Creativity & Epiphany

Where does it come from? The creative urge, the idea, the feeling of sudden wisdom and understanding?

My newest book Once Upon A Place touches on the origins of these elusive impulses. Where do ideas come from? How can we be open to them? What the heck is epiphany and why is it so frustratingly fleeting?

So ephemeral?

The Origins of Creativity

The journey of personal transformation always includes creativity and the search for enlightenment. What is a quest if not seeking out something new?

People cannot grow if we maintain our old ways of thinking or old, familiar patterns. We can’t expect things outside of us to change if we don’t change inside. '

Creativity is both an outlet and a way of being; it is a refreshing new thought as well as a maddening goal.

Having dabbled in acrylic painting, without being a professional artist, I often feel intimidated at the blank canvas in front of me. And writers, of course, experience writer's block. These are examples of what I call the Void, a place (and metaphor) that is void of details, empty, isolated; a void contains no paths and no markers and no direction. And because of this, our minds seek this type of Void in order to have the freedom to create something new.

A blank canvas is the epitome of possibility.

That’s what the storyteller's journey is: it is potential disguised as a challenge with options that appear as obstacles. The journey is our opportunity to choose, to create, to ideate, to wonder, to try and experiment and succeed and fail.

How Creative Imagery and Symbolism Help Us

We’re all on a journey of some sort, though it looks different for each of us.

Our brains need imagery – we need the symbols of fairy tales and myths and film to shift and morph what we are experiencing. Often, life is to blunt and brutal for us to deal with straight-on; imagery softens it for us.

Imagery helps establish that a character we’re watching or reading about is going through something we can relate to. Symbolism helps us know we will get through it, as well.

Often, in quests and tales the imagery is fantastical and the places look like caverns or labyrinths or mythic cauldrons. But they are stand-ins for real life.

The image makes our challenging journeys understandable and, because of a familiar metaphor, our minds can process what we’re going through more easily... and we can grow and change into the version of ourselves we're meant to be.

Stories make us aware that everyone else is going through something, too, and we are not alone.

What’s the point of creativity if we are alone? It can be therapeutic to pick up a paint brush but really, we want someone to share in the experience. Creativity is an act of expression and also an act of connection. We relate to each other through our creativity just as we do through the images of story.

How to Open Yourself to Creativity

There are two major forces at work when it comes to personal transformation (in both real life and in storytelling): Chaos and Void.

These are the two head-states you will find yourself in when you’re seeking answers or feeling emotions. They are really the same thing, but they can be visualized or experienced differently.

The Storytelling Craft: Chaos and Void

Chaos is cluttered and wild.

Void is empty and plain.

But neither has a path, nor roads, nor boundaries, nor rules. Each is a place where you can get lost and feel utterly bewildered. This is where we creativity flourishes.

It is all about potential. In a place without roadsigns, boundaries, walls, landmarks or paths, you may feel lost, but you are in a place of POTENTIAL. This is where writers want to put their characters: a place that opens their minds to epiphany and new thinking. If you are a writer, look at your landscapes and ask: does the place my character is living/acting/working invite change? Is it a place of potential?

Holly Bellebuono teaches Mythic Settings and Sense of Place for fiction writers, and leads writing retreats.

Her landmark book Once Upon A Place: Forests, Caverns and Other Place of Transformation in Myths, Fairy Tales and Film is the first to identify mythic landscapes used in fantasy writing and is available from your favorite bookstores and also as an audiobook. Click here for Holly's Speaker Sheet.