Struggling with creativity

Last night I watched the SBS program on great Australian albums, and it was on Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It teased out a good deal about how songs were written for the record, and the process of translating them into something that a whole band could play together. The slightly steely looks from Mick Harvey tended to indicate that the process was quite fraught at times, and that if only he could have produced the same thing without having to depend on a lot of other people's creativity he might have found it easier (which is only my interpretation, not his).

I've been watching my husband struggling at home to write a series of short stories for the research component of his Masters in creative writing. It's been painful, because he hasn't had any feedback at all through the process this time. I think he decided to do it that way deliberately, but it's made the whole writing process painful and isolating. Or that may be moving to a new town where we don't really know anybody, and the Brisbane Lions are very far away.

At work I no longer have to sit in a room by myself and try to figure out how ideas should fit together with words, and then present them to someone else for evaulation. I don't own any of my ideas at work, and they always have to fit together with a whole bunch of other people's ideas. They never stand alone. I like it. I've always thought I was a sitting alone in the garret kind of person, but I think I'm actually a group of talkative people, butcher's paper and textas kind of person. I never, ever want to go back to my lonely pursuit of originality.

My son has just been doing his maths homework and singing.

Reading
Me - Five Things to Know About the Australian Constitution by Helen Irving, which has already mentioned more than five things, but has endeared itself to me by comparing learning about the constitution with travelling from Hobbiton to Mordor. I'm not sure if that makes the Governor-General Sauron, but I'll see how it turns out in the end.

Noodle - just started reading Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events. I think he is utterly horrified, but enjoying himself considerably.