Creativity - Helen Bianchin

My ten year-old grand-daughter loves ballet, dance, hip-hop, and her dream is to be an entertainer. Almost every move she makes involves a dance step and her expressive features
become alive as she slips into her own imaginary world where music plays that only she can hear.

She asked me with great seriousness if I hear peoples' voices when I write. The truth? Yes.
My characters exchange dialogue in my head. What's more, I see them as if they're actors in a movie only I can see - in technicolour.

My grand-daughter doesn't think this is weird or extraordinary. To her, it appears quite normal.

The conversation made me wonder about creativity. Do artists who paint see the work on a blank canvas? Sculptors envision a finished work as they chisel stone or form a wax model in which to bronze? Composers hear notes on a piano or their musical instrument of choice? Some of the most famous inventors - Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Madam Curie - what drove them to explore the unknown, to persist against tremendous odds to achieve what appeared the almost impossible in their time?

For writers - what is it that drives each of us to sit for hours each day (and night) in front of a computer to write stories? No matter the genre. From personal experience, when I finish a book and deliver it to my editor, I think I'll never be able to write another book. I'm done. Finished. The book was a fluke. Yet fast-forward a week or two, and an idea will present itself. Then the characters appear. I need thinking time. I make notes, cut pictures from magazines -slowly it all begins to take shape and substance.

What drives you to write?
How do you view the creative process?
Could you ever really give up telling stories?

I'd love to hear some responses .....

Helen