Creativity

They hold the door open, ajar to a world. One of discovery. Intimate yet of the collective kind. Joint or alone, finding solace in language one seeks to immortalise it. A map, a trail and time of a place. Placemaking and infinite, part of a larger whole, yet small and passing.

These words found me, reader. Now they find you. A greeting. Never-endin... See more

Writing is you, spread between the folds of a page. A moment, a fragment of something whole. A glimpse and slow revealing of time. Curved lines spelling out the flow of life. The lips and tips of a finger. Timestamps marked in fine liners. A scribble to announce your presence. I am here, says the holder of a pen, the keeper of words.

Something is lost in forced words. Words forced into other words. An intellectualising of art. Like genre, like literature. Writing belongs to the shadows. It reveals itself, it is found not made. Not crafted nor intended. It is a painting.

Chase intellect. Chase insight. Chase permanence.

Write from the root of your own experiences. Write essays linked to your culture or moment in time, but that will not age out of relevance in a few months. Be someone who asks the questions no one else is asking. Be a critic. Be a reporter.

Writing is profoundly shaped by other writing, either deliberately or simply through the interconnectedness of related works. This connectedness is a healthy and expansive relationship, adding new concepts and ways of seeing through each subsequent work.

The creative act lies in transforming these voices into something new. The goal was not to simpl... See more

While it’s probably one of the corniest things I’ll ever write in this column, I’ve come to believe that developing taste is not so unlike going to therapy; it’s an inefficient, time-consuming process that mostly entails looking inward and identifying whatever already moves you. It’s the product of devouring ideas, images and pieces of culture not ... See more