The Creative Process

On Sunday we enjoyed the Lowestoft Carnival. Over the last couple of days the organisers have been receiving feedback and reviewing the event.

Yesterday I was reading ‘Nina Simone’s Gum’. Musician Warren Ellis describes the creative process when recording an album. He made reflect on the whole creative process….

Initially there the light-bulb moment, the idea. It’s refined, developed, worked on. With an album there is writing, composing, recording; with the carnival the organisers had a clear vision that was carefully planned and organised. The big concept is worked out in small details.

Then there’s a period when the album’s completed but not released. That’s where the carnival was last week. The plans had been made; everyone’s waiting for it to happen. Ellis describes this phase: ‘…this period in between is quite extraordinary. This beautiful limbo.’

Then finally you let go. The creator’s idea, the body of music that’s taken shape in an album, is finally released and becomes public. Others own it, have opinions; the creator has to let go. On Sunday the carnival became public; thousands of local people received, experienced, owned, had opinions… expressed on social media, fed back…

Three phases – light-bulb, limbo, letting go. I can relate that to things created in my life… a school-lesson taught, a concert carefully practiced, a flower-bed redesigned.

Reading and reflecting on the Biblical Jesus narrative… The Old Testament is the lightbulb, the preparation, the big concept, the small detail. Then there’s the limbo phase – the four hundred years between the Old and New Testament, the first thirty years of Jesus’ life. Finally his life becomes public. Others experience him, have opinions; ultimately he lets go and gives his life away.

And I reflect on my life… areas where I’m in the light bulb creation phase… areas of waiting in limbo… times when I must let go publicly… I’m reminded of Jesus’ enigmatic words, ‘Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.’