I attended a course at work about how to increase your creativity. One piece of advice was get out of your comfort zone.

Regular readers may recall that I participated in NaNoWriMo last November; the goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I worked hard, and managed to write 22,000 words. Unfinished, it was my first time ever to try to write a work of fiction, so I was happy with what I’d produced.

Now its February, and I have shared what I’d written with a friend.

This is most definitely out of my comfort zone; I felt sick after hitting send, like I was jumping off a cliff.

I know what I’ve written is no masterpiece, and am completely open to receiving any kind of feedback. What I’m more interested in is where this piece of writing can go next; having others read it is all part of the creative process, to help me move on to the next stage, and to help me get more used to sharing creative ideas with others, to feel less self-conscious about it.

After all, they are just words. I can change them. I can delete them. I can shape them into something else. I have that power. We all have that power.

My main aims were to try to write a piece of fiction for the first time, and to try to write something funny. I made myself laugh while I was writing it, so at least I entertained myself!

Either way, what I am trying to make myself do is to let go of the thing I’ve created; yes, I wrote it, but the main point of it is to try to have fun with it, not take it too seriously.

I’m trying to think of it as like sharing an idea; to let it float around for a while, and to not take it personally if it doesn’t stick.

For now I am still falling off that cliff, but I feel so liberated.