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True creativity requires discipline. It is a misconception to think of creativity as doing whatever one fancies in whatever manner one desires and for however long on desires. Indeed a central ingredient in creativity is the space to make mistakes and experiment. But the experiments that are worthy of praise come with certain intellectual rigor (intelligence broadly defined, think of the multiple intelligence theory). If one picks up a brush and doodle a few lines on the paper, that might very well fall within the realm of creativity. But if those lines are not developed further then I will not see the effort as truly creative, despite the presence of spontaneity and free expression that we frequently associate with creativity. Let's say one comes back every so often to add to the doodle, making thoughts(again broadly defined) shown. Eventually, what started as an impressive doodle might turn into a rich expression of one's thoughts. 

I seem to imply that one needs to be good at something in order to be creative. Otherwise how else are we to judgment whether something is a genuine expression of one's creativity? It is often true that sustained creativity produce good result but it need not be "good" in the eyes of everybody. I relegate much of the decision to the subjective judgment of the creator: are you living up the standard you set for yourself? This seems flaky and an unstable ground even for subjective judgment. But practically, most people know and can feel quite sensitively whether they have made the adequate effort to create something truly satisfactory. In fact, creative people are often more critical to themselves than other people would be.