What is the point of creating anything?

When I launched this blog six and a half years ago, I gave it the title “Point No Point” because I loved the place on the Sound with that name, and I loved the word play of contradiction. The point of the blog was that there was no point, in a strange and lovely way. My work was all-consuming, I faced significant life changes, and everything felt heavy. Writing as an art form became a way to explore doing something that had no point, no sharpness, no goal other than the journey.

After two published novels, writing morphed into something too sharp, too focused, too burdened with a “point” –  get your name out there, market and promote, follow up with more work!

I never stopped creating, but I did slow way down. I think that’s because my creative process needed to remind me that it’s still all about the journey.

So I am NaNo-ing this month, but in a different way. Instead of fifty thousand words in thirty days, I commit to exploring my creative writing every day this month, in whatever way I am inspired to do so. The output might be new words, a more polished manuscript, a new serial episode, or a poem. Who knows? The point is…

Well, that’s just the thing, right? The point is, there’s no point.

But I invite you to follow along here, where I’ll post weekly (or more frequent) updates of lessons learned on this month-long creative meandering. I’d love you to share yours, too.