Passion, Knowledge and Creativity - I mean "Tolkien"

JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey

I had always been fascinated by works I perceive as “creative” but puzzled by how creativity works. Reading Tokien’s biography provided some clues.

It turned out creativity is not necessarily a separate untouchable innate trait some possess (and the rest of us don’t), but can be trackable and tedious. From what I could tell, Tolkien’s Ring was born out of passion and knowledge. His love for his culture and people, his longing for a time long gone and his profound religious belief. And he was uniquely equipped to express such, with his unmatchable knowledge of the old Celtic and Nordic mythology/literature, his mastering of the language and his obsession with details. Otherwise, the way he wrote Ring was rather “unremarkable” and often painful: small pieces here and there, constant writing and rewriting, not knowing how to proceed or how to end. And it dragged on and on through the years....

So creativity could be this simple. If you really really want to do something and you are pretty good at it, you might be a genius, too. J