Creative hobbies
This post briefly explains our basis for classifying a hobby as “creative”.
“Creating is producing something from nothing, establishing something for the first time” (from the RAE dictionary). “To imagine is to invent or create something and also to represent in the mind the image of something or someone” (RAE).
Creating, for those who succeed, is usually a very satisfying activity. Hence, creative hobbies are a unique source of excitement and happiness.
Although any hobby has something creative, personal, original and unexpected, some have that creative or imaginative element to a greater extent. In these hobbies, you can generate or produce something that did not exist before, always on a prior basis, as in all creation. Thus, it could be said that there can be a “very creative” part when something is produced based almost exclusively on one’s ideas or imagination or a “moderately creative” position if it relies heavily on previous or well-known works. For example, painting a modeless or abstract painting reflecting one’s ideas or feelings might be considered “very creative,” while drawing inspiration from an accurate model or landscape would be “moderately creative.”
Therefore, we have considered creative hobbies or hobbies that, in certain circumstances, allow the practitioner to be “very creative“, developing the work from their ideas or tastes, often with a specific dose of imagination or novelty. For example, the difference between a creative hobby -according to our previous definition-, such as writing, is evident compared to another that usually does not become even “moderately creative”, such as reading. As in everything, there are nuances and exceptions: writing an essay about actual events may not be very creative and reading a text with a personal and original analysis can be pretty clever.
It has been pointed out that creative activities “outside work” can improve job performance (http://news.sfsu.edu/creative-activities-outside-work-can-improve-job-performance)
Despite the questionable nature of our criteria, we consider that the hobbies we have classified as creative may be of interest to people who have a particular desire to develop their ideas or apply their imagination to the hobby they practice.
