failure

don't worry about failure. embrace it. some ideas are just not going to work. no matter how fantastic it may have seemed when the thought popped into your or as you have planned it out the finished article just isn't what you wanted. you might be able to save the work by doing something extra to it. there just comes a point when you have to throw your hands up and say 'it isn't right'. what you need to take away from moments like this is where it has gone wrong and where you can avoid such problems in the future. it might have been that you have used the wrong materials. it might be that you have used the wrong format. or it may be that you needed to do more planning. remember each failure means that you have learnt something that helps your next project. embrace failure, it makes success that much sweater.

take a wander on the wild side

while you are working on your latest creation you might find yourself going to places you didn't want to go. your work spiral away from the path you had for it. when it comes to writing people will talk about how the characters have taken on a life of their own - as if they were real and suddenly they decided on the life they would lead. personally i think this is a pile of dog pooh. what i think is at work is the creative sub conscious letting you know that there is a different way to go. sometimes it is going to be worthwhile following this new path, other times it is just going to lead you to a dead end. all paths are worth exploring. the other thing to take from this is that when people go on about how their work spoke to them or how their work took over you waon't have to feel so bad if you never have this feeling yourself. now you know that there is a different view of the same process. don't worry about the route you take, or the method that takes you along the route - what matters is that you get to the end and have something that is completed. so explore those creative back roads.

when the muse comes calling

creativity is a bit of a harsh mistress. on the one hand you have to work hard at it, and treat it like a job. set aside some time to do the work you want to do. with luck each time you do this it should get easier. routine, oddly, allowing for freedom of expression. there are other times when the muse will strike. the muse being what she these may not happen at convenient moments for you. however make sure you are in a position to write notes about the idea so that you can return to it as soon as you can. by soon i mean as close to immediately as possible. why? there is a fne line between letting an idea stew and letting it go cold. the other day i had an interesting idea for a story. i quite liked the concept, it gave me a lot to play with. i had the opening and a feeling for the tone of the story. i just didn't know what i was going to do with it. so i thought i would let it rattle around for a bit while i thought of an ending. the excitement i felt for it has been lost. that isn't to say i am not going to go back to it, just that now it will be a totally different beast. today i thought about trying to do an abstract series around 'the stations of the cross'. this isn't a new idea barnett newman has already done a jaw droppingly simple and beautiful sequence of abstract paintings on the subject. i know now i want the sequence to start and end, it is the middle bits i am not sure about. i will sleep on it - and see if inspiration comes to me. if it doesn't then it will be a case of slogging through a number of ideas to see if any of them work and if any of them stick. there is a caveat to all of this - there are times when you are just going to have let an idea go. you have to know when it isn't going to work. don't worry though the effort won't have been wasted as even failed ideas will feed into something else you do at a later date.

learn from other people

your creativity is like a muscle - it gets stronger the more you use it. so you keep using it. that isn't the only way you improve. you improve by lerning. sure you can read all the textbooks that tell you the right way to do things, sometimes they will tell you the mistakes to avoid. they will give you strategies on how to improve. the thing to remember about rules - is that often they are there to be broken. one of the best ways to learn is to learn from others. creativity and culture doesn't happen in a vacuum - everything feeds off of everything else. this has never been more true than now in the age of instant gratification and instant access. so when you are watching, listening, reading, viewing someone else's work - look at it and see what you can learn from it and then think about how you can apply that to your own work. that next movie, song, book, gallery is researh for your next piece of work. learn the lessons well and apply them.

it's not that stupid

if the internet has shown us anything it is that there is nothing like a stupid idea.
it doesn't matter what it is - you may want to do a stop/start animation of marigold gloves enacting hamlet while dancing in the style of pina bausch. it maybe that you want to replace the strings in stockhausen's helikopter-streichquartett (helicopter quartet) with barking dogs. maybe you have a hankering do a fantasy trilogy totally in rhyming couplets.

as you come up with the idea you also wonder what it is going to be like trying to tell/ sell/ pitch the idea to mates and strangers. all you can think of is 'nah! too stupid.'

stop right there sonny jim.
what did i say at the start?
that's right: there is no such thing as a stupid idea.

it may be that you don't think you can pull it off or you may think that it was just a silly idea and doesn't deserve work.
if you believe in it - you can make it happen and you can turn that daft concept into something special.
(please note this is something entirely different from trying to shine a turd.)

all you need to make a creative piece work is the belief that it deserves to be seen.
never worry about what other people think.
you are not being creative for them - you are being creative for you.

remember that idea for painting portraits of hollywood stars on space-hoppers - well it is a go.

never mind the quality feel the success

there you are working on your latest creation.
you feel good about it. this is the one. this is the one that they will love. you just know it.
you have slaved over it. you have poured your heart into it. you have bled for this piece of work.
it oozes quality.

here is a hard truth.
quality is no gurantee of success.
success is no proof of quality.

this is a double-edged thought as it points to the fact that you can be the best there is at what you do but it doesn't mean people are going to like your work.
it also means that even if you know your work is not the best out there you can still be a success.

look around - your audience has a lot of people competing for their attention. remember that they only have so much time to devote to enjoying the creative work of others and your painting is going up against someone elses poem. his book has to compete against her movie. that song against that video.

it isn't that people don't consume culture as much as they used to it is that there is so much more culture to consume.

that may make it sound like a gloomy situation - it isn't.
there are lots of new ways to get your work in front of people.

more importantly my point about quality/success means that you don't have to sweat every little detail, you don't have to dot ever i and cross ever t.
don't wait until it is perfect.
make it as good as it can be and then let it loose on the world.

