Category: Creative Mondays
A year long exploration of creativity.
Creative Mondays #050 – A creative challenge.
So for today’s creativity post, I wanted to try a little something different. I wanted to issue you a challenge.
I like to think that art brightens people’s lives. Probably the clearest example of this is music. There is nothing like playing that perfect song to lift your mood. Think about how many movie montages use “Walking On Sunshine” By Katrina & The Waves. So many in fact it has become almost cliche. The point is, it’s very hard to listen to that song and not be happy. The song itself illicit an almost instant response in people. Yes, I understand you may not like that song, but it sure shows up in a lot of movies, TV shows and commercials to prove that for most people, it is an instant uplifting tune.
Other types of art can pick you up as well. You favorite book, a great painting or sculpture, a well written joke or short story. Heck, even though they aren’t technically art, I’ll even throw in a really well written meme. A few minutes over at ICanHasCheezeburger.com and you are bound to at least chuckle a little. Even a little chuckle can help you feel better when the stress of everyday life is grinding down on you.
Not only is taking in a piece of art something that can make you feel good, creating a piece of art can make you feel good. Getting lost in some colored pencils and paper, or digital drawing tool on an iPad or other tablet. Or making a goofy little movie with your smartphone or joking down a short, whimsical 100 word story are a great way to blow off some steam and let the world drop away for a few minutes.
So this week, your challenge is to combine these to ‘feel good’ things into one little exercise. This week, I want you to create something. It doesn’t have to be big, not at all. It can be a small origami sculpture. Or a 100 word story. A sketch. A small painting. A short song. Whatever tools you have handy, use them and create something small. Take a few days to get it how you want it, but don’t stress over it. This isn’t the Mona Lisa or Great American Novel we’re shooting for. Just something small and fun.
Once you have your piece of art completed, your assignment is, simply, to give it to someone. Now, you can gift it to them anonymously if you like or you can just walk right up to the person and hand it to them. That’s all up to you. You can also gift the art to anyone you’d like. Your mom, wife, sister or brother. Whomever you choose. Just probably not that ex that has a restraining order on you. And by all means, you can create your art with that person in mind.
The goal with this is to create something that is going to brighten up someone else’s day.
And don’t let your inner critic get the best of you either. You CAN create something small that will brighten up somebody’s day. Trust me, it’s possible.
So, get to work and then report back in the comments below on what your created and what the reaction of the recipient was.
Go!
Create!
—
So tell us, what did you create? Who did you give it to? What was their reaction? Inquiring minds want to know!
Creative Mondays #049 – No time for critics.
We’ve talked on here before about Challenging the Naysayers and how Some People Are Not Going To Like What You Create. Today I wanted to talk about another aspect of people who are critical of your work and that is completely ignoring them and how to ignore them. There’s a simple way to do that. Create more.
If you have enough time to be worrying over what people are saying about your art, you have too much free time. You should be creating, not worrying about what other people thing.
Many years ago, another comedy musician wrote a long diatribe about me and my comedy music on a closed mailing list that I was not a part of. I was not supposed to see it, but it made its way to me and I was generally shocked to see such vitriol pointed at me. It berated my talent (or lack thereof), my motives for even creating comedy music and putting out CDs and it was just generally mean. For weeks, I obsessed over it. I obsessed over it and plotted my revenge. At one point I even considered reprinting it, without the name at the bottom as the liner notes in the CD I was working on. Or, tongue in cheek, using select quotes in promo for the new CD.
One day, I had been going on and on about how mad I was about this letter and a friend told me I had to stop. He told me to think of actor Tom Hanks. He said there are people out there who, for whatever reason, hate Tom Hanks. They don’t like him and they say mean things about him. He then asked me if I thought Tom Hanks spent one moment thinking about those people and plotting ways to get them back or if Tom Hanks just went on with his life, acting and creating?
When put into that perspective it really made things clear. I was spending way too much time thinking about this person and what he had said. I needed to let it go and just get back to creating and that is what I did. I never even confronted this person about the things he said, I just went on creating my songs.
I will say, that I bet, occasionally, Tom Hanks probably reads a negative thing about himself and DOES feel bad about it. How can we not feel bad when someone says something negative about us? The key is to feel bad for a moment and then keep on doing what we are doing. We can’t let it drag us down where it feeds the negative brain or we spend all our time plotting the perfect revenge. That is all just time wasted from creating our art.
So, if you have enough time to worry about what the critics are saying, you have too much free time.
Create more.
—
Do you dwell on what critics or naysayers say? How do you deal with it? Let us know in the comments below. Have a great week!
Creative Mondays #048 – Edit.
Today, we tackle a topic I have HUGE problems with. Editing. Mainly, editing your creative work. Now this might have more of an importance for those artists who are writers, but there might be a thing or two that can be taken away from this by those who work in other fields as well.
