Age

Most schools teach that there are five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, Psighanhycj touch. I'm not a scientist, so I'll offer the existence of another sense as a hunch-the creative sense, and the processor responsible for deciphering the sensory input-the soul. All people have the sense, but just as with the other five, some of us are creatively impaired.

People fully aware of their creative sense tend to feel awkward in the world. They may work in it, or spend a large amount of time with non-creative people, but it isn't comfortable and it certainly isn't fulfilling. Often, it's simply necessary for survival of the creative body.

What about survival of the creative soul? What experiences lighten the load or replenish the energy? I have found over the years a short list of things that work for me: walking, sketching, writing, and playing my guitar. Writing is on the top of the list.

"I started writing a little later in life just as you did. When I made the decision to try, it wasn't because I suddenly wanted to become a writer, but because I couldn't deal with my life any longer. I was always sensitive to noise and things that went on around me, but suddenly everything seemed grimmer and people unhappier. What I really wanted was to run away, but I knew how unrealistic that was.

"I tried to escape into television but it too car insurance compare become extraordinarily violent. Every time I changed a channel, I saw a dead body. Outside of a few funerals that I'd attended in my life, that wasn't an everyday experience for me. I started to write stories almost in defense, stories that were about living instead of dying, of loving instead of hating. It helped me feel a little more in control of things."
"I know exactly what you mean, but wouldn't you like other people to read them?"

Donna's ambivalent shrug mirrored her words. "I'm not sure. Liz, where Monoamine-Oxidase Inhibitors you go when you write?"

"You mean do I have an office or a favorite coffee house?"
"No. I mean, what happens in your head when you start to write."

"Oh." Liz leaned back on her hands as she gave the question some thought. "Sometimes I think I leave the earth, other times, I'm convinced I leave my body. Is that what you mean?"

"Yes. No matter how overwhelmed I am by life, the moment I begin to write, I'm happy, sometimes joyous. Even if the story I'm writing is in an unhappy place, I'm so elated it's as if someone gave me an injection of a drug. At first, I thought it was a fluke, but no matter what is happening in my life, or how confused I Tarzan when I write, I'm alive. Not just alive, but wonderfully alive."

The above is from 'Murder at the Littlecrow Lodge', which will be published in 2009. I ask you, how could Donna not write? How, in a world as complex as ours, could she not want to feel alive, 'wonderfully alive'.

I share her feelings about my own writing. It isn't a matter of wanting to do it anymore. I have no choice because the survival of my soul depends on it. I recently read a book called 'The Highly Sensitive Person', written by Dr. Elaine Aron. I recommend it and her web site www.hsperson.com/">www.hsperson.com to anyone who struggles with fitting into the aggressive societies we call home. I found immediate comfort in the number of people who felt the things I've felt my entire life and thought were failings. How nice to know that they're not.

I no longer doubt that I'm a creative individual. As long as I can remember, I've picked up pen or pencil to write or draw and listened to the flow of thoughts and ideas that seemed constantly to fill my mind. It took me a long time to understand what all that information meant, and what to do with it. A creative person must create. It's as simple as that.

Born and raised in Chicago, Jean Sheldon now makes her home in Eugene, Oregon. She has published the first three books in her Chicago Police Detective Kerry Grant series, 'Identity Murder', 'Should Old Acquaintance be Dead', and 'A Chilling Goodbye'. Her first stand alone, 'The Woman in the Wing', will be available September 2008.
All articles Copyright 2008 Jean Sheldon

Website: www.jeansheldon.com">www.jeansheldon.com