Dispatch on creativity

Working with The Magic

For his DIY Masters Class, one writer investigates creativity

I left teaching more than a year ago to write children’s books. The question from people who know me casually is legitimate: How many books have you published?

The act of making something out of nothing demands investigation, and, maybe, believing in some magic. Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

Well … none.

Poems? Uh….a few, so far.

Then comes some silence. In that quiet hides another question: So, what have you been doing?

It’s the how-do-you-account-for-yourself question.

As a way to explain myself quickly and simply, I tell people that I’m putting myself through a Do-It-Yourself master’s program. The instruction can be spotty. The tuition is affordable. I paid off no one to get accepted. The curriculum is a rough arts program in story construction, narrative poems, and how to watch a day speed by with little notice.

I get to role play as faculty, student, and janitor (the dishes have to be done before my wife returns from work at 6:30 p.m.)

The beating heart of my DIY program is the question of how to sustain creativity. My investigation has led from esteemed potters to a Jazz trumpeter to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic.