I write this in response to a blog post of someone who has started to become more and more part of Ginkgo and if I am honest, has helped to start to shape the direction in which it is traveling. He is genuinely talented and in my opinion will go a long way - eventually...

His post: "are culture injections free on the NHS" hits on something we all feel/fear at points along our creative path. I'm not going to go in to them - Read his post - I certainly couldn't have written it better myself.

I guess the simple answer to his hypothesis is no. They are not free. But primarily for two simple reasons. One, sadly nothing in life is actually free and two, they don't exist.

The far more complicated answer is...

There is a word - inspiration - that we all use very freely. Derived from theology as the divine breath of 'your' very own, personal angel. 

It is a source of apparently unknown origin and something that seemly appears from out of the blue. Invariably after a period of creative doubt and drought.

More after the jump...

For me, the thought of my very own guardian angel breathing inspiration in to my soul has always been an image and a metaphor I have loved the idea of. But in truth, it really has bugger all to do with theology, religion or spiritualism. It is rather boringly and simply the way that our brains work. And as long as we can accept this, then we can take the doubt away from the drought.

Memory to our brain is what a jpeg is to a RAW file. Both jpeg and memory are algorithmically encoded, cross referenced abstract versions of the original. The difference being that jpeg's do not also cross reference each other in this abstract and algorythmic way (come on mathmeticians - there's are damn big bucks if you implement that one!) unlike our memories.

Surprisingly, the more information you have in the old grey matter, the less space you need for the new stuff.

Under moments of extreme stress and danger, our brains (specifically the frontal cortex) dig deep into our unconscious and our memory, rapidly implementing millions of scenarios, hoping that one of them will fit with the current situation we find our selves threatened with, based on what we have experienced, observed or even just read about. It's all there to be used - always. 

A prime example is that of an airline pilot, responsible for hundreds of lives, losing his engines shortly after takeoff and apparently instinctively making a decision to land in a freezing cold river in the middle of a city as opposed to another runway that looked like it may have been achievable - may - exactly the sort of place to land, that an airliner was designed to avoid to land at all costs.

Miraculously, everyone survived and was unhurt and the pilot was hailed a hero and a genius for his almost light-speed decision making capabilities - The very same capabilities that we all have built in to us, as standard.

Many called the decision inspired - obviously meaning he took inspiration from something or biblically, someone. 

In a way he did take inspiration - it was just that it was from himself rather than another source. Albeit it, an unconscious self. But then again it is your unconscious self for a bloody good reason - So best let it stay that way...

So - What the hell am I rambling on about and what does this have to do with anything, let alone to with the crisis of a creativity drought and doubt between you and photography?

This is very simple...

If you take away the need to survive. To live or die in an instant or very short period of time. Your frontal cortex has no great need to calculate itself to exhaustion. So, in a very slowed down, yet almost identical process, it will simply calculates away, but giving precedence to the energy required and processing time needed for more life necessary functions, until, suddenly, as if out of the blue, your very own personal inspiration factory spews out its answer that you have been waiting so long for.

And now, at last, this drought is over...

So instead of fighting the creative construction process by being stressed and anxious, thus actually compounding the issue, as the very piece of equipment you need to make it happen for you is occupied by the much more important task of keeping you sane and alive... Relax, accept that these things take time and do whatever is needed to let your frontal cortex do the job that you would really like it to do - Provide you with your next round of creative inspiration.

It is no coincidence that so many people wake in the middle of the night with some truly amazing ideas.

Sad thing is though. If they didn't write them down, they will be gone forever as there is almost no-way-in-hell they will remember them in the morning as the frontal cortex has finished that job and time for it to move on to the next one. Well, either that or at least until someone else comes up with it.