Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. All
too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean
that we want to be able to be productive. Now, to be
creative is to be productive—but by cooperating with the
creative process, not forcing it.
As creative channels, we need to trust the darkness. We
need to learn to gently mull instead of churning away like a
little engine on a straight-ahead path. This mulling on the
page can be very threatening. “I’ll never get any real ideas
this way!” we fret.
Hatching an idea is a lot like baking bread. An idea needs
to rise. If you poke at it too much at the beginning, if you
keep checking on it, it will never rise. A loaf of bread or a
cake, baking, must stay for a good long time in the darkness
and safety of the oven. Open that oven too soon and the
bread collapses—or the cake gets a hole in its middle
because all the steam has rushed out of it. Creativity requires
a respectful reticence.
The truth is that this is how to raise the best ideas. Let
them grow in dark and mystery. Let them form on the roof
of our consciousness. Let them hit the page in droplets.
Trusting this slow and seemingly random drip, we will be
startled one day by the flash of “Oh! That’s it!”

THE IMAGINATION AT PLAY