Anne Lamott

By Lisa Peck, ASID
Anne Lamott is an author who has written a book on her creative process "Bird by Bird" I love this book and find it to be inspirational because it encourages writers (and other creative people) to keep at it! She demystifies the creative process and urges her listeners to keep writing no matter what.
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.' from Bird by Bird
Whatever the creative task that lies ahead, even if you feel you can’t finish  you can make a start and keep going. If the answers aren’t obvious by moving ahead you can start to unleash the answers and spark your creativity.
“I am learning slowly to bring my crazy pinball-machine mind back to this place of friendly detachment toward myself, so I can look out at the world and see all those other things with respect. Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don’t drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor’s yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper. So I keep trying gently to bring my mind back to what is really there to be seen, maybe to be seen and noted with a kind of reverence.” from Bird by Bird
By being gentle with yourself in the creative process and bringing your mind back to the task you can develop your creativity.
Creativity takes time. You may need to revisit an idea and bring it along.