Creativity isn't about making things

Every time I write, I’m not trying to sound smart. I’m trying to feel sane.

Not in a “Who am I really?” philosophical way but more like a “What the fuck just happened?” kinda way.

Writing is how I clean up the emotional mess after life happens. After a tough conversation. A weird day. A goodbye I didn’t see coming.

It’s not invention. It’s interpretation. I don’t write these newsletters because I understand. I write because I don’t...but I want to.

Let me show you what I mean.

Life Doesn’t Make Sense in Real-Time

Life is a stream of raw footage with no edits, no soundtrack and no perfect Hollywood story arc. Just moment after moment after moment. Some are significant, some trivial and some just completely baffling.

We move through our days reacting. Just trying to survive. And because we’re living inside it, we don’t always get the luxury of perspective. We don’t know which events are going to matter, which ones will fade, or what any of it means until much later.

If ever.

This is where creativity steps in. It’s not just a way to document life. It’s a way to interpret it.

Think of it like writing a movie from unedited CCTV footage. The creativity isn’t in the footage, it’s in choosing what to show, when to cut and what music to play in the background.

It’s in deciding what story we want to tell.

Rewriting Memory Through Art

Whenever I write, I’m not reporting what happened. I’m retelling it. And that difference matters.

Because memory isn’t a fixed archive. It’s fluid. And art gives us the tools to shape it, to reframe it and to make it speak.

I’ve looked back at old songs or newsletters I’ve written and thought, So that’s what I was trying to say. At the time, I didn’t know what the feeling was. I just knew I needed to get it out. And only through the act of creating did it start to make sense.

This isn’t about inventing new realities or making things up.

It’s about finding the version of the story that feels the most emotionally true. That moment that once felt chaotic or meaningless suddenly becomes a turning point. That feeling you couldn’t name gets a melody. That mistake becomes a metaphor.

Creativity lets you look back at your life and say, Ah. That’s what that was.

Reframing Pain, Joy and Confusion

The most powerful art doesn’t come from clarity, it comes from the moments that didn’t make sense at the time.

It’s the fight you keep replaying in your head. The decision you’re still not sure was right. The joy that felt too brief to hold onto. These are the raw materials.

And when we create from them, we’re not just preserving them, we’re processing them.

Creating gives you distance. It turns you from participant to narrator. That space is where transformation happens.

It’s also where choice happens. You choose what to keep and what to let go of. You decide what the emphasis should be. You get to say, This is what I want to remember and this is how I want to remember it.

A Conversation With Your Past Self

One of the strangest parts of the creative process is realising that every project you finish becomes a kind of time capsule. A conversation between who you were and who you are now.

Sometimes I’ll read back an old piece of writing or play something I recorded years ago, and I can feel exactly where I was emotionally, mentally. And I’ll think, I wouldn’t write it that way now.

But that’s not the point. The point is: I needed to write it that way then.

Creativity gives you a record of what happened, but it also shows you how you felt about what happened. And the more you do it, the more you can see how you’ve grown. What you’ve let go of. What’s still unresolved.

It becomes a dialogue. Each new piece adds to the story. Each act of creation is a way of checking in with yourself, what you believe and what you’re wrestling with.

Why Creativity Matters Now More Than Ever

Creativity isn’t just a hobby. It’s not a luxury or something reserved for “artistic” people. It’s how we process chaos. It’s how we digest the raw, unfiltered mess of our experiences and shape it into something coherent, something that feels like it belongs to us.

In a world that constantly overwhelms us with nonstop news, notifications and alerts, it is essential we find time to make sense of it all. Without creativity, life just happens to us. With it, we become active participants in our own stories.

So the act of writing, composing, painting (whatever your version of making is), it’s not about the final product. It’s about creating a map. A way to say, this is where I’ve been, this is who I am and this is what it meant.

It’s a tool for survival.

And in that sense, there’s nothing more important than making things. Because if we don’t tell our own stories, then someone else will,

...and they’ll probably get it wrong.

Until next time,

Jon "soundtracking my life" Kaye

Choosing to live without chasing

P.S.

I want to show my work. I've written an album of songs for Do Radio. You can listen to it here. And if you like, you could even buy a copy. Help me fund my coffee addiction.