The White Room

Sep 20, 2011 by

The White Room

I first picked up Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit because I loved the cover and the typography in the book. It was one of those rare occasions when I was in a real book store flipping through actual bindings and papers, and this book seemed like a great find. With hardly any background in dance, I had never even heard of Twyla Tharp, but I thought her name was interesting. I wondered what it would be like growing up with a name like that. That’s the difference between the thought processes of a writer and a dancer. After flipping through the book, I realized she had great ideas about creativity and that there was much to learn from a dancer’s point of view.

I fell in love with her description of The White Room. It is infused with such mythological symbolism. I came to the conclusion that it would be more intimidating to walk into a white room and create a dance than it would be to fill a white piece of paper with a story. Of course, that’s because I’m not a dancer. No matter what you are creating, The White Room calls forth resistance from every creator.

To some people, this empty room symbolizes something profound, mysterious, and terrifying: the task of starting with nothing and working your way toward creating something whole and beautiful and satisfying. …Some people find this moment – the moment before creativity begins- so painful that they simply cannot deal with it.

I think there is something different about creating completely from scratch, like a dance or a novel.  It’s different than what I do with photography.  I walk through the woods and look for an interesting capture and then play with its qualities on the computer.  Even writing these essays is a different kind of writing that starts from a response to someone else’s idea; it’s not the same as writing fiction.

Creating something out of nothing is the most challenging -and exhilarating – kind of creativity.

In order to be creative you have to know how to prepare to be creative.

In order to do that, you need to create habits that become rituals that fuel your creativity and commitment to show up in The White Room.

What habits and rituals have you created for yourself?  How do you face The White Room?

Cara Moulds is a writer, photographer, former high school administrator and teacher. She also writes at CaraMoulds.com and in The Letter. Her fine art photography is on permanent exhibit at the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource Center in Columbia, MD. Her prints may be viewed and purchased from her gallery, which is here.

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