The Power and the Fear of Creating

This summer we’ve been talking about where story ideas come from. I hope we inspired some ideas.

But sometimes when we say, “I don’t know what to write about,” it’s our way of saying that our dreams are bigger than our current abilities. Our imagination is powerful, and our skills may seem small by comparison…

and that’s scary.

If you can relate to that feeling, you’re not alone! I’ll confess right now that symphonies play in my head, but when I sit down to play the music I create sounds like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

Would you believe that even J. R. R. Tolkein understood the same frustrations? You can read his beautiful short story Leaf by Niggle here and a wonderful blog about the importance of imagination here.

Eventually, if we keep dreaming, the dreaming becomes doing!

Exercise:

As we begin this year of imagining, creating, and growing, your first assignment is to read Leaf by Niggle.