When Creativity Finds Its Own Path
Not a end of year review
I wasn’t planning to write a end of year review this year as when you have being creative for a while like I have, I don’t want it to become of look at me kind of thing, as that is really not the way I am nowadays but I had somebody say to me only last week, oh you bought out a novel this year, a book of poetry and a short story book, how do you do it.
The point isn’t to show off that I did, but rather the journey in each of the three books was completely different. ‘Death’, my second novel,l took all in all a long, long time to complete and went through numerous drafts before it came to be the book that it was, changing completely from it’s original form which was a spiralling science fiction novel of at least 600 pages (The second part will surface someday I can prove in a different form).
‘The End of Summer II’ my current poetry book in contrast came about simply from a celebration of reaching 10 years with my second full poetry book ‘The End of Summer’ and reviewing my papers discovering all kinds of poems which could and perhaps should have gone in the original manscript (I wrote over 200 for the first book narrowing it down I guess to around 50) and when I got to the stage of realising it was a separate book, it made sense to review it with some newer work to show the contract of the way my poetry has developed over the past few years (Out of the 62, I guess roughly half were poetry developed over the past few years).
Both of these books, in contrast to ‘Threads’, were books which took a long way in development as I get into writing joins a pile of seemingly increasing books which I jump in and out of (See mock covers from before). ‘Threads’ in contrast to both of them was a book which came from a few acceptances of short stories in magazines which then I realised were commonly linked by area – i.e Guide Bridge Train Station and over the next few months, became 4, 5 until eventually the 20 or so stories it became almost by accident, and is a book which has being going down really well live.
Looking back, what strikes me most is not the number of books but the different ways they came into being - one wrestled into shape over years, one rediscovered and reshaped from old pages, and one that arrived almost by accident. Together they remind me that creativity doesn’t follow a single path; it can be slow and deliberate, celebratory and reflective, or spontaneous and unexpected.
And of course, writing is only one part of the picture, as everybody knows with me. Alongside the books, this year has also been about sound and voice — the music projects I’ve been developing and have released (The second album by my band ‘Polly Ocean’ and the debut single with ‘Ward’ – both of which will have albums out next year and a new Ocean in a Bottle album in January 2026 - more to follow with that when I have a release date), my Podcasting with Spoken Label which will be hitting its 10th anniversary next year, and ongoing monthly Podcasts with Not the TV Guide and the Writing Way)
Each of these threads, whether on the page, in performance, or through collaboration, has made 2025 feel like a year of weaving together different forms of expression, something that I have found, the more years I wander down this pat,h is a journey which is not slowing down, but expanding and constantly.
So rather than a “look at me” review of 2025, I this article see this as a reminder really: creativity is a journey with many routes, and each project — book, song, podcast, or either ‘Speak Easy’ - everything finds its own way to the surface when the time is right whether music, writing, poetry, everything itself is a journey whether a project takes a night, two nights or fifteen years.
Creativity isn’t a straight road but a network of paths — some winding, some rediscovered, some stumbled upon by chance. What matters is that each journey finds its way to the surface when the time is right.