How to live with a creative person.
Understanding a creative person, reviews, live events, and more
The Creative Mind - An Essay
I always describe trying to make anything creative as walking in a vast desert, alone, pointing a device to the stars hoping to find a signal. Anything that steps into that person’s path makes him frustrated, angry, desperate. An interruption, even one as small as one second’s time, can scare off even the faintest of creative signal, and the process must start once again. After every interruption, one must re-calibrate his instruments and point them up, walking this or that way, ignoring the pain on your neck and the stinging in your eyes from staring directly into the sun.
And, if the person tries for long enough, he might receive something, anything. If a person is ever so lucky to get locked into something, they must remain there, for as long as possible, until the exhaustion is too much to carry on. Only then does a creative person can feel like a human. Only then can he act normal, do normal things, be a good husband and father, play with his dog, and mean it.
If your spouse or partner is a creative, know how necessary these four hours or so of uninterrupted time are. The more days elapse between these blocks of time, the more demons accumulate in his brain, and the worse you’ll get along. The ideas aren’t just ideas for a creative person, they are babies that are growing inside of him that must be born, or else they die within him, poisoning his entire being, aging him beyond his years, blackening his windows, pulling in the curtains of his mind. The ideas never go completely away, but they accumulate if unattended. They pollute his soul, they infiltrate every cell of his body with toxins. No pill, therapy, exercise, or diet can fix him. He must practice his art every day. Either he writes, creates music, makes films, whatever it is, his hours must be there, available, sacred.
The longer the creative person spends connected to the narrow zone of the muse, the happier he is. So, next time the creative person next to you acts, sounds, and looks like an ogre, simply tell him, “Go. Go exorcise your demons. I will hold the fort for the next four hours.” And he will love you instantly. And when his time in the desert is over, he will emerge re-energized. He will cook you dinner, do the dishes, mow the lawn, walk the dog, play with the kids, take you on a date, listen to your complaints, and help you on your path to your dreams—unprompted. He will do all this because he had a chance to feel like his life is not meaningless. That he, too, has purpose outside of the walls of this house. That his strange brain has a use. That there’s a reason why he can’t hold a normal job, why he can’t sometimes sleep at night, why his ideas are so vast, they sometimes overflow his brain and spill out of his mouth and ears. That this is a burden he can and must carry.
Book Reviews
Sundial - Catriona Ward
★★★★★
What starts out as a domestic violence victim's story descends down a spiral of secret and twists. By the end, the characters are almost unrecognizable, their flaws and past tearing at their skin. I found the book was written in an original and compelling way. This is the book I was reading before and after my son was born, both in the delivery and recovery room. It will forever have a place in my heart.
The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones
★★★★★
Listened to this on audiobook. It took me a while to finish. This isn't a book you can listen to in the background while you're doing some chore, this is a book that wants, no, demands your full attention. The intrinsic, fleshed out characters, the detailed descriptions, and the supernatural story takes you out of your life and transports you to an Indian reserve with a dark secret that spills over generations until one day, the secret comes back to haunt you. It is now 3:00 a.m. I feel changed. This is the kind of book I like to read.
Music News
Vetusta Morla announces hiatus
After their new album release and the end of their already committed dates, the Spanish band Vetusta Morla will be going on a hiatus until 2025. According to their statement, this is a friendly temporary break to rest and come back fully recharged for better things to come.
Indie Author Spotlight
And finally, you can find my books at books.relvingonzalez.com and visit my website at relvingonzalez.com