Illumination Writes

Originally Published August 5, 2022

Sometimes writing doesn’t work to express what I feel. During those times I branch out into something different, like drawing. The sad thing is…I’m not very good at it. I doodle here and there, but nothing substantial, and I wouldn’t deem myself a visual artist.

While I was trying to get out of a writing slump, I decided to draw a tree. It didn’t take long for me to get frustrated with the few lines I drew. The overwhelming urge to scribble out the drawing, tear out the piece of paper from my book, crumple it up into a tiny little ball and toss it to the side, came rushing in.

This is not an unfamiliar feeling to me. Actually, I would consider this feeling an old friend—one to get coffee with from time to time. However, welcoming it can develop into something destructive.

A friend of mine gave me a piece of advice while helping me out of a creative dead end. He told me to not worry so much about being perfect, just get the story out. After that conversation, I was writing down some ideas on paper and I made a mistake with my pen. I scribbled out the word and crumpled up the piece of paper, without a second thought.

Then something inside me said, “Let things be messy.”

So I uncrumpled that piece of paper, wrote down every idea I had on it, and pinned it to my corkboard as a reminder to let things be imperfect. It stayed pinned there for the rest of the term.

When faced with the frustration of an imperfect drawing, I began to scribble once again, but not with the intention to destroy it. Having absolutely no patience to care if the lines ended up looking like a tree, I just scribbled lines into a tree-like shape. The drawing in the photo above is the end result.

I poured my frustrations into a tree. I dulled my unused colored pencils. I wasted a perfectly good page in my sketchbook…

Except it wasn’t a waste.

Sometimes you can just feel stuck because you feel like you have to create a masterpiece on your first go-round. If all you can create is a mess—create the mess. Make a scribble tree, or two, or three, or one hundred, or until you feel satisfied with your scribble skills.

I learned that the best way to get out of a creative slump is to just do. Scribble words—if words don’t work, try lines, and if that’s still not your thing try numbers (for all of my math people out there, I see you). No effort is wasted.

All that to say, get something scribbled and be okay with the mess. Use the crumpled piece of paper to its full potential. Expressing yourself through imperfection could lead to your masterpiece.