Creativity is a Decision
Doing creative work isn't a magical act. It's making one decision after another.
What stops people from being creative is that they wait for some kind of mystical magic to happen. They wait for God himself to ordain them with some incredible idea and only THEN will they start working on their project.
I’m not saying those days never happen - when a rich flow of ideas magically enter your brain - but those moments are so rare, so few and far between, that if you rely on them, you’re never going to get any work done.
And say that you DO get a magical idea handed to you. That idea might be an 800 page novel. You’re going to need something else to get you through the writing of it.
Creativity works when you’re willing to make decisions. One after the other, you decide.
What do I want to create?
A screenplay.
Okay, what’s it about?
I don’t really know, I have some wishy washy idea about coming of age.
Okay, who’s coming of age?
A guy called Bill. Wait, his name is George! Or is it Alfie? I’m not sure. Ahhh, I don’t have the idea yet.
Yes you do, he’s Bill. Carry on…
This is what you need to do to get through your work, you have to make decisions.
My favourite artist, Doreen Fletcher, paints for four hours a day. Sometimes she may not be in the mood, some days she may feel a cold coming on, but what she does is she walks up the steps to her studio and she paints. She decides what to do and then she does it.
I find Doreen’s work profound. It really moves me, and I’m not even a guy who understands art. I understand movies and TV and books, but paintings, I’m clueless. But her work connects.
And it doesn’t connect because she sat around waiting for something to happen. She gets to work.
Here at ‘You’ve Got Media’, I’m still figuring my way, trying to understand within myself what it really is I want to be writing about. I can either write nothing until I’m sure, or I can get to work, and refine it as I go. The latter works best because while I’m figuring it out, I’ll become a better writer with each post I create.
The brain is great at excuses. It’s so easy to put a project off until tomorrow. But what do you actually need to get going?
Maybe it’s just a decision.
Great advice for any creative project!