How to Conquer Your Fear of Creating, Part 2
“A perfect poem is impossible. Once it has been written, the world would end.”
- Robert Graves
In my previous post I listed four of the most common fears creators experience:
1. Fear that what you create won’t be perfect.
2. Fear of not knowing what to create.
3. Fear that you’re not good enough.
4. Fear of overwhelm (of a big project).
You’ve been such a lovely audience that I’ve decided to add a bonus fear at no extra cost:
5. Fear of looking foolish.
Today let’s tackle the first two fears, and see if we can conquer them.
1. Fear that what you create won’t be perfect.
The result: You don’t create anything.
The solution: Remove the word “perfection” from your vocabulary - pretend it doesn’t exist. Be like a little kid again and make something simply because it’s fun. And then, realize you’re going to have to work hard to polish your craft.
When was the last time you saw a child hang a finger painting on the refrigerator and say, “That is terrible! I’m a hack! It’s not as good as Sally’s! My fingerprints are too tiny! Why do I even try?” Children don’t do that. They can’t wait to grab the crayons. They create with joy and excitement because it’s fun, and they can’t wait to show off their work.
So what happened? As we get older we become aware of our limitations. Or somebody told us we weren’t singers, or artists - maybe a teacher, relative, or bully at school.
Children don’t make preliminary sketches for their finger paintings. But as adults - as professional creators - we discovered it takes work to make something great, and many of us are allergic to work.
Your job isn’t to make a masterpiece. Your job is to express yourself, to release your desire; to take your idea and have fun bringing it to life. And it’s hard. You’re probably not going to get it right the first time. Hemingway said, “The first draft is always shit.” There will be moments - moments that pass - where you will think your creation sucks. There’s not one creative person I know who doesn’t experience that.
It takes work. That’s why they put those little pink erasers on the end of pencils. That’s why they invented the backspace button on your keyboard. Know that it’s a process, move forward and have fun. Have fun as if there’s nobody else on the planet, nobody to compare yourself to. Edit later. Polish later. It’s progress not perfection. It’s getting past those moments when you think you’re the least talented person on the planet. Your business is to have fun making stuff the best you can, and that’s all.
Let’s move on to conquering the next fear.
2. Fear of not knowing what to create.
The result: You don’t create anything.
The solution: You need a creative prompt. A kick in the imagination. You need to actively seek ways to stimulate ideas. Take a class where you’re forced to create, or assign yourself a theme, or read a newspaper to find an interesting story that triggers an idea.
This particular fear is my biggest personal challenge. Great ideas don’t pop into my brain every day. The result is fear. Fear that makes me want to do anything but face the blank page. Like watch golf on TV. Or floss. Or eat half a box of Cheeze-Its.
But I know something about myself - I know I like a challenge. I like to rise to an occasion. When prompted, I get ideas. For example, whenever I take a creative writing class and the teacher gives an assignment, it’s like a match ignites in my brain. I get ideas immediately.
If I said to you, today’s theme is ‘Apple’, chances are, no matter what your craft, you could conjour an idea based on that theme.
Have you heard of Illustration Friday? They take a word and hundreds of people make an illustration based on that word. Every Wednesday at James Gurney’s blog, he has a feature he calls Art by Committee. He posts a snip from an obscure book - a sentence or two - and his readers illustrate the scene.
There are many other creative prompts. There’s no need to wait for inspiration!
In my next post, we’ll explore solutions for the other fears.
Until then, please share your experiences and leave a comment!
Hey, hey, hey! Watch the teacher thing! I’m a teacher and I think you are absolutely wrong with your sentence: “Or somebody told us we weren’t singers, or artists - often a teacher.”
I could write for days on ways teachers try to get kids to believe in themselves. I think the idea of not being good does sometimes come from school, BUT, it comes from other kids, not teachers. Now there are exceptions to everything but teachers get little respect as it is, so let’s not add to the bon fire.
I think you are correct with your blockades to creating. Every time someone reads one of my pieces I cringe waiting for disapproval. I also have bits of ideas and sometimes have a difficult time making them mature.
