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Good Advice for Creative Folks
14 years ago
Just ran across this quote, and thought it was pertinent.
http://artistmotherteacher.com/wp-c...../Picture-5.png
"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through"
-- Ira Glass
http://artistmotherteacher.com/wp-c...../Picture-5.png
"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through"
-- Ira Glass
no practice is wasted
and it's important to enjoy what you create - and creating - regardless
OT
1000 Pictures to draw
1000 Songs to write
1000 Stories to write
1000 Sculptors to carve
1000 Pictures to paint
1000 Things to build
Before you Get Good at it.
Most of them are crap. And even when I look at the ones I was really proud of at the time, my mind still picks out all the bits I think could be better.
But I make it a mental exercise to look at each piece and pay attention to the things I _like_ about it. I try to remind myself that the reason I draw isn't because I need to make perfect things, it's because I want to get something out of my head and into the world. Something that might make just me happy, or something that might make someone else happy.
Our brains don't need help paying attention to the negative. They're already wired to look for problems and scary things and bad things. That's how we avoided dying early on in our evolution.
But they _do_ need some help paying attention to the positive. It requires a little extra effort.
It's okay to be critical of one's own art. That's part of how an artist improves their art over time.
But at the same time, you have to remain in love with your art. You have to remind yourself that you are in the process of creating some form of beauty. That it doesn't have to be perfect to bring someone happiness (or other forms of feeling).