What’s in it for me? Strategize your way to creative excellence.
There’s no hard-and-fast formula for realizing your artistic ambitions. But that doesn’t mean that creative success is a matter of random chance. Many people who achieve creative excellence adhere to a shared set of processes, practices, and attitudes. So what’s stopping you from joining their ranks?
In a word: nothing. After all, creativity is a skill that can be learned and honed. The blinks that follow share the insights and strategies you need to professionalize your creativity. Armed with tips and techniques to bolster your creative practice, you’ll be able to turn your creative dabblings into polished professional work that’s ready to share with the world.
In these blinks, you’ll learn
why selling your work doesn’t mean selling out;
what the band Steely Dan can teach you about perfectionism; and
how you can learn to love your critics.
Trust yourself to find your own path to a creative practice.
Don’t ever tell yourself, “I can’t be creative.” You can. And, in fact, you already are. Every time you’ve doodled in the corner of a notebook or hummed a song in the shower, you’ve expressed yourself creatively.
You have the capacity for creativity and for transforming your raw creative ability into professional practice. But be prepared: the route to establishing yourself as a creative professional can be tricky to navigate. There’s no predetermined roadmap to professional creative success.
As the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, puts it: “It is better to follow your own path, however imperfectly, than to follow someone else’s perfectly.”
The key message is: Trust yourself to find your own path to a creative practice.
So how do you find your creative path? Your path lies in your process. Trust in your process, and your path will manifest itself.
But that trust might be hard won. Ours is a world that values outcome over process. We don’t judge a plumber’s work by the quality of its process; we judge it based on whether or not the toilet still leaks. Sadly, many apply this same attitude to creative endeavors. We judge the success of a book by the copies it sells, the success of a musician by how many stadiums she can sell out.
But fixating on outcome can lead creatives to make shallow, market-driven choices. The fact is, there’s no such thing as an outcome without a process leading up to it. To find your authentic creativity, focus on your own creative process, which naturally will be different than anyone else’s. By trusting in your own unique process without placing value on its outcome, you’ll discover your path.
Of course, it’s sometimes hard to trust process. You might feel the guitar notes you’re strumming will never meld into a harmony, or the sentences you’re jotting down on your commute will never amount to a book. Even the most established creative practitioners confess to feeling overwhelmed by self-doubt. But here’s the good news: Your feelings don’t matter. Your actions do.
Unlike our feelings, our actions are within our control. So, do your process, even if you feel like you can’t.
Trust in yourself; trust in your process. Sometimes your process will result in a good outcome. Sometimes it won’t. But every time you recommit to it, you recommit to uncovering your creative potential.
Your creativity is abundant and necessary, so be generous with it.
Novels in bottom desk drawers. Dance routines practiced in empty rooms with the curtains drawn. Canvases stacked in storage lockers. Plenty of creatives make art for the sake of making art. And that’s fine. But a creative professional? They create for an audience.
If you want to be a creative professional, you need to get comfortable with sharing your work. Be warned: this might be easier said than done. From embarrassment to perfectionism, there are plenty of reasons you might not want to share your work. And guess what? You need to ignore all of them.
The key message is: Your creativity is abundant and necessary, so be generous with it.
What’s holding you back from sharing your work?
Perhaps you have a scarcity mind-set. You hoard ideas and insight, worried that once they’re used up, they won’t be replenished. That makes you reluctant to share with others in case they take your ideas. The truth? That’s unlikely to happen. Your creativity is inexhaustible unless you act like it isn’t. Share your creative gifts, and they’ll continue to grow. In fact, the more you exchange with others, the more inspiration you’ll receive.
Then again, maybe you’re reluctant to share because you think of it as “selling” your work, and that feels like selling out. But thinking this way confuses art with industry. Industry exists to fill a gap in the market and maximize profit in the process. Art is different. Art doesn’t fill gaps; it blasts new windows open. Art creates change. And in today’s world, we need change.
Bringing your work to the market is what makes it available. That’s not selling out – it’s what allows art-driven change to happen! In fact, if you want to make the best art possible, you have to share your work. Sharing brings you feedback, and feedback is your foundation for improving your work.
