The joy of the creative act always comes with hot waves of frustration—even desperation.
If you have ever tried to paint like your favorite artist, play your favorite song on the guitar, or attempt to cook Mom’s perfect risotto, you know that boiling emotion in your chest when things don’t turn out as imagined.
Our brain is a master at visualizing ideal results.
Like when we book a hotel—we instantly picture the view, the light, the smell—and often, because of our irrational expectations, we’re disappointed upon arrival.
The same happens with creativity.
Our imagination is usually far ahead of our skills—and developing them takes patience and practice.
That’s the expectation gap—or, as radio producer Ira Glass called it, The Taste Gap—the space between our ability to envision something extraordinary and our current ability to manifest it.
So, just because we’ve read every book by our favorite author doesn’t mean we can write like them.
Continue reading “Creative Frustration”
