Scar Tissue That I Wish You Saw: Creativity Scars and Their Impact on Creative Work

Our understanding of creativity is influenced by stories of individuals persisting in the face of rejection. But what if these are just the stories of survivors? What about individuals who attempted to be creative and felt so much psychological harm from the attempt that they struggled to try to be creative again? In this study, drawing from stories and visual collages that represent negative experiences with creativity, we unveil the importance of “creativity scars.” Creativity scars are negative associations with the creative process rooted in psychological harm from past creative efforts. We reveal two types of creativity scars, childhood and professional, that emerge at different times in individuals’ lives. Each highlights differences in how individuals make sense of their relationship to creativity and how they carry meaning from earlier creative experiences. We also reveal distinct long-term outcomes of each type of creativity scar. Our discovery provides a new entry point for studying meaning as an outcome of creative work by showing how negative meanings from early attempts can leave individuals feeling cut off from being creative in the future.