{"id":386,"date":"2013-11-28T08:52:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T14:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oneyearnovel.wpengine.com\/?p=386"},"modified":"2022-11-09T17:10:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T23:10:53","slug":"does-your-imagination-have-to-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/oneyearnovel\/blog\/does-your-imagination-have-to-grow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Your Creativity Have to Grow Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tineke Bryson, Staff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I was one of those kids who did not want to grow up. At all.<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t merely cranky about it; I spent middle school leading a full-out rebellion against the invading tyranny of hormones.<\/p>\n

Started a club (of course) dedicated to complaining about growing up. It convened in the girls\u2019 bathroom and may have been the only time I teamed up with my own gender. The times required desperate measures.<\/p>\n

A particular incident in guerrilla warfare involved sneaking the 12th candle off my birthday cake before it was presented to me in class. One teacher had the audacity to call me out and laugh at me, and I got so offended I actually ran away from school.<\/p>\n

I was convinced the day I turned 13\u2014became a TEENAGER (shudder)\u2014I would lose control of my will and morph into a makeup-caked automaton<\/strong> who did boring things like sleep in, use lipgloss, and fawn over boy bands.<\/p>\n

I was also desperately concerned about losing my imagination<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I would give a lot to go back and tell myself:<\/p>\n

There was no reason to feel powerless in the face of change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why am I sharing this with you?<\/p>\n

Because life throws many changes at us. They threaten an end to our creative ambitions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a job with no wiggle room for ideas, so much college homework you\u2019re worried you\u2019ll lose your love of reading, or a new life role (marriage, parenthood, anyone?), change has a way of making us feel like a naive idiot for calling ourselves a writer, an artist, an adventurer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the truth is: While change can turn our lives upside down, and hormones can take our bodies and emotions hostage\u2014at age eleven or eight-and-twenty!\u2014these things can\u2019t touch our will.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever culture tells you adulthood is about, giving up your ability to think outside of the box is not a requisite. It\u2019s something people choose.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Will Saves the Day<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

God gave us a will so we can use it, and it is much more influential than we think.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sell your will short.<\/strong> Don\u2019t swallow perfectly refutable ideas about how boring your thought life should be.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Reject the Lie that Grown-ups Are Serious.<\/strong><\/span> My strategy facing the dreaded 13th birthday could be summed up as \u201chunker down and behave so maturely that adolescence takes you for dead.\u201d I figured if I was losing the war, I would just skip being a teen altogether and graduate to adulthood. Stupid plan. I spent years of my life contriving a shriveled soul. Now I\u2019ve rejected this lie, I am getting younger every year.<\/p>\n

This truth can set us free: there is nothing down in God\u2019s rule book about being serious all the time.<\/strong> The \u201cblessed-are-those-who-mourn\u201d and \u201cbetter-go-to-the-house-of-mourning\u201d passages in the Bible are about opening our eyes to see how much our lives and choices matter<\/strong>, not about building ourselves a hovel in the Vale of Tears.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Be Silly.<\/strong><\/span> Being deliberately solemn is not the appropriate response to the painful state of our world or the responsibility of being an adult.<\/strong> Actually, it\u2019s incapacitating and results in its own kind of blindness: to possibility and hope. Instead, our grief and outrage should push us to gather up our courage and tease creative ideas out of the very worst situations. To laugh in the face of the demons of regret and despair. To play as though the sun won\u2019t rise again on a more perfect opportunity for adventure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Practice Difference.<\/strong><\/span> How do we expect to be free and creative thinkers when brainstorming novels if the rest of our existence is ordered out of our culture\u2019s catalog?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a handy-dandy survey I rustled up for your squirming pleasure.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you:<\/strong><\/p>\n