Rosanne Cash on the Creative Process
Apr 30th, 2008 by Linda Naiman
Rosanne Cash has written a beautiful and eloquent description of her creative process on a New York Times blog:
…as I get older I have found the quality of my attention to be more important, and more rewarding, than the initial inspiration. I?ve found that the melody is already inherent in the language, and if I pay close enough attention to the roundness of the vowels and the cadence of the words, I can tease the melody out of the words it is already woven into. I have found that continual referral back to the original ?feeling tone? of the inspiration, the constant re-touching of that hum and cry, more important than the fireworks of its origin. I have learned to be steady in my course of love, or fear, or loneliness, rather than impulsive in its wasting, either lyrically or emotionally.
This maturation in songwriting has proven surprisingly satisfying. Twenty-five years ago, I would have said that the bursts of inspiration, and the transcendent quality that came with them, were an emotionally superior experience, preferable to the watchmaker concentration required for the detail work of refining, editing and polishing. But the reverse is proving to be true. Like everything else, given enough time and the long perspective, the opposite of those things that we think define us slowly becomes equally valid, and sometimes more potent.
She also talks about the fear associated with creativity in workshops she has conducted.
The palpable fear that always hung in the workshop classroom like a toxic mist made me want to take several showers a day and seriously consider changing professions. I?m speaking of my own fear, of course.
Why is creativity so frightening?
I have discussed the creative process… and fear in these articles and newsletters:
Xerox PARC: Collaboration at the Intersection of Art and Science
An interview with John Seely Brown
The Art and Science of Happiness
“Structuring the Fuzz” The Design of Ideation for New Product Ideas