Creative Work is Real Work
I have a legal background. I’ve found that there’s no shortage of respect and deference for members of the legal profession — and maybe that’s true for any career grounded in logic, math, economics, or science. If work can be quantified, our society easily recognizes its value.
For the uninitiated, I’m sure that legal research sounds mind-numbingly dry. Yet I’ve always found synthesizing information to be intensely creative work. Some of the most noted legal opinions are practically poetic.
In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, Justice Jackson wrote, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
See? Even logic can be stirring, even beautiful. And failing to recognize its inspirational component diminishes the full breadth of such hard work. Work grounded in reason and precision still requires a creative spirit.
And I think we get it wrong with the jobs we deem creative, too. For instance, we mythologize fiction writers. Picture the proverbial chain-smoking hermit/writer. Probably a man. Probably someone who hasn’t showered in days. He’s sitting alone in a solitary dwelling, sipping espresso, and waiting on his muse to make an appearance. We’ll wait with him.
What we don’t want to see is the gritty slog of it. The research and the editing. The marketing and the plotting. The act of showing up, daily. The stamina required to see an idea through to its end.
Having lived both sides of this coin, I can say that it’s all (inspiring, creative, exhausting) work to me. But because our society tends to validate the contributions of some more than others, I thought I’d leave my fellow creatives with some thoughts:
Creative work is real work.
It’s not “right brain work.” It requires your whole head, your whole heart.
It’s not less of a job because it comes more easily to you.
It’s not a side hustle. It was the missing piece of your professional life — and you found it.
It can be your dream — and also scary, tedious, and hard.
You’re not lucky. You made it happen. (Well done!)
If you need a boost in your creative endeavors, I hope you found it here today. However you’re working, friends, your contribution matters more than you know. Just make sure to call it what it is: work.