Finally, maybe you’re scared to share. That’s understandable! Sharing your work makes you vulnerable and opens you up to negative criticism. For inspiration in getting over this hurdle, try looking at stand-up comedians. Those guys put in the hours at open mics in front of skeptical audiences. Sometimes their jokes land. Sometimes they bomb. But each time they share their work, they improve it.
If you’re not generously sharing your work, you’re not fulfilling your potential as a creative professional – and your work isn’t fulfilling its purpose.
Build on your creativity to forge a successful career.
If you’ve made the decision to be a creative professional, that means your art is your work. It may not be your job or the gig that pays your bills, but you need to treat your creative practice as a career. And, just like in any other career, you’ll have to put in the effort to develop your skills and strive to hit key performance targets if you’re going to make it to the next level.
If you treat your creative practice as a hobby or an outlet, it will never grow to be more than that. But if you make a professional investment of time, resources, and skills into your practice, you can turn your passion into a lasting career.
The key message is: Build on your creativity to forge a successful career.
Here are a few strategies that will help you to treat your creative practice as a job:
First, find your hour. Want to get fit? You can if you follow a simple formula. Put in an hour at the gym every day. Exercising for an hour isn’t difficult; just do it every day, and you’ll reap the rewards. Developing your creativity is no different. Commit to putting in an hour every day. Get up early or stay up late if you need to. The simple act of investing time in your creative work will pay dividends.
Second, get paid. Loving what you do doesn’t mean giving your work away for free – not if you’re a professional. Predatory individuals and institutions may try to convince you that sharing your work for free shows generosity. But don’t forget: in our society, money signifies value. Insisting on payment demonstrates your value as a creative professional. A lawyer might love her job, but she won’t do it for nothing. Why should you? It signals to your clients that you believe in your work. Plus, getting paid allows you the financial freedom to grow your practice, whether that’s through purchasing equipment or commissioning a website.
Finally, get better clients. Imagine a graphic designer who’s stuck designing uninspiring corporate leaflets when he knows he’s capable of executing striking global campaigns. Who stuck him with that boring brief? On one level, it was the client who gave him that brief. On a deeper level, it was him. After all, he accepted the client. The best artists work with the best clients: clients who demand big thinking and expect creative excellence.
Your artistic intent shapes your output, so make sure it’s clear.
Have you ever tried to plan a piece of creative work? If you have, you know that the final product always deviates from the blueprint in some way. Outlining a novel won’t stop a new character from creeping in, and storyboarding a short film is no guarantee that all the scenes in your sketchbook will make it to the final cut.
In fact, working creatively can be so unpredictable that some people elect not to plan at all. But whether you’re improvising or working to an outline, there’s one thing you always need to establish before you start work: your purpose.
The key message is: Your artistic intent shapes your output, so make sure it’s clear.
Many fledgling creatives are afraid to articulate the intention of their work. Why? Well, intentions are high-stakes. Setting an intention can set you up for failure: a work that doesn’t fulfill its intention is a flop. But work made without intention can never succeed. To create professionally, your work must be underpinned with intention.
Artistic intent is non-negotiable. So how can you define yours?
First, ask yourself, “Who am I trying to reach with this work?” You might be tempted to answer “everyone.” After all, who wouldn’t want the biggest possible audience for their work? But your work won’t be for everyone. At least not yet. So really push yourself: who is your ideal reader, viewer, or user? What do they want, need, fear, and believe? It pays to be specific. Because if you target your work well, it will reach far beyond your intended audience. Imagine ten cowboys rounding up a thousand cattle. The cowboys don’t reach each individual cow. They nudge the cattle at the edges of the herd, which then influence the whole group to move. Your intended audience is the cowboys. Once you’ve convinced them, they’ll do the work of convincing the herd.
Now, ask yourself, “What is this work for?” If you’re an engineer building a bridge, this is easy to answer: the bridge is there to connect two pieces of land. For a creative, however, things aren’t so simple. What is a painting for? What does a performance do, in the end? You can answer questions like these, though. As any engineer will tell you, everything has a function. Once you’ve settled on the function of your work, whether that’s to entertain, educate, or provoke a certain emotional reaction, then you can go about creating work that fulfills that function.
Creative blocks won’t happen if you don’t aim for perfect.
At one point or another in your creative career, you’re probably going to come up against the dreaded creative block. You’ll lose inspiration. You’ll break out in a sweat at the sight of a blank page. You’ll wonder if you’ll ever have another good idea again.
Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? But if you fear creative blocks, or if you’re currently struggling with one, take heart. A creative block is nothing more than a cultural construct. In other words, it doesn’t really exist.
The key message is: Creative blocks won’t happen if you don’t aim for perfect.
For something that doesn’t really exist, creative blocks sure can seem prevalent. Why?
In a word: perfectionism. It’s hard to start work when, in your mind, the outcome needs to be perfect. It’s also hard to finish your work when you won’t settle for less than perfection. Sometimes it’s hard to even make progress with it.
To illustrate this point, let’s look at two different bands: Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
For years, Steely Dan famously refused to tour. Instead, they logged hours in the studio, polishing their recordings until they were seamless. The band felt that a live performance could never capture the technical perfection of their studio recordings. So they never performed live.
Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band, on the other hand, are relentless live performers. Their concerts aren’t polished: they’re raw and authentic, and sometimes a few mistakes slip through. Are their fans disappointed? Not at all. The raw authenticity is the draw.
And guess what? When Steely Dan made an about-face and decided, after decades, that they did want to tour, their fans loved the experience of seeing the band in “imperfect” live mode, just as much as they loved the “perfect” studio albums.
So who were Steely Dan serving when they refused to perform anything but the most polished music possible? They weren’t serving their fans so much as their own perfectionism.
Standards are great. Setting high standards allows you to feel pride in your work. But don’t aim for perfection. It’s more than likely your immovable creative block will disintegrate when you let go of perfectionism and give yourself permission to be messy and raw.
Embrace criticism, but only within limits!
What makes someone a true creative professional? It’s not how much money they earn from their work, how many fans they have, or how many glowing reviews are attached to their name. In fact, to be a creative professional, you only have to do one thing: ship your work; in other words, deliver it to an audience.
Sounds simple, right? That’s because it is. The internet has democratized creativity, and now there are more ways than ever before to share your creative work with others.
It’s after you’ve shipped your work that things can get complicated.
The key message is: Embrace criticism, but only within limits!
Once you’ve shipped your work, you’re likely to get an audience response. The best-case scenario is that everyone who encounters your work loves it without reservation. But let’s be honest – it’s not going to happen like that. Shakespeare, Kahlo, and Mozart all had their detractors. You’re going to have some, too.
So, how do you deal with critique? Well, you could try and embrace it. If you’re lucky, you might get feedback from a generous critic, someone who takes the time to analyze your work and point out the parts of it that aren’t working for them. The generous critic has spent time engaging with your work and appreciates your intention. They want to follow you on your artistic journey, even though they’ve got a few pointers for you. Someone who engages with your work on this level isn’t a detractor. In fact, they’re a fan. You aren’t obliged to make the changes they suggest, though you should consider them. But you should certainly thank them for their thoughtful response to your work.
Sometimes, though, your critics won’t be thoughtful or generous. And you should feel free not to engage with trolls or people that fall way outside your target market. But just because feedback isn’t considered doesn’t mean it can’t be useful. Just ask director Sam Raimi. Raimi is known for crowd-pleasing films like Spider-Man and The Evil Dead. As a hopeful teen filmmaker, Raimi used to pay his peers 50 cents to attend screenings of his movies. Often, they booed before the films were even over! But Raimi wasn’t discouraged. He made a note of when the booing occurred, then reworked those scenes over and over until the booing died out altogether.
Critique can hurt. But commit to learning from the criticism you receive, and you’ll grow as a creative.
You can optimize your chances of achieving greatness.
Some creatives find fulfillment simply in shipping their work to a modest audience. Others have their eye on a bigger prize: greatness. They don’t just want to perform well; they want to be at the pinnacle of their field.
What propels certain creatives to that pinnacle? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a uniquely gifted genius to reach the upper echelons of creative excellence. With commitment and a bit of strategy, you can work your way to the very top.
The key message is: You can optimize your chances of achieving greatness.
Greatness is never guaranteed. But if you’re striving for creative greatness, à la pianist Glenn Gould or contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama, there are some techniques that might help you along your way.
