Spontaneous Creativity

There are two different types of creativity.  Most of what we do is what I call "Careful Creativity," or creativity where I sit down and make a conscious effort to do it.  Writing a novel is an extreme example of Careful Creativity.  So is composing and writing down a piece of music, or spending days and weeks working on a painting.  This is important creativity, but it does usually take some time, not to mention some focused effort.

Then there's the subject of today's post: Spontaneous Creativity.  This is the sort of creativity we do on the spur of the moment every day.  It can come up at dinner, when we decide to add a sprig of parsley at the side of the plate with the meatloaf on it.  It can come up in an email when we think of a really great pun to use in our resignation letter.  It can come up when we're out with friends and suddenly think of a really great idea of how to pass the time. 

There are, naturally, different levels of Spontaneous Creativity.  There are very simple examples, like the sprig of parsley; there are moderate examples, like the pun in the resignation letter; there are also very complex forms, like musical improvisation.  Back "in the day," genius performers would spontaneously improvise whole sections of pieces (called cadenzas) in front of huge audiences.  No pressure there.

Military leaders in the field also display this complex improvisation when they are forced at the last moment to change plans in order to outmaneuver an enemy.  It's sometimes called thinking on the fly, and sometimes flying by the seat of your pants, but whatever it is, there is most certainly a creative component to it.  What makes it all the more terrifying is that there's no safety net -- if something goes terribly wrong during such an act of Spontaneous Creativity, at best an audience laughs; at worst, dozens of people lose their lives.

Fortunately for most of us, our attempts at Spontaneous Creativity don't have lives hanging in the balance.  Even embarrassment is, for most of us, a far-flung possibility, for you see, every act of Careful Creativity comes from a string of Spontaneously Creative choices.  When I get a sudden idea for a chord progression, that's Spontaneous Creativity.  If I perform it in front of an audience without testing it, it stays Spontaneous; if I test it out, decide whether or not I like it, and then write it down, it becomes Careful.  Careful Creativity is no more than Spontaneous Creativity with hindsight.

So what does that mean?  It means we all need to work on cultivating our ability for Spontaneous Creativity, since all our creativity -- no matter what it is -- is made up of those small spontaneous insights and ideas.  The great thing about Spontaneous Creativity is that you already do it in your quotidian life, and probably more often than you realize.  As you go about your day today, look for those instances of Spontaneous Creativity that creep in here and there, and usually when you least expect it.  Before you know it, you'll find yourself being Spontaneously Creative everywhere you go and in everything you do.