From Edie: Is creativity a gift or a skill? Discover how writers can strengthen imagination, overcome perfectionism, and build lasting creative habits that lead to better, more consistent writing.
Is Creativity a Gift or a Skill? What Writers Need to Know to Grow Their Creative Ability
by Sarah Sally Hamer @SarahSallyHamer
We writers have been wrestling with this question for ages, usually while we stare at a blinking cursor and wonder why inspiration behaves like a shy cat—under your feet when you don’t need it and hiding under the sofa when you do. Some people insist creativity is a gift, something you either have or don’t. Others argue it’s a skill, something you build the same way you build leg muscles, except with fewer squats and more caffeine. After years of teaching seminars, watching writers surprise themselves, and occasionally surprising myself right along with them, I’ve learned that creativity refuses to sit neatly in either category. It’s far more interesting than that.
The Gift That Arrives Before You Know What to Do With It
Some people come into the world with imaginations that wander off on their own. I’m one of them, for better or worse. I’ve been changing the ending of other people’s stories (just in my head!), creating pretend conversations, and daydreaming in boring staff meetings (don’t tell my bosses!). We imaginative folks invent backstories for strangers in the grocery store. But remember, this natural inclination is common with writers and creative people of all sorts. It’s the part of creativity that feels effortless, the part that makes people say, “You’ve always been like this,” as if imagination were a childhood habit you never outgrew.
But even the most naturally imaginative writer eventually discovers that the gift has a mind of its own. It can be generous one day and stingy the next. It can flood you with ideas when you’re driving or trying to sleep and abandon you completely when you finally sit down to write. The gift is wonderful, but it’s unpredictable. It needs a partner.
The Skill That Grows When You Aren’t Looking
Skill is the steadying force. It’s the part of creativity that doesn’t mind showing up in sweatpants. It grows quietly through the simple act of returning to the page, even when the words feel stiff or the ideas feel half‑baked. A writer who keeps coming back begins to notice that something shifts. Sentences loosen. Voice strengthens. Ideas arrive with less coaxing. It’s not magic. It’s familiarity.
Skill is patient. It forgives the awkward draft. It understands that revision is where clarity emerges. It doesn’t panic when the writing feels off. Over time, skill becomes the anchor that keeps creativity from drifting away on the breeze of self‑doubt.
Other Versions of Creativity:
Perfectionism, the Overzealous Hall Monitor
Perfectionism loves to pretend it’s helping. It stands over your shoulder with a whistle, pointing out every flaw before the sentence has even finished forming. It insists that the work must be brilliant immediately or not at all. It convinces you that hesitation is wisdom and that waiting for the “right moment” is a responsible choice.
But perfectionism isn’t responsible. It’s anxious. And anxious writing rarely sings.
When perfectionism loosens its grip, creativity begins to breathe again. The page becomes a place to explore instead of a place to prove something. The work becomes more playful. The mind becomes more curious. Writers who learn to ignore that inner hall monitor discover that creativity grows faster when it’s allowed to stumble a little.
Imagination, the Room With the Light Always On
Imagination is often treated as a mysterious visitor, but it behaves more like a room you can enter whenever you choose. It responds to attention. It expands when you give it space. It becomes more generous when you stop demanding brilliance and start inviting possibility.
A writer who lets imagination wander begins to notice how ideas drift in from unexpected corners—an overheard phrase, a memory that resurfaces while folding laundry, a question that appears out of nowhere and refuses to leave. Imagination thrives when it’s trusted, and trust grows through use.
Curiosity, the Quiet Instigator of Better Writing
Curiosity rarely makes a grand entrance, but it’s always working behind the scenes. It nudges you to look closer, to wonder why something feels the way it does, to follow a thread even when you’re not sure where it leads. Curiosity keeps the work alive. It keeps you from settling for the obvious. It opens doors you didn’t know were there.
A curious writer rarely stays stuck for long because curiosity refuses to let the mind stay still.
Play, the Shortcut We Forget We’re Allowed to Take
Play is the part of creativity adults tend to misplace somewhere between paying bills and remembering passwords. It feels frivolous, maybe even irresponsible. But play is where the magic hides. When you let yourself experiment—when you write something silly or strange or delightfully unnecessary—the pressure lifts. The imagination wakes up. The work becomes fun again.
Play isn’t the opposite of discipline. It’s the antidote to fear.
Where Gift and Skill Meet in the Middle
So is creativity a gift or a skill? I believe it’s both. It begins with a spark, but it grows through engagement. It arrives uninvited, but it stays when you make room for it. Creativity is not a fixed trait. It’s a living, shifting capacity that expands when you nurture it, challenge it, and occasionally let it run barefoot through the yard.
What do you think? Gift or Skill?
Sally and several other very creative writers will present “Creating Creativity – Dragon Edition,” on May 15th and 16th. You can find more information on www.mindpotential.org
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A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online at both margielawson.com and nostresswriting.com and blogs for writersinthestormblog.com/ as well as her monthly blog for The Write Conversation. Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach at Mind Potential, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors. You can find her at sally@mindpotential.org
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