{"id":104,"date":"2008-09-25T13:24:18","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T21:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=104"},"modified":"2025-03-02T18:29:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T18:29:53","slug":"the-creative-tension-imperativenot-kants-categorical-imperative-thank-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/the-creative-tension-imperativenot-kants-categorical-imperative-thank-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Creative Tension Imperative (NOT Kant\u2019s Categorical Imperative, thank God)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2000-01, when this blog phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon began to take off, my dear friend Jason Scott Sad\u00adof\u00adsky<\/a> encour\u00adaged me to start one of my own. He helped me set up the domain names, gave me space on his serv\u00ader, and soon there\u00adafter NotWriting.com<\/a> was born.<\/p>\n

The Orcutt weblog fol\u00adlowed a cou\u00adple of years lat\u00ader. Where\u00adas NotWrit\u00ading was sup\u00adposed to be all about the \u201cstuff one writer does when he should be writ\u00ading,\u201d this blog was meant to chron\u00adi\u00adcle my thoughts and rev\u00ade\u00adla\u00adtions as I strug\u00adgled to make it as a fic\u00adtion writer. Both blogs were meant to be ancil\u00adlary at best, not the main results of my writ\u00ading out\u00adput.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve learned is exact\u00adly what I sus\u00adpect\u00aded before I began blog\u00adging, and that\u2019s this:<\/p>\n

Blogs are too easy and too cathar\u00adtic. The ease with which one can have an idea and see it instant\u00adly pub\u00adlished dis\u00adsi\u00adpates most of the cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion that can poten\u00adtial\u00adly make good ideas great.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mind you, this is my own hypoth\u00ade\u00adsis, and not all writ\u00aders and\/or blog\u00adgers will agree with it. How\u00adev\u00ader, over six years of blog\u00adging I have seen the above hypoth\u00ade\u00adsis proven true more often than not.<\/p>\n

Because I know I\u2019m going to get a del\u00aduge of angry emails from blog\u00adgers about this, let me clar\u00adi\u00adfy my posi\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s define cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion. Sim\u00adply put, cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion is the ener\u00adgy cre\u00adat\u00aded by con\u00adtem\u00adplat\u00ading the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between where you are (the cur\u00adrent state) and where you want to be (your vision for the cre\u00adative project or the future). The greater the gap in time or phys\u00adi\u00adcal man\u00adi\u00adfes\u00adta\u00adtion between where you are and where you want to be, the greater the cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion.<\/p>\n

Now, for writ\u00aders (or at least this<\/em> writer), here\u2019s the trou\u00adble with blogs: Because very lit\u00adtle time pass\u00ades between the con\u00adtem\u00adpla\u00adtion of where one is and where one wants to be (the vision), very lit\u00adtle cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion devel\u00adops. What lit\u00adtle cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion that does<\/em> build up is quick\u00adly dis\u00adsi\u00adpat\u00aded in a 500- to 1,000-word \u201cdit\u00adty,\u201d instead of being stored up for a much longer work.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at this in terms of anoth\u00ader sys\u00adtem that works by ten\u00adsion: the bow and arrow. If you put an arrow on a bow\u00adstring, pull the string back just a cou\u00adple of inch\u00ades and let go, the arrow will fly, but only a few feet. To put more poten\u00adtial ener\u00adgy into the sys\u00adtem, you have to increase the ten\u00adsion, and you do that by draw\u00ading the bow\u00adstring back as far as it will go, and THEN you let go. When you let go at the height of the bow\u2019s ten\u00adsion, WATCH OUT\u2014that arrow will trav\u00adel far and fast and, if aimed well, will hit its tar\u00adget with tremen\u00addous force.<\/p>\n

In his book, The Fifth Dis\u00adci\u00adpline Field\u00adbook<\/em>, edu\u00adca\u00adtion author Peter Sen\u00adge illus\u00adtrates what hap\u00adpens when a writer, artist, thinker or oth\u00ader vision\u00adary embraces cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeo\u00adple who are con\u00advinced that a vision or result is impor\u00adtant, who can see clear\u00adly that they must change their life in order to reach that result, and who com\u00admit them\u00adselves to that result nonethe\u00adless, do indeed feel com\u00adpelled. They have assim\u00adi\u00adlat\u00aded the vision not just con\u00adscious\u00adly, but uncon\u00adscious\u00adly, at a lev\u00adel where it changes more of their behav\u00adior. They have a sense of delib\u00ader\u00adate patience\u2014with them\u00adselves and the world\u2014and more atten\u00adtive\u00adness to what is going on around them. All of this pro\u00adduces a sus\u00adtained sense of ener\u00adgy and enthu\u00adsi\u00adasm, which (often after a delay) pro\u00adduces some tan\u00adgi\u00adble results, which can then make the ener\u00adgy and enthu\u00adsi\u00adasm stronger.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what is my point with all of this?<\/p>\n

I need to do less blog\u00adging. I need to let the cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion build in me and not give myself an easy out\u00adlet through my web\u00adsites. At least not as often.<\/p>\n

And to all of my fel\u00adlow writer\/bloggers out there, I chal\u00adlenge you to do the same. Cut back on the quan\u00adti\u00adty of your posts, let the cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion build. You nev\u00ader know\u2026you may have a book in you instead of 100 scat\u00adtered blog entries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2000-01, when this blog phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon began to take off, my dear friend Jason Scott Sad\u00adof\u00adsky encour\u00adaged me to start one of my own.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9156,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/9156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}