Different Flavors of Creativity

Like everyone else in the world, I'm forced to balance my time between the things I want to do and the things I HAVE to do. And even with the things I want to do, I still have to split my free time between my various hobbies.

Writing takes up a big chunk of time, as I'm sure we all know. I try to do at least a little writing every day (quality and word count vary, of course). Some days I get on a really good kick and abandon everything else (within reason) to get all of the ideas in my head down on the page.

Then I started thinking - a lot of my hobbies and interests are considered "artsy", or creative outlets. Second to writing is knitting and crocheting. I love yarn, I love occupying my mind and fingers with complex patterns, and it makes me feel better about the amount of TV that I watch. I guess it could be argued that I'm following someone else's directions to make something artistic, but I figure that with the yarn I choose and the modifications I sometimes wind up making, it can count as being creative. (Also, the nerd in me loves to do some freeform crochet every now and then. Fun times!)

I'm also a musician. As in, went to music school and have two degrees in music education (which are doing nothing for me ever since the economy hit the toilet). I noticed that there were quite a few of my fellow students who picked up some knitting needles for the first time around the same time I did. Another one of my musician friends has recently started painting in his free time.

It makes sense, I guess (and I feel a little like I'm pointing out the obvious). If you're interested in one creative pursuit, it seems logical that you would be involved with others. Then again, I have met some people who have their one "thing" and their one thing only, and nothing else in a similar vein appeals to them. In the interests of full disclosure, my husband is also a fellow musician/music teacher, and he's not really as much of a "think outside the box" type of person as I am.

One of these days, when my money and free time are more plentiful, I'll take up something cool like sculpture. Or pottery. Or something else that will satisfy my urge to expand my creative horizons. (And hope that I'm better at those things than drawing/painting, because I can't draw for shit.) But for now, I'll stick with the writing. It's fun and it's free!