First of all, find your cohort. In creativity, context is crucial. Would Robert Zimmerman have metamorphosed into Bob Dylan if he’d never left Minnesota for the vibrant folk scene of Greenwich Village in the 1950s? Maybe – but maybe not. Dig deep on any of your artistic idols, and you’ll probably find they didn’t work in isolation. From Renaissance Florence to the Algonquin Round Table, creatives congregate. And when they do, they spur each other on to produce greater, more groundbreaking work. So set out to find your cohort.
Second, commit to your superpower skill. That’s the thing you do best, the thing that makes you stand out in a crowded market. Focusing on your superpower skill might mean neglecting other parts of your work. And that’s fine. In fact, it shows you’re on the right track. Think of FedEx, the global shipping powerhouse. Would you send a priceless oil painting cross-country with FedEx? Probably not. Because FedEx’s superpower is their speed, they leave ultra-careful handling to their competitors. So, don’t try and corner the whole market. Commit to painting amazing portraits if that’s your superpower, and leave landscapes to others. It’s all about finding your niche and excelling there.
Last, do the reading. Would you go to a graduate seminar and start sharing your opinions if you hadn’t done the reading first? The answer, hopefully, is no, of course not. The same logic applies to whatever creative field you’re in: read the key textbooks, follow the key blogs, listen to the key podcasts, and brush up on the most influential practitioners. To perform at your peak, you need to put in the work.
Creativity thrives under constraints, so embrace them.
The alt-rock band REM are world-famous musicians. But for a long time, early in their career, they just couldn’t crack the very top of the charts. Finally, they released their album Out of Time. It was a smash hit that spent two years in the charts, and it propelled the band from indie renown to superstardom.
What was the magic ingredient that made Out of Time so successful? It wasn’t more creative freedom or greater resources. Quite the opposite: the band embraced constraints and limitations.
The key message is: Creativity thrives under constraints, so embrace them.
While making Out of Time, REM purposely decided to create under limiting conditions. Lead guitarist Peter Buck played mandolin, an instrument he wasn’t familiar with, instead of his usual instrument. The rest of the band was forced to adapt and also played unfamiliar instruments.
In the end, it was by making things harder, not easier, that the band was able to produce their breakthrough work.
There’s a lesson there. As creatives, we’re often tempted to think, “I would do my best work if only.” If only the canvas was bigger, for example, the budget was healthier, or the deadline wasn’t looming. In reality, only a privileged few enjoy complete creative freedom, unhampered by worries of pleasing clients or blowing through money. And the truth is, those constraints that we chafe at often spur us to do our best work. Smart creatives embrace external limitations.
Creatives like Susan Kare, for example. When she was working with Apple, she was charged with designing the interface of their new Mac computer. She was given a 32×32 grid to fill in with the computer’s icons. Her designs had to be black and white and work with the low resolution of an early computer screen. Some artists would have given up. But Kare, despite these constraints, went on to create an influential visual language that set Apple apart, from the file folder icon to the mouse arrow.
So, when you’re faced with constraints, think like REM and Kare. Don’t give in to the temptation to ask for a bigger budget or more time. Embrace constraints. Your creativity will soar, your creative practice will reach new heights, and the creative career you visualize will come closer into reach.
Final summary
The key message in these blinks:
Creativity can feel spontaneous, magical, and – unfortunately, if you’re a creative professional – unpredictable. But actually, with strategy and discipline, you can harness your creative process and maximize your creative output. Thinking smartly about your intentions, your audience, and your skillset can set you on the path to lasting creative success.
Actionable advice:
Don’t fear rejection.
New Yorker cartoonist Drew Dernavich caused a splash online when he shared a photo of two piles of paper. One pile was rejected cartoons. The other was accepted cartoons. The rejection pile towered over its counterpart. Successful creatives don’t get rejected less. They just submit more.
Got feedback?
We’d love to hear what you think about our content! Just drop an email to remember@blinkist.com with The Practice as the subject line and share your thoughts!
What to read next: Keep Going by Austin Kleon.
If these blinks have inspired you to start down your creative path, then the blinks to Keep Going will make sure that you stay the course. You’ll learn about the role resilience and perseverance play in cultivating a creative life that can adapt to challenges and overcome hardships. Staying focused and energized is essential to achieving your creative ambitions, and these blinks will show you how to do just that, whatever life throws at you.
Leave a Reply