This week I was stuck for inspiration. You see, I have ideas. I have more ideas than I can contain.
If I could bottle ideas, thoughts, creations, well, I wouldn’t cringe at the thought of writing for free or check the price tag on that classy coat I’ve had my eye on.
Ideas are a currency that we creatives guard with all of the energy we can muster. Our ideas proclaim our worth and if we give them away we become nothing.
I tend to rank my ideas as they first begin to materialize in my mind.
“That idea is mediocre, I’ll use it for this site, or that site - something that isn’t too terribly important.”
“This thought has potential, I’ll hide it away for a bit. Let is brew until it is ready to transform into words on the page. Or until I feel like I am worthy of writing it.”
“This creation will be phenomenal - the grandest of them yet - I shall save this for myself and craft it into a grand book that will make me millions.”
Those might be somewhat of an exaggeration, but they hold a truth that I wanted to delve into a bit further.
I have various creative outlets that I create content for and the list is ever growing. Adding new outlets to my list of responsibilities is a type of addiction that may be rooted in my desire to push all of my limits beyond their elasticity.
How far can I spread my thoughts across the world? How much can I create?
And I will admit that I do not always give away what I believe to be my most valuable ideas to all of the outlets which I create for. There is a hierarchy at play here. I don’t deem this to be a negative issue per say, but rather, a peculiar phenomenon that I did not even realize was taking place until recently.
I have a list long enough to fill notebooks with the blog posts I wish to write for my personal blog, yet, giving my ideas away to a source I have no control or obvious gain from calls for a different contribution. It is terrifying, the thought that the words I so lovingly write may leave the control of my own hands.
Which brings me to the question that I myself am still developing an answer for: How should we creatives choose where to place our content, which content to place where, and ultimately, is it ethically sound to intentionally hoard ideas that deserve to be shared with the world no matter the avenue that they take for that exposure?
Are we being selfish with our ideas?
Do we, as creative people, have a responsibility to the world to share our valuable thoughts as they come to us no matter if it results in our own personal gain or someone else taking that gain for their own advantage?
Ideas are a commodity – they always have and they will continue to be such – and as artists of paper or canvas, digital or physical, do we have the right to turn art into a business that turns away from sharing thoughts into instead developing strategic game plans for success and increased income?
Do we lose the art in our creations by turning them into chess pieces that we place in specific outlets, at specific moments, with specific intentions instead of letting them flow organically into the world through whichever path first becomes available that they fall easily into?
As a writer, I consider myself an artist of words and I hold these words, each one that comes to me, close to my heart. I nurture them until they blossom into stories and essays, poems and prose. My creations are the essence of my being and an extension of my identity as a person.
Are we losing the art of our artistry in this new world where words, thoughts, and creativity is a commodity and a business that we must hustle through to stay afloat within? Are we losing the art of creating for the desire of gaining?
Or have I simply had too much caffeine, too little sleep, and a mind that asks too many questions?
