As a group of aspiring prose stylists and poets, we were all hoping for the same thing: A formula that, if we adhered to it faithfully, would transform each of us into someone like the person standing at the podium, a successful, productive writer.
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
How to Be Disciplined About Your Creative Projects
As a group of aspiring prose stylists and poets, we were all hoping for the same thing: A formula that, if we adhered to it faithfully, would transform each of us into someone like the person standing at the podium, a successful, productive writer.
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5 comments:
I like this article a lot. As a rising artist, I often find it hard to find the time to make art. Especially with school work that is so heavily artistic, it can be difficult to make things outside of class just for yourself. I also believe that this is one of the only ways to improve as an artist. The idea of an artist date is really intriguing to me. I often enjoy walking by myself somewhere or getting lost in the city without any one else to guide me. These times are when I am able to think the deepest about what I am doing in life, what is holding me back, and what I should be doing. I also think it is important to note that if you just are not in the mood to be creative, it can be very counterproductive to force yourself to do so. You can not make this a habit of course, but postponing your work to a time where you will produce better work is not always a bad thing.
This article reminded me a lot of the way I learned how to avoid procrastination in high school. Some of the best analytical written work I’ve done has come from sitting at a computer and forcing myself into “the zone.” As someone who is entering a creative industry of innovators, it’s important for me to learn how to best achieve an optimal point of creativity. Whether that’s forcing myself to write when I am not in the mood or setting time aside to seek out inspiration or shutting off my insecurities - it’s not easy to be disciplined in the creative process. I feel especially grateful to be at CMU in drama because I think the last piece of advice in the article is something I rarely need to seek out. As a first year “living” in 33, I am surrounded by 26 other incredible artists.
This article was definitely written for artists and creative folks, but I find there’s a lot of good life advice here, too.
Example: “do it even when you’re not in the mood” because placing yourself in the position to do the thing can help get in the mood. This can apply as much to going to the gym and working out is it does to creativity. Getting yourself to stand inside the actual gym is most of the battle. Once you’re there, you won’t turn around and leave. We have to do A LOT of things we’re not in the mood for. Place yourself in the position to do the thing and you’d be surprised how much more gets done.
“Do things that are adjacent to your goal.” Want to be better at your job? Maybe take a course or a certification that can help. Read a book that’s related. Cultivate yourself.
“Silence self-doubt.” Though artists have it in spades, a lot of use experience and can be hampered by self-doubt. The honest direct conversation that author has with themselves is a tool we can all use.
“Join or form a group.” Find a group of people to share your hobbies and your joy with and meet regularly: it will help you maintain that interest as a priority and stop the inevitable creep of other life responsibilities.
I think this article is very important. As a person who is kind of just realizing the reality that being a creative is what I am going to do with my life it is very intimidating and exciting for me. The part of this article that resonated the most for me is the laziness v. fear conversation. There are some time that, I’ll be honest, I just really don’t want to do work. I don’t want to put pencil to paper and draw. But other times I think what is holding me back form creating is that I don’t want to create something bad or that I’m not happy with. This is something that I have to get over and quickly and I think that the only way I can do this is to just sit down and do it no matter what. The method that I want to try is to block time out of my day and tell myself that in that block I have to do something creative weather that is drawing or learning Logic (which I really need to do but have been putting off). This article also told me that I’m not the only one that struggles with these problems. That other people, who are even farther in their artistic journey and development, are dealing with this too.
I'm very intrigued by the points brought up in this piece. I have engaged in some of the methods brought up such as morning pages and artist dates for my poetry work but until it was brought up to me in this format I didn't at all think that I could use these methods for other types of art. Morning pages, though they seem like they are focused on writers, actually have helped me to clear my head rather than to write good poems. I almost never get a poem out of them, rather I get a clear head to approach poems I've either already started or to access what I'm truly feeling through a poem.
I also think that I will begin to try to do artist dates more frequently. I find myself feeling stuck now that I'm in Pittsburgh because I'm not among the artists of the city as much. In Chicago, I was always working and collaborating: on fashion shows, poetry slams, plays. Even when I wasn't collaborating, I was always talking with artists my age about what we were doing and writing and how we wanted our artistic journeys to go. For me the world of art is an all inclusive one. Now that this has been brought to my attention, I think I will do what I used to do in Chicago. I would take public transportation any which way, find a park, sit down and write a poem. I didn't care if it was good or revolutionary. All I cared about was that I was claiming space for myself and writing about my experience: either in the park, on the train, or just in general. Though Pittsburgh is not nearly as familiar to me, I will trust that I can find my way back to campus, get lost, and try to come back with some new art.
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