Pointless grumbling follows.

Have you ever experienced the effect certain people, who I call “creativity leeches,” have on you? People who surround your every day life (co-workers, family members, friends, acquaintances etc) and who are so negative about and within their own perspective of the world (or the part of the world you and they coexist in) that dump on you their bile.  People that seem to be afflicted with a perpetual facial sourness and they want you to have it too. So much so that their efforts wear you down? I don’t mean people who will criticise your work (be it stories, music, movies or any other form of art) but people who will actively attempt to destroy your way of thinking, your perspective of life, people who will do their utmost to diminish you as a person, as an individual, your skills, your ethics, your intelligence. In short, the work you produce at its entirety. People who will look down on you from a self-perceived pedestal that for them seems like the top of their (tiny) world. People who actually think they have authority and some sort of power over you. You know the kind of people I’m talking about?

I’ve recently come across such a person (who, by the way, did not start off as such, but evolved into it – guess I failed to see the cocoon), and it amazes me how easy it was for them to create an environment where I can’t function or create, even when I’m away from them. It’s all part of me being worn down. Every time I attempt to edit my work, or write something new, or add a few new ideas in my ideas folder, I find myself drained, absorbed over too many inconsequential thoughts that make me feel like a stretched wrapping film before the first tear appears.

Part of the fault lies with me, since I allowed them a foothold into my head, so I too am to blame. I firmly believe that these people should be isolated and left on their own devices as much as possible. Some may say that I’m being too harsh. Perhaps. However, there are other people who surround both me and the leech, and they too feel this negativity. The funny thing? The leech’s behaviour affects them too. They too failed to notice the cocoon. Guess not everything coming out of cocoons is meant to turn into a butterfly. Apparently, some turn into blood-sucking leeches. Or in my case, creativity leeches.

End of pointless grumbling.