Where does our creativity come from?
People tell me all the time that they could never be this creative. Not true. It starts when you're a kid.
Yesterday we were discussing superheroes at work. My co-workers tend to miss my chatter when I'm on vacation. I think it all started with someones eye twitching. It took me back to my childhood. A twitching eye would usually mean that I was receiving telepathic messages from either aliens or my superfriends. If I concentrated I could very well respond to their hails, prevent some unforeseeable disaster, and calm my twitching eye.
This week I've been focusing on my male protagonist and have found it necessary to mimic some of his behavior. (I'll post about this tomorrow.) It makes me pause and consider what stands out in a person so much that it makes us pursue them, cling to their every word, try to imitate them. I reverted back to childhood memories and my favorite superhero: Superman.
I was in love with Superman from the moment I saw him in cartoon form until he took on the brawny shape of Christopher Reeve. Around the age of six, I pulled out an old blue outfit, took some scissors to it and made myself a costume. I was Superwoman. I had powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, or women. The funny thing is that instead of wanting to fight alongside Superman, I just wanted to play house. As I grew older I found myself fawning over Christopher Reeve, replaying his movies, freeze-framing the VCR so I could hurry to the screen and smooch him, praying to God that nobody saw me.
Around the same age, a friend of mine decided she was Wonder Woman. That was cool. I liked her costume, but secretly I was ecstatic that my character was stronger than hers. After spending an entire year of pretending, she told the entire class what we were doing, embarrassing me to death. Till this day I've denied it. How dare she reveal my secret identity. Needless to say, we're no longer friends.
Why are children drawn to these heroes? What is it about them that holds such attraction?
Heroes are inherently good. They can falter, yes, but mostly they'll do what's right simply because they're the good guys. They make me want to be better people, give everyone the benefit of the doubt, recycle, donate something to someone just because in doing so we can save the world with a single act of kindness.
Here's wishing everyone a heavy dose of creativity and smooth writing.
