Part 1: Myths About the Creative Process
Creativity is more powerful and important than ever before. It’s what will carry our world into the future, and hopefully a future that is sustainable, collaborative, and prosperous for everyone. While it may seem frivolous to spend time and energy on creative projects right now, it’s one of the best things we can do for ourselves and our communities. It’s the “era of creativity”:
“The state of affairs can look like a dilemma — and for many people it will be. But it’s also an opportunity. As every industry reaches this point, the most rewarding path for individuals will be focusing on creativity. While productivity is about squeezing all the value out of existing resources, creativity and creative thinking are about discovering new resources: creative problem-solving that turns an obstacle into an advantage, inspiration that leads to a new product, creative reinvention that changes the course of your career.” [1]
Misconceptions about creativity affect our relationship to it because we end up defining our own creative abilities by these misconceptions. Let’s unpack some common myths about creativity and the creative process.
Myth 1: Creativity is self-expression.
We often conflate creativity with: being artsy, being inspired, expressing ourselves, feeling inspired, having “intuition.” It’s all of those things and also none of those things. Creativity is problem-solving. According to Tiago Forte from Forte Labs, “creativity is connecting things, especially things that don’t seem to be connected.” When we see creativity as something that is fluid and intuitive, we assume it doesn’t require processes or systems and are therefore less likely to develop a creative process, to our detriment.
Myth 2: You're only allowed to be good at one thing.
When I was younger, I thought the only way to have a successful creative life was to follow a very linear path. As an adult I know how ridiculous that is — very few people experience a straight shot to their goals. Creativity, too, doesn’t need to happen in a silo. Creatives benefit from exploring different aspects of their chosen craft: writers benefit from understanding the basics of design; illustrators benefit from knowing about script writing; and so on. Most of the media and art we enjoy blends disciplines.
Myth 3: Only people who have a bunch of free time can accomplish their goals and creative ideas.
Creative success is rarely about how much time you have, even though many of us dream about having an abundance of free time to dedicate toward a creative project. Successful creatives — meaning, people who are able to accomplish their goals, whatever the goals are — are people who make the most of their time by working differently. Plenty of successful novelists, for example, have full-time jobs, families, and commitments.
Have you ever written an entire essay for school at the very last minute? Somehow you were able to crank out 5 pages in two hours, right? It was most likely not your best work but you finished something hard in a short amount of time. You probably also felt anxious and stressed, like you were sprinting. But what if you coupled that efficiency of writing a last-minute paper with a sense of peace and "serendipity" instead of anxiety? That's what working productively and having a creative flow feels like — the ability to do your best work in an efficient time frame. That's when you get into a groove and enter "deep work mode" where you're just knocking out the ideas or content and it feels natural. This is the goal of our creative processes.
Myth 4: You need to wait until your life is perfect and easy before doing a hard thing.
Here's a hard truth: life is always going to be complicated and messy. We all have to find a way to bring creativity into our lives without fighting our current circumstances. Processes should always be based on your life now and not on an aspirational future self. Otherwise we'd never do anything, always waiting for something to change and for the moment to feel right.
This is the life you have. It doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t change, but we don’t know what the future holds and shouldn’t wait to start. Creatives are most successful when they a) set reasonable project scopes, b) accept the reality of their circumstances instead of waiting to do things until the circumstances are "perfect" (they never will be) and c) cultivate a solid process that works around those circumstances, not against them. This goes for some of our habits that may not be as conducive to productivity or progress.
“Design an interaction model for the worst version of yourself — the one that’s lazy, unmotivated, frazzled — because that’s the one that usually shows up when you need a solid workflow to fall back on.” [2]
Design a process around the current, real you and not an aspirational version of yourself.
Myth 5: You get it right the first time.
Here’s another “secret”: successful creatives make a lot of stinkers before they get to a gemstone. Constant creative output is necessary to hone your skills and find your “voice.” Because creative work is so time-consuming, it feels like every project we invest time in needs to be “the one.” (Like writing a novel and scoring a book deal for it.) But our best work comes with time and practice. Not everything you create needs an audience.
Creatives need to create and create and create. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a successful novelist was “write practice novels before you try to sell a novel.” Why? Because you learn what writing a novel entails without the pressure of making it “perfect” enough to sell. You develop and refine a process so that you can not only write one great novel, but continue to write great novels after the first one.
This is a must-know quote for any creative by This American Life host Ira Glass:
“Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that.
And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you're going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you're going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions.” [3]
Here’s the video version of this quote:
Cited Articles and Recommended Reading:
[1] Creativity is the New Productivity
[2] Progressive Summarization III: Guidelines and Principles
[3] What Every Successful Person Knows, But Never Says
Activity and Worksheet
With these myths in mind, let’s turn to the myths we tell ourselves about our creative process.
These myths might be based on our aspirational self — “I can easily write 2,000 words a day!” — or based on our insecurities — “I don’t feel qualified to tackle an ambitious project.”
Here are some examples of myths. Even if you relate to one of these, these are myths and not truths because the goal with this activity is to reflect and ultimately debunk these myths. Only by acknowledging these myths can we move forward to craft an honest and helpful process for ourselves.
I don’t have time to do the projects I want.
I lack motivation or am “lazy.” [4]
I’m a bad writer/artist/creative.
I can’t start yet because I need to wait until [x] happens.
Use the template to write out your personal creativity myths. You'll notice that there is also a column for truths, which is where we'll reframe these myths to encourage and empower ourselves.
Example truths:
I can make creativity a priority in my life.
I will learn and improve my skillset.
I have a unique creative vision.
My voice is important to my creative field.
If you'd like to share your notes or discuss your thoughts with me and fellow creatives, I invite you to join my Discord channel! There is no pressure or requirement to join. The Scribemind community is very welcoming and we look forward to getting to know you.
Next week, I'll share the first in our creative case studies so you can get a peek into how other creatives work!
Talk soon,
Ashley