For someone else
Feb. 13th, 2013 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflydreamingA commonality links the different creative things that I do. It has been some time since I have put beads on string, or sculpted. I craft in small bursts. That's why I shoot for projects that I can finish in one to two days. I might work differently if I had more space, but I suspect that messes are like fish: they keep growing as long as there is room to grow. The thing in common between various creative expression is that better quality happens when I imagine it is for someone else. If I make a gift, I am more pleased with it than if I just make a thing to make a thing. I feel that someone of my better poems have turned out that way for the same reason.
Well, that's usually true. Now that I think about it, there is a whole class of creative stuff that I do only for me. Singing, for one thing. I'm so out of practice singing publicly that I know I don't sound good. But I like to sing while I cook, for example, often, in made-up nonsense language. I've been singing like that since early childhood. I don't dance in public, either. Yeah -- why would I do that? Writing falls in a middle territory. I don't have anyone to imagine as my audience when I write. (I used to with fanfic, whentsukimineshrine was lively.) Thinking about that, I wonder if someday, I will. Cooking is in that middle category, too. It's nice to make food that another person likes to eat, but there are a bunch of things that I make only because *I* like them.
The audience thing is not about being praised. It's not about holding court or being a star. It's show-and-tell. It's let-me-share-this-cool-thing-with-you. Yes, I made it. But that's not the point. The most rewarding version of this is having someone with whom to share, who shares with me. (That's what's exciting about the PCGs. I feel that we are something much more than a writing community.)
I always feel like there should be some kind of concluding statement here. But I don't have one.
Well, that's usually true. Now that I think about it, there is a whole class of creative stuff that I do only for me. Singing, for one thing. I'm so out of practice singing publicly that I know I don't sound good. But I like to sing while I cook, for example, often, in made-up nonsense language. I've been singing like that since early childhood. I don't dance in public, either. Yeah -- why would I do that? Writing falls in a middle territory. I don't have anyone to imagine as my audience when I write. (I used to with fanfic, when
tsukimineshrine was lively.) Thinking about that, I wonder if someday, I will. Cooking is in that middle category, too. It's nice to make food that another person likes to eat, but there are a bunch of things that I make only because *I* like them.The audience thing is not about being praised. It's not about holding court or being a star. It's show-and-tell. It's let-me-share-this-cool-thing-with-you. Yes, I made it. But that's not the point. The most rewarding version of this is having someone with whom to share, who shares with me. (That's what's exciting about the PCGs. I feel that we are something much more than a writing community.)
I always feel like there should be some kind of concluding statement here. But I don't have one.