The Fiction Writer and the Creative Chaos

Creative Chaos: It's Difficulty, Its Call, Its Freedom

Creative chaos is probably the most difficult aspect of the creative process. And it is the most mysterious and exciting. This is true whether we are writing a book, creating a garden, redoing our house or deepening our relationships. Whatever the creative undertaking, the centerpiece of the process, especially in its opening stages (which can often last for quite a while) is the creative chaos.

What makes the creative chaos such a difficult part of the process? Consider the word itself: chaos. What do you think of when "chaos" comes to mind? Anarchy. Mobs. Randomness. Out of control. “Oh God, my life is in chaos... My house is a mess... My kids are out of control... my bills are mounting.... Nothing is going right at work... Chaos. I live in eternal chaos! " Sound familiar?


The problem with creative chaos is not so much the actual chaos, but our dumping creative chaos into the barrel of negative life experiences. We do this to the detriment to all our creative expression. Take relationships. To my mind, building strong, life enchancing relationships is one of our most creative challenges.

No powerful relationship in life, including your relationship with yourself, can escape the chaotic fires of transformation. Often, you are brought to the point of desperation. You yell, often in most self-righteous outrage, "I can't take it anymore! I'm out of here!" You think you're leaving the relationship but in truth what you are leaving, what is being burned away and transformed by the chaos, are those parts of the relationship that no longer serve.

Picasso said, "Artists are destroyers of nicely ordered systems."

I believe the first system that artists/creators must destroy is the nicely ordered system of our persona that struggles desperately to keep hold the status quo. Creativity and creative chaos are warriors of change driven by passion.
Creativity is revolutionary; it is active; it is daring; it requires risk. Creativity is not some law abiding, moderate participator in life!

Anything of worth in life must withstand burning if it is to give light.
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Explore Emily 2015 Writer's Retreat, May 2015: Journey Into the Imagination

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