I hate editing. I really do. And, if you’ve been a reader of this blog for any amount of time longer than a week, you know I’m telling the truth. My immediate reaction to writing something is, “Done.” I feel I’ve come up with all the ideas for the writing part of it, I’ve put them on paper (or typed them in digitally) and now I’m done. There’s a part of my brain that looks at editing as ‘going back’ and, as you know, I have a strong philosophy of ‘keep moving forward.’ Right now I have two 90,000+ word novellas written that have been that way for years, simply because I can’t bring myself to sit down and edit them.
I understand this is a problem. I understand that the only way to solve this problem is to sit down and edit. Yet, I can’t bring myself to do it. Why? I don’t know.
My good friend Mur Lafferty has a great podcast called I Should Be Writing. A super valuable podcast for writers and wannabe writers. She frequently does feedback shows and I wrote in asking the questions about editing. Specifically, how do I motivate myself to do it when it feels like going back to work on something I’ve already finished?
Her answer? “You haven’t finished.” Editing is part of writing. A big part of it. Her point: it’s not going back because I’m not done with it.
I completely see this point.
So what do I have to do? I have to edit.
The problem is getting my brain to conform to the point! The only way to get my brain to work that way is by actually doing the work no matter how much I don’t want to. This Creative Mondays blog has actually helped me with that. I usually write the blog posts months in advance. Then on Sunday night, I’ll read through the one I want to post and do some editing on it. (As you can tell by the countless spelling errors and autocorrect fails, I don’t edit too carefully, but I do get some editing in.)
Another aspect of editing that is difficult and, I don’t get, is the whole being able to ‘kill your darlings’ mentality. Where even if you like something so much, you have to be willing to edit it out of your story if it is not working. I’ve been lucky to have had success writing in a field, podcasting, where you don’t have to edit out things because there’s no network execs telling you to do so. That said, I would still edit out funny jokes or lines while doing Dr. Floyd.
I did learn a little trick though to make that easier. Something I started doing with Dr. Floyd and I have continued to do with podcasts I’ve written for ever since. If there is a really funny bit that I like from an episode that just isn’t working and I realize I have to cut it out, I’ll copy the part that’s being removed and paste it in a file called SHOWNAME_UNUSED. Like FLOYD_UNUSED. To me, that makes it seem like I’m not getting rid of it, I’m just saving it for later. And there have been times where, while writing a new episode, I will look through that file and, if it fits, pick out something to use in the current episode I’m writing. But even if I wind up never using it, putting in that file makes me feel like I’m not throwing it away. I’m keeping it for later.
If we create we have to be able to edit. We can’t be so precious with our stuff we can’t let some of it go and make it even better. I think it’s an important lesson for artists to learn and some, I’m meaning myself here, need to keep trying to learn it.
—
How do you handle editing in your creative work? I’m writing form a writer’s point of view but how does editing fork in other fields? I’d love for you to comment and let us know! Have a great week!
Creative Mondays #047 – Some people won’t like your art.
I have something to tell you and I’m not sure how you are going to take it. You may want to sit down. No, forget that, you don’t have to sit down. Why? Because it is an ugly truth that just about everybody on the planet knows. It is simply:
People are going to not like what you create.
Now, of course, I’m not talking about everyone on the planet. I’m talking about some people. Some people are going to see what you create and just simply, not like it. And, that’s okay.
You know this, but I think it is good to remind yourself about it now and again so that it stays clear in your head.
Some people are not going to like what you create and that is okay. Some of those people are going to be vocal about not liking what you create (in reviews online, in second hand word of mouth, to your face). And that’s okay, you know, as long as they are polite about it.
I worked on the Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd for years. When that show ended and I went on to another project, Did This Happen?, I thought for sure the audience from Dr. Floyd would follow me to that project. A few did but the majority did not.
The, in 2013, when I debuted The Adventures of The Thunder Crester, I thought for sure that that would recapture the Dr. Floyd audience. It did not and, in fact, one longtime Dr. Floyd fan sent me an email telling me that not only did he not thing Thunder Crester was funny, he did not like it at all.
I will tell you right now, that email crushed me, as it would anybody. It sucks bad when people don’t like the things you create, but when have to remember when you put your art out there…some people aren’t going to like your stuff…and that’s okay.
After reading this email trashing Thunder Crester I had to remind myself…I like Thunder Crester. I think it’s really funny. I think the cast is amazing and they work together so perfectly. I also had to remind myself…everyone is entitled to their opinion and just because they don’t like something you created that doesn’t make them wrong or a bad person.
I also put it in perspective, just because someone doesn’t like something and is vocal about it doesn’t mean that what you have created isn’t going to be successful. I haven’t watched a single episode of Seinfeld or Friends. They just weren’t my cup of tea. I don’t think Jerry or Jennifer are losing any sleep over the fact that I don’t like their shows.
Cripes, look at the vitriol that came out against the Twilight books. Did that stop the author? Not at all, she loved it all the way to the bank.
So, from time to time, remind yourself, some people are not going to like the things you create. And that’s okay. You just keep on creating it because at the end of the day if you like it, that is all that matters.
—
What are some of the techniques you use to deal with folks who don’t like your stuff? Let me know in the comments below.