For some time I have been thinking of writing about a particular challenge that comes with doing creative work. It is a complicated subject, but sometimes writing about such a topic “primes the pump” for further consideration, so in this post I’m going to take a first — and almost stream-of-consciousness — look at the issue.

(As such, don’t expect a complete coverage here. That would take a book. Or several books. And I’m not about to write them! Also, I’ve updated this post by adding a wonderful reference to the subject through the perspective of composer John Adams.)

The day after writing this I read an article about composer John Adams, in which he responds to essentially the same question that I’m dealing with here:

While many things may be gained from experience, Adams says he is sot sure if the very act of composing gets any easier with age. 

”It depends on the day you ask me. Today, I could say it’s very difficult. But I can say that the one benefit of growing older is that you have a personal history of your own struggles. “

“If you have fought the battle in the past, when you have a block, you know it likely will not last, if you keep working. When you’re thirty years old, or twenty five years old, and you have a block, you think that’s the end of the world. You just can’t imagine success for yourself. So that’s the only thing I can say.”

It has been my good fortune to live and work in and around two creative fields: music and photography. (For those don’t know, my academic background is in music and I had a long career as a college music faculty member.) I have had plenty of opportunities to observe and experience the creative life, with all of its rewards and challenges. It is the relationship between some of the rewards and challenges that will figure in what follows.

If you do creative work, it is almost certain that you hope to experience the intense “high” that may come with it, a kind of intensity and exhilaration. Perhaps you have felt that in the work of others and you hope the work you create will evoke that response. You want to feel the sense of competence and even transcendence that can come from successful work. Perhaps you want to be like creatives who have influenced you.