How Does the Creative Process Actually Look?

My plans to share the details of an interview Karl Ove Knausgaard, the Norwegian writer who wrote six volumes entitled My Struggle (most volumes over a thousand pages detailing all he sees using the maxim showing not telling) conducted with Anselm Kiefer, (a German artist with the same birth year as I) have been derailed by my own creative process, my physical body and my drive to know my mind. Let me show you how this looked:

After a week’s absence due to cataract surgery, on Monday, we returned to Active Adults. This exercise class consisting of strength training, aerobics, balance and stretching pretty much wiped me out for the afternoon other than making it to my analyst’s office for our regular session. Why does it take so long to build up strength and endurance and so little time to lose it and why is it taking me years to know my patterns?

Tuesday I journeyed to South Des Moines to meet with the editor at Zion Press. This meeting was several hours of intense interaction and this, while not physical like Monday, took another type of energy draining in its own way. After the meeting I attended my analytical session. Why does it take so long to get clear what the purpose of a book is and so much work to know my mind?

Wednesday we returned to exercise class and were introduced to a new instructor and all I can say it beware of engaging, fit, energetic, charming young women who coax you to do more than you thought you could do.  My afternoon session with the analyst had the same characteristic – how many feelings is it possible to feel in one fifty minute hour?

Thursday, after a three month lapse, I visited my skilled and life-giving Osteopath for an alignment session which works on trigger points which release energy and help me stand up straight and breathe deeper. Feeling relaxed, I slept most of the afternoon, and woke up with a feeling of mild panic, realizing I had done no more than think about a post for this week – so I began seriously reading the New York Times Magazine interview and plotting what I was going to post. When I arose from my nap, I headed over to Valley Junction to get my hair cut – a different type of therapy.

So now it is Friday and I am about to see my analyst for the last session of the week and then go Active Adults and I don’t have time to tell you much about the interview except for this excerpt that I found very interesting and wanted to share:

“Theatrics, role play, repetition and routines belong to the external world, and what they do, what they are there for, is to protect the internal world. And it is in the internal world that art begins.”*

How do you protect your internal world? Where do you think art begins? How do you find time for the creative process? Have you read any 1000 page books? 

CLUE for better living: Do something fun! Your choice. I went to the Des Moines Botanical Center for lunch and a tour. It was refreshing for our Saturday outing.

Image: Taken in Bangkok, Buddha’s Doctor, 2013. We all need healers!

*The New York Times Magazine, 2/12/2020. If you want to read the interview, I think you can find it online.