Inspire Creativity

Maya Angelou once said, "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

Without her willingness to use her creativity, we wouldn't have her poetry today. We wouldn't have "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," and so many prominent works of literature that remain relevant in the 21st century. If Maya Angelou didn't use her creativity, the world of literature wouldn't be the same.

What would happen if you didn't use your creativity?

I'm a creative writer, with my poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction featured in national literary publications. Now, here's a funny story: I used to hate poetry. I didn't think I could write a decent poem. I guess you could say I was afraid to share a poem with my peers because I knew I wasn't good. So, I stuck to writing short fiction stories.

(photo/Dream Stop)

This slowly began to change in college when I learned more about poetry. Thanks to one of my professors, I started writing poetry...and once I removed the fear, I fell in love with the genre. I used my creativity to write poems and before I knew it, I was publishing my work.

As a creative writer, I have to use my creativity in order to inspire others with my work. I don't know where the ideas for my writing come from, and that's true for most writers. The inspiration for a new piece of writing just comes to me. That's all part of my creativity. What would happen if I ignored my creativity? No one would read my work, learn from the writing, or be inspired.

We must use our creativity, whether it be with writing, music, art, technology, and more. Your creativity is a gift...So, use it. Use it to make beautiful work to inspire others. Don't be afraid or self-conscious to use your creativity, because then you'll only be preventing people from valuing your work. But, most importantly, you'll be robbing yourself of being the individual you were born to be.

I'll leave this post with one of my favorite quotes from poet Sylvia Plath: "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

(photo/Art-Sheep)

Inspire creativity.

---

Important News: I'm happy to announce that starting this upcoming weekend (Oct. 28-29), I'm creating a new series on this blog, Weekend Writing. I'll be blogging about topics relating to writing, literature and everything relating to the art of creativity. Stay tuned for a post this weekend! Make sure you're subscribed to my blog to be the first to read the upcoming new feature. 

-KJL-