I forgive you about the teacher comment. We’re still friends. :O) he he he
Hahaha! I see a bit of controversy brewing! I have a vivid memory from first grade- I was painting in the classroom and found that I could create an exciting mark if I just whipped the paintbrush at the paper…The teacher told me “NOT TO THROW PAINT!”. So imagine how cheated I felt when, years later, I learned about Jackson Pollock.
Keep up the good work, Guru!
Laurie - I certainly meant no disrespect to the teaching profession, so my apologies for offending! Thank you for pointing it out. I will make an edit in the post.
For the record, I’ve taught many drawing courses myself over the years, and my mother, sister, and several close friends teach full time. I have great respect for the exhausting work that comes with being a teacher.
You’re right- critical voices come from other places as well. I guess I pointed out teachers because I can’t tell you how many times people have told me stories about a teacher who criticized their creative effort when they were a kid, and it gave them a major complex. It’s happened to me in the area of math. It hurts more and scars deeper when a teacher tells you you have no talent or makes fun of something you create. I’m sure you are a wonderful teacher, though. I know how hard teachers try to improve the lives of their students, and I appreciate you giving me a pass. Here’s hoping I get a gold star next time around.
Mark Heng - I’m no guru, bro, just a young kid with a dream!
(Everything I write here at the cafe is a reminder to myself.) And I’ve seen you spatter paint, my friend, you keep at it. Talk about a guru!
You don’t need to edit your post. I was poking some fun at you me being a teacher and all. he he he. (More scaring from a teacher) The profession is like any other, many good ones but some bad ones as well. I, as you guessed, am one of the good ones (teacher of the year for our distict in 2005).
Most of my school scares came from the kids. I have very curly hair and that made me a target. My third grade teacher, Mrs. McCarthy, was my hero as she saved me from the mean 6th grade boys who were spitting on me.
I’ve probably done my damage to kids unknowingly. I did make it a policy of mine that if I felt I crossed the line in front of the class, I would apologize in front of the class. All teachers no matter how good they are, are human and make mistakes.
I know your comment wasn’t global to all teachers. I really just wanted to give you a hard time because that’s what teaches do best! he he he :O)
PS. I never understood spatter paint.
I liked your advice to take the word “perfection” out of our vocabulary. I find that when I do that and stop worrying about getting things absolutely right, that my first draft of writing actually turns out very close to what I want anyway. It’s only when I nitpick over every word that I have to do endless re-writes and editing!
I’ve had some fantastic teachers. But, sprinkled here and there are the not-so-good ones… an example pertinent to the topic of creativity is my junior school art teacher, who wouldn’t let us use the colour blue because it was a “poisonous colour”! She locked away all the blue paint - I was crushed since blue’s my favourite colour
I’m still trying to figure out why she hated the colour blue so much!!
Blue? It was probably the color of her in-laws house!
Another way to approach the fear of not being perfect is to deliberately say I’m going to create x number of the same piece and pick the best one. While this might not work for a very detailed oil painting, it can work for the first compositional part of the underpainting and some build up of color. I’ve done it for writing as well - done three rough drafts on almost the same topic and moved forward on the best one.
Laurie - your policy is a good one. As for the Jackson Pollock spatter paint thing, you might enjoy the bio pic “Pollock” for insight.
Mags - “poisonous color?” Egad that’s insane!
Beth - I like that idea very much. Create a bunch and see what sticks. Thanks!
Perfectionism is the leading cause of procrastination. Sometimes when I REALLY don’t want to do something I just write a rough draft, and then the rest just flows from there!
So what do you recommend for people that want to create too many things all at once…oh wise one?
Dr. Nicole - Before I answer your question, I must put on my swami turban. Ah yes! There we go. Hm… I wish I had an answer for you, but I’m too busy making comics, planning my next picture book, blogging, and doing freelance gigs for cash!
Seriously, I’m one of those people you just mentioned. I have many creative interests and it’s one of my biggest challenges because if you’re not careful nothing gets done. When I made my first book, I gave up songwriting cold-turkey. I focused on the book and let everything else take a backseat. It’s a matter of deciding what your biggest life goals are and focusing intensely on the top stuff.
Thanks Mark! er…swami…I agree. Right now until my blog is a real success everything else is taking a back seat. However it is already opening a lot of doors for me, so really it is the “mother of all my creativity” LOL