Sometimes it seems like there are thousands of articles and blogs talking about creativity, so I find that they often repeat the same things I’ve heard over and over. But, when someone is honest about the negative parts of their own creative personality, I pay attention. This short excerpt from the article, “10 Creativity Tips from Donald Miller” helped motivate me to make some major progress on some projects this week:
I think half the battle of a creator is in finishing their projects. I wonder how many of the world’s greatest creators never created anything great, because while they may have had the intelligence and even the skill, they weren’t finishers. Finishing is part of the art.
A guy I met once ran into Norman Mailer at an airport and asked him what he was working on. Mailer politely declined to answer the question, saying that when he talks about a book too much, it steals his motivation to write it. I agree with Mailer, and I also think it was a brilliant way to get out of answering a question most writers are asked 50,000 times a day! Regardless of his intention, it’s true that when we talk about our work, we give ourselves the feeling that we are working on something when truthfully, we aren’t.
This last paragraph reminded me of something I heard this year about New Years’ resolutions. It seems that people are much less likely to succeed in keeping their resolutions if they tell other people about them. It was supposed that the thrill of talking about what you are going to do feels a bit like accomplishing it and de-motivates people to work toward their goals. Perhaps that is why I don’t talk about the projects that are in development now…though I want to tell you about them very badly! (hmmm…does that count as talking about them? I guess we’ll see what happens to my motivation this week.)
Does anyone have another “Creative’s flaw” you want to share?
WORKING HARD. The ONE PART INSPIRATION part is pretty easy – you just sit there and BANG! you’ve got this great idea. We’re excited and pumped. But the 99 PARTS PERSPIRATION; or as you say FINISHING THE PROJECT (IDEA – DREAM) UGH!! I just got IMO a great idea for several blog posts over the weekend. I didn’t sleep for most of the night going over and over with the idea(s) in my head. Then, foggy from not enough sleep, and less motivation and energy I had to face the day with almost no oomph to get started.
Time management and procrastination are some of the deterrents that I face in getting projects finished. Creativity does not go hand in hand with schedules that fence you into blocks.
Getting started with creativity is the easy part. It is all the challenges that come up along the way and getting over them and getting projects finished that I find the hardest part with creative work. It is so easy to procrastinate – when I’m trying to be creative I have to switch off all email and other distractions, so that I can focus solely on what I’m supposed to be doing!
I struggle with self doubt. I get so afraid that what I create won’t be any good that it will occasionally paralyze me and prevent me from doing the creating. I’ve found this occasionally with students, too, when asking them to improvise. They’re so nervous that what they do won’t sound good that they are afraid to touch the keys at all! It’s a constant process for me, working on just putting it out there… I constantly remind myself that no one will get the chance to love or hate it (whatever “it” is) if I never create it in the first place!
I think creatives struggle with narrowing their focus to a single project or great idea. This looks like procrastination, and it certainly is a lack of discipline, but it can be very difficult to know how to multitask to bring a number of creative projects to fruition in an overlapping sequence.
This is probably less of a creative weakness than just a weakness of humanity – but if it can be overcome it certainly assists creatives in realising some of their very many dreams and visions.
It’s hard to let go of all the other good ideas and focus on just one (or two). The impatience of the creative, to work on the latest brilliant idea right away, impedes the progress of the creative.
Part of creativity is first developing an opinion that something may be common, and then shaking it up a little. When someone gets bored with the same old thing, they might seek out their inner creativity.
I love surprises. Too often my logical brain looks at a scenario, remembers patterns, and predicts an outcome… when I’m wrong, i’m surprised, and I love it! A good example would be music. When I listen to music, I have an expectation as to where the music will go next. When I hear a deceptive resolution, or an oddball bridge, I am surprised and I love that.
As a composer, one of my favorite exercises is to write a typical progression, then one by one, change the chords inside of it to create surprises for myself. Then I weed out the bad surprises and keep the interesting ones, and hey, I’ve got a pretty creative little piece of music.
This sheds some light on why some creative people may not like to talk about their projects. It takes away that element of surprise. If they tell one person, they tell another, they’ve discussed the project with 25 people all this sudden, it becomes common knowledge that the composer is working on a new project. Key word common. Or the composer gets bored telling the same story over and over. Key word over and over. If it’s agreed that part of being creative is shaking up the Common, then the creative person will naturally resist making a habit of discussing their works in progress. Even if the project sounds totally fresh and new to each member the composer discusses this with, to the composer, it becomes a tired old story.
I do it with a whole bunch of stuff, not just music. I won’t even tell my friends what I’m ordering from a menu because I feel like it’s less exciting when everyone knows what I’m getting… plus I don’t want anyone to copy my idea. Actually, in the last few years I’ve stopped looking at menus and started just telling the waiter to bring me his/her favorite thing on the menu. I guess I just love surprises/get bored with the same old thing.