the audience isn't looking for perfection.
the audience is looking for something they like and will entertain them.

your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to do just that.

audience? who cares about them?

for most of us would be creators the question of 'the audience' is a moot one. we don't have an audience.
in some respects that makes us lucky (albeit poor and creatively unloved).
why?
simple because right now you can do anything you want. there is nothing to stop you from being as creative or as experimental as you want. if you dp abstracts and tomorrow you feel like doing landscapes then go for it. if you are a poet and the urge omes across you to do hard core erotica then don't stop.
you can do what you want.

if you are lucky you will beccome famous and successful with your endeavours and then you are going to find yourself having to stick to the grove you have made for yourself.
only when you become a real superstar can you plot a career path that can chop and change.

the other thing about not worrying about an audience, the audience, your audience is that you do this (whatever it is) for your own benefit. you paint, sing, dance, photograph, write, weave, sculpt for your own benefit, you own enjoyment.

for most of us this is the time when we are still learning what it is we are doing. finding our voice, our style. while we are doing that we may as well have fun at it.

because in the end if we don't like what we do there is little chance anyone else is going to.

remember this - the audience starts with you.

tick tock tick tock

time is your enemy. never forget that.
that thing you thought was only going to take an hour - it won't. you think it is only going to be a week long job - it'll be longer.
it'll always take longer.
so factor that into anything you are doing.

sometimes the reason it will take longer will be because you hit a block, you can't think any more, you just can't quite form the idea - it stays just out of reach, teasing and tempting you. even when that happens - you still have to plug away at it. you need to keep going.
other thimes the reason it will take longer is that the muse has struck and what was a simple idea has suddenly grown into a much larger piece. don't hold back go with the flow and enjoy that moment of creative pleasure.

while it seems counter intuitive being creative is all about planning and planning your time in order to create.

don't let time defeat you.
plan and be in a better position to beat the clock.

start

the time to start is now.
stop thinking about wanting to be a painter, sculptor, photographer, writer, poet whatever.
thinking gets you nowhere.
do it.
start now.
don't worry about the quality, don't worry about the quantity. just do something. get it started, feel good about being creative and let the rest worry about itself.
you'll have enough time to worry about whether or not it is any good once you have done it - and that is the time to start worrying about it - not before.

so get on with it.

failure is an option

not everything you do is going to work. it may not even come close to what you wanted it to be.
nothing wrong with that.
failure is good.
failure is where you learn the lessons that improves your work.
the fear of failure will stop you from taking risks.
embracing failure will allow you to take chances.

failure only works if you learn from it.
if you learn from it then there is no need to be despondent because it means the next time you do something you will be better.

you are the first judge as to whether or not a piece of work has succeeded in the way you wanted it to. if possible you need to find someone else you can show your work to in order to get some feedback.

failure is an option.
make failure work for you, it is just a pit stop on the road to success.

targets - take aim and hit the target

set yourself a target.
doesn't matter what it is - it might be the amount of time you spend being creative. it might be the amount of work you complete. it could even been when you are creative. your choice, it is your target.
make sure that it is doable.
there is no point in setting a target that you have no chnace in meeting - why set yourself up to fail.
maybe you want to devote an hour a night to whatever creative endeavour you on the go. good. then spend an hour doing it. pick a start time. stick to it. complete the hour. look at what you have done. be pleased and then walk away from it.
maybe you think you can write 1000 words - then let that be your target. write and write get to the 1000 word mark and then stop.
it doesn't matter what it is you want to do you will find it easier if you set yourself targets.
targets only work if you try to achieve them - so don't set them too high, but no good to set them too low either, as you want to push yourself.

why targets? why not just do it (as i have said previously). targets help you come back to do more. doing once is probably easy. doing it several times is harder, doing it consistently is the real goal.
the more you do the work. the easier it becomes.
the easier it becomes the more you can create.

as i have said before creation is just like being an athlete - you have to practice, you have to get better/stronger and the only way of doing it that is by having targets.

after awhile you find that your target has increased - and you might be working on it for longer, or aiming to do more in the same amount of time.

targets aren't for the days when the muse has kicked in and you are a creative juggernaunt and images and words flow like water. targets are for the 99% if the time when the muse is kicking back and enjoying a cold one.

tagets get you to apply yourself.
so think about your working method, think about how you might best apply a target to it and get on with creating.

remember be sensible with that target.

new year new challenge

we set great store by the new year. resolutions and all that. as if somehow the new year really is a clean slate and not just another day where the problems we had yesterday are still with us tomorrow.
however that is to dwell on the negative.
while it may not be a moment when the slate has been wiped clean the new year can be seen as an opportunity to turn a fresh page, open a new chapter and begin a new adventure.

so with the new year started - think about those creative ideas you have left lying around doing nothing for one reason or another. or that project you think you have finished but have not quite gotten around to doing those last minute revisions.
or you have that idea you haven't touched.
now is the time.
begin the year as you mean to go on.
put pen to paper.
brush to canvas.
tinkle the ivories.
look through the viewfinder.

we all have it in us to be creative in one way or another.
whatever form your creativity manifests itself - poetry or prose, oil or watercolour, dance or stand-up don't let it go to waste. do something with it.

this is an olympic year. take heart from that. think about those athletes who have pursued their dreams in order to compete at the highest level. most of them will fail.
there is nothing wrong with that.
when it comes down to it - if you don't try you will never know.

so as 2012 begins forget about all those barriers you have placed in front of yourself, brush aside all the questions you have about your creativity.
because the truth of the matter is you can do it.

what are you waiting for?
get creating.