Creative Process: the everyday way

If you are an actor. Act!

If you are a singer. Sing!

If you are designer. Design!

If you are a developer. Develop!

This seems obvious and simple, but I know so many creative people (or people who want to be creative) that get stuck. They spend inordinate amounts of time on something only to never feel that it is completed. I have a saying that I share with my students. "Projects are never done, they are just due." Creative projects especially will always have one more thing that you can do with them. The difference between successful and unsuccessful creatives is in their ability to deliver.

A writer who never publishes is not a writer. At best they are an undiscovered writer.

A singer who never performs is not a singer. Everyone can sing in the shower.

A developer who never develops is not a developer. Everyone has the idea for that next great app. 

Do you see a pattern?  If your goal is to be among the ranks of professional creatives, you need to figure out how to get your work completed and in front of an audience.

The stumbling block often comes in the form of self-criticism that leads to completion paralysis. The work is never done.

If you feel this way, don't worry. You are not alone. Try this process. It's not intended to become the only way you get stuff done, but it can kickstart your ability to complete work and connect with your audience.

1. Figure out the optimal amount of time for the piece you are producing. A simple line sketch can take as little as 3 seconds (our illustration students do this in life drawing classes). A song might take a day to write. A website might take a day and a half. Even if that feels too short, be merciless. Record that optimal time and remember it. (if you are involved in making things that take a great deal of time, like AAA games, find a unit within your skillset that is something that can be acheived in a shorter timeframe.)
2. Determine if what you are doing is for yourself or for an audience. This will give you a base for how you measure success. History (Van Gogh, Pollock, Basquiat, and others) has shown us that works artists do for themselves take longer to adopt an audience than work that is done for a specific audience. If you are trying to break new creative ground, don't be insulted when others don't get it or even resist your vision. 
3. Produce something within that optimal time. Be strict with yourself. If you can't do this, then you should stop now and consider how badly you want to master the skill. Perhaps you are a hobbyist. This process is designed for those who want to eventually make money from their work. 
4. Publish it. You are no longer the judge of your own work. You will now allow an audience to judge your work. If no one looks at it, solicit feedback. Find people who won't be afraid to tell you when you suck and when you succeed. Remember, if you are breaking new creative ground, you will need to measure the feedback against your expected outcomes. If you are seeking to connect with an audience, then you need to monitor the reaction of that audience and not necessarily those outside that audience.
5. Repeat 2 & 3 at least 20 times. The more you can do, the better. Be relentless.
6. Track your effectiveness. Which pieces that you create are good? Which are crap? Which are stellar? 

What will you gain from this?

1. stamina - mastery of anything requires a stamina for the mental and physcial effort required to successfully complete
2. failure tolerance - you can't bat a hundred, it is vital to develop an acceptance that not all your work will be brilliant
3. mastery - masters of anything practice every day, lack of practice results in atrophy

If you find you are lacking in inspiration, that is the best time to make yourself practice your work. Be prepared to produce crap. Get over it and move on. 

Accept the fact that much of your work will never see the light of day beyond a few critical friends. The Beatles produced tons of work that was never published. The Midas Touch is a fiction. You can't expect everything you make to be golden. However, you can expect that some of what you produce will. Keep at it, it gets better.

- Owen

I based this simplified process on observations I have made watching our illustration students and their various drawing exercises. I abstracted their process and then was influenced by an article on CBC's "Day Six" with Brent Bambury that my wife, Pamela, told me about.