world and our planet? Here are a few.
Curiosity. Life-long learners, we never stop questioning or exploring the world around us. We embrace small details and the big picture at the same time. We believe connect-the-dots is not a game we only play as kids. Cats understand us and dogs know we are always up for an adventure.
Resolute. We will spend seven years writing a story and not give up on it because we know kids will want to read about a world of wizards, aka J.K. Rowling. When all about us are following the trend, we fight upstream like a salmon to create the next new thing, like Hobbits or Twitter or flash mobs.
Energy. When we get that aha moment which solves a dilemma or a writing challenge, we light up like a stadium spotlight. Power will pulse from our skin and we’ll type streams of words to create new worlds, save nations, celebrate love and heal pain. Comic strips may be involved.
Attitude. We fight for our characters, our stories, our books and our words. We know it’s not how many five-star reviews we have on Amazon.com, but how many hearts we touch, entertain and educate. We know our lives will end one day but our words and works will live on and that is enough. Except for intellectual property estate planning. Copyright extends seventy years beyond our death, so plan for it.
Time. Everyone has the same amount of hours on this earth and we choose to spend our time creating. Make art not crap is our mantra. Mastery of any craft takes work and patience. If we give up too soon, we miss our earned goal. We have to practice and hone our craft over time. Nora Robert’s number one writing rule, “Ass in the chair.”
Inventive. We like to create worlds and push boundaries. With our inventor hats on we have created tribbles, E.T., vampires, talking dogs, wizards, James Bond, Madagascar penguins and Garfield the cat. No one knows what will become of their creations, but we give life to new personalities out of thin air. We are Dr. Frankenstein.
Vicarious. Adventurers of space, foreign lands and haunted houses, we will create worlds we might never want to visit, but we will take others along for the ride. We invite readers into our fantasies and fears. In our stories we show humanity; the good, the bad and the warts. We teach with mental pictures.
Explain. We try to make sense of our world by crafting ideas and lands which inform us of how we have lived and how we strive to live in the future. We struggle to understand our roles on this planet and our life’s purpose through creating. We document the lives and loves of an entire planet and envision a future for all.
Be a proud albino pumpkin creative. We creatives celebrate the unusual, the great, the pain and hope of all people on a little planet called earth. Which looks kinda like a pumpkin. We are creatives, watch us soar!
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