Cameron calls them crazymakers — literally, “madness makers.” They are people who, consciously or unconsciously, create so much chaos around you that your creative energy is spent all on surviving.
Cameron calls them crazymakers —literally, “madness makers.” They are people who, consciously or unconsciously, create so much chaos around you that your creative energy is spent all on surviving. You have nothing left to create.
The complicated thing is that crazymakers are not always bad people. They are often charismatic, funny, intense. But they share a pattern: There is always a crisis, and it is always you who manages it.
How to recognize a crazymaker
They create constant dramas
Something urgent always happens in your life. A conflict, an emergency, a need that only you can solve. Calm makes them uncomfortable because in calm you could create.
They ignore the limits
Your morning page time, your appointment with the artist, your writing time — it all seems expendable to them. They interrupt without remorse and get offended if you ask them for space.
They deflate your projects
Not always with direct criticism. Sometimes with indifference, with an empty “ah, that's nice,” or with an immediate change of subject. The implicit message is: your creativity does not deserve attention.
They need to be the center
When you advance on your creative path, they demand attention more intensely. Your growth threatens them, even if they don't express it that way.
"Crazymakers are chaotic people, people who create storms. We often spend all our creative energy trying to survive them."
To do
Cameron doesn't propose cutting ties drastically — although sometimes it's necessary. What he proposes is something more surgical: protect your creative time as if it were sacred.
That means: morning pages are not traded. The appointment with the artist is not canceled because someone needs something. Your time to create is not available for other people's emergencies. You're not selfish for protecting that. You are responsible with your inner artist.
And yes, the crazymaker will probably get angry. That is exactly the sign that you are doing the right thing.
"Every time you say yes to someone else's chaos, you are saying no to your creativity."
The uncomfortable question
Cameron poses something that few creativity books dare to pose: what if you are also a crazymaker for yourself? What if the drama that prevents you from creating doesn't come from outside, but from within?
Sometimes we create our own crises — toxic relationships we maintain, commitments we accept, conflicts we fuel — precisely so as not to have to face the emptiness of blank paper. It's easier to be busy than to be creating.
If any of this resonates, don't judge yourself. Recognizing it is the first step. The morning pages will take care of the rest.
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