Creative.

The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with creative.

The Creative Channel is on all the time. They simply have to tune in, and boom, they're off in that wonderful, rich creative place where inspiration lives.

They feel things deeply … and need to express it. I notice this particularly around my friends who are actors … their emotions run so freely and powerfully, that they feel everything twice as intensely. Furthermore, they let you know it.

They have natural empathy. Geniuses tend to know how you’d feel at any given moment, so they have a need to give away their feelings. An interviewer once asked Broadway composer Steven Sondheim if he could write a song about anything, and he replied, no but that he could write about anyone, as long as he knew who the character is.

They find beauty in unlikely places the rest of us miss. I’m thinking of the 19th century French artists Toulouse Lautrec and Monet who found enduring beauty in common haystacks and down at the heels prostitutes. True geniuses love the bittersweet, the forgotten, the simple.

They’re not afraid to cry. The creative genius knows that tears are the juice of life, whether they are tears of happiness, despair or simply deep relating.

They’re different and often pay a price for it. Creative geniuses often have childhoods marked with ridicule or isolation. And those tough times can continue right on through adulthood, though modern times have made such non-conformity more acceptable. I’m thinking of people like Oscar Wilde, Frida Khalo, Orson Welles, Michael Jackson, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Andy Warhol.

They are brave. Many a genius is trained by social ostracism to be brave and strong in standing up for their work. They know their work is valid despite what the crowd says, and they stick by it steadfastly. And public opinions can sway, often long after the artist’s death. Think of Vincent Van Gogh, who only sold two paintings in his entire lifetime.

They are prolific. Typically, creative geniuses are always creating. It’s simply what they do. Cole Porter, for instance, wrote more than 800 songs. And he wrote them wherever he went: on luxury cruise decks, or weekend jaunts to the country. Porter, who was notoriously stoic, said he finished one of his songs while waiting for rescue, after his legs had been crushed by a horse.

They simply can’t do a half-baked job. Look at all the geniuses of the world, like Michelangelo, who literally changed the world because they refused to settle for less. In fact, Michelangelo was famous for literally eating and sleeping with his work, yet never being completely satisfied. About his work in the Sistine Chapel, he said; “I am no painter!”

They love their work deeply. For this example, I turn to my own father, John Falter, who was an artist. A friend asked once what he’d do if he could do absolutely anything in the world. He replied, “I’d go up to my studio and paint.” For some artists, this love is the big one. Michelangelo, who never married, said: “I already have a wife who is too much for me; one who keeps me unceasingly struggling on. It is my art, and my works are my children.”

Those who only know one or two facts about creative can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here.