Category: Creative Mondays
A year long exploration of creativity.
Creative Mondays #034 – Stick to your core.
NOTE: Saw a huge uptick in traffic to this site from Canada this past weekend. Just saying a big, warm hello to my pals up there. Hope you enjoy what you read and can’t wait to see what originally creative things you come up with.
This week I’m going to start by telling you a story. Around 2000 or 2001, I went with three friends to Canada to pull a ‘Grateful Dead’ and follow the band, Barenaked Ladies, on tour. All three of us were huge fans and we had decided to follow them to three stops on their Canadian tour. It was a lot of fun and the shows were great. Through the Barenaked Ladies fan club, The Ladies Room, we had amazing seats. Front row two nights, second row the other. Barenaked Ladies is a great band to see night after night too because, while they do play some of the same songs, they change the setlist up a lot from night to night and work in a lot of older, obscure songs. So, days were spent driving or exploring the towns and at night we rocked. Even one night, hanging out with the band at a bar afterwards.
But on the third night, right before the show, I was sitting in the front ready to rock when all of a sudden a weird feeling hit me. It took me a moment to work out what is was. But suddenly, it clicked. I was bummed because for the past few days I had been watching other people (Barenaked Ladies) pursue their creative talents and all I had done was sit and watch. In that moment I realized that I didn’t want to be here passively watching, I wanted to be creating. At that moment I made a rule for myself that, while going to concerts to watch is a great thing and creatively inspiring, I would never again ‘follow’ a band on tour for multiple shows. I’d much rather spend those other nights working on my own creative pursuits.
I’ve always come back to that moment in my thoughts over the years, though I’ve never really known how to put it into words other than, “I didn’t want to be watching anymore, I wanted to be the one creating.” I’ve never really talked about it to anyone over the years and wouldn’t have even considered it as a topic for a Creative Mondays until I was browsing Austin Kleon’s tumblr page and came across this chart and description he had reblogged from a tumblr user named Craighton Berman. This chart and description described exactly how I felt about that night.
I’m the type of person who needs to be close to the core. I have to be. If I spend to much time away from it and in the COLLECT area, I begin to feel like I did that night at the Barenaked Ladies show. I need to Create A Little Everyday. I need to be close to that core.
There’s nothing wrong with being a collector, not at all. It’s just not for me. I’m only happy and comfortable when I’m as close to that core as I can be.
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Where do you fall on Craighton’s chart? What steps can you take to get close to the core? Let me know in the comments below.
Creative Mondays #033 – Hang on, helps is on the way.
Here’s a cold, hard fact about creating: No one is going to care about your art project as much as you do. Let me add to that, no one is going to care about your project as much as you do unless you are paying them. When money is involved, you will find people who will help you out. Now this is a fact, yes, but it should never be a roadblock to your creative pursuits. It’s just going to make things a little bit harder to keep going.
No one is going to care as much as you do and that is fine. That’s the way it works. If you are creative and have creative friends, I’m sure you think their ideas are amazing, but they aren’t as important to you as your own ideas.
While Dr. Floyd was a creative idea that was created between two people, myself and Doug, in the end there was really only one of us who wanted it to keep going. The other person felt we had put several great years into the project but, besides coming close to a TV deal, it hadn’t really bore any prospect of becoming something that would make money and that created a bit of a rift between us and we went our separate ways. It just wasn’t as important to the other person.
For some creative artists (painters, writers, etc.), practicing their art is a solo activity, so not having other people around to lend a hand is fine. But for some other creators (podcast producers, filmmakers, etc.) you need other people around to help make your dream come to life. But even though the fact that no one else cares as much as you do exists, you can still make progress on your creative projects, even if you need friends to help you carry them out.
One way to get people to help you is to barter. You’ll help them create on their art and they will help you create yours.
I’ve found this the most effective way to get help on a project. I’ll offer to make a website for someone or help them film a video. In exchange, they’ll help me on my project. Just make sure that when you are helping with their project to put as much time and care into it as you’ll want them to put into yours. I find it’s always fun to help people make their creative ideas come true and, hopefully, people find it fun working on mine.
Warning though, some people are takers. That’s just the way it is. You’ll help them but you’ll get excuse after excuse when the time comes for them to help you. At least you’ll be comforted to know that you aren’t like them and you are willing to help out a friend. Sad, but that’s the way it is.
I don’t mean to make it sound all doom and gloom though. One very good way to get people to help you on your creative project is just to ask. A lot of times they’ll say yes. Or offer lunch. That’s a good one too. My office in Burbank is right across the street from a very popular cuban place called Porto’s. I’ve had many a recording session that either begins or ends over at Portos and I always attempt to pay, especially if they’ve just recorded some dialogue or done some puppets for me.
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When you need help on a creative project, how do you go about getting it? Let me know in the comments below.
Creative Mondays #032 – Prove them wrong.
If there’s one thing all creative folks have in common, no matter what their chosen artistic field is, it is that you will have your fair share of naysayers. People who tell you the creative goal you have in mind just simply cannot be accomplished. These people will, to your face, tell you that what you are doing isn’t going to work. Or that your creative goals are unattainable.
Now I’m sure there’s a deep psychological reason why these people do this. It could be jealousy, just plain meanness or any number of other things. I think these people are the absolute worst kind of people to have around because what they are doing is killing creativity. They are stomping on your dreams. Killing your confidence. They are, unfortunately, all around us and they can even be lurking amongst those who we consider our close friends or even our family.
People will tell you to ignore the naysayers and I agree. Ignore them. They should be meaningless in your artistic career. But I say do not just ignore them, use their naysaying to propel you even further down the path to your creative dreams. Prove them wrong. The feeling of proving someone who doubted you wrong is a feeling that can only be eclipsed by the feeling of producing a piece of art. I love proving naysayers wrong and it’s something I developed at a young age.
I remember I was taking a theatre management class in college and the teacher had us do some writing on a project. I forget exactly what the project was focused on but at the end when the teacher went over what we had written, he pointed out that two of us in the class had written about that there would be no greater feeling of satisfaction in our careers than to prove the naysayers, the people who said we couldn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, wrong. It was at that moment I knew that I was not alone in my thinking that way. There were others out there too.
This was proven again to me wham I heard the song Acceptance Speech by the band Friendly Indians. In the song, the singer warns all those who crossed him to get ready to grit their teeth when he steps up to the mic to make his acceptance speech. This song clicked with me from the first moment I heard it and, to this day, I will listen to it to focus me back on the path getting creative work down and proving the naysayers wrong.
Also, this may be a good tactic to try if the main naysayer who is holding you back is you! If that’s the case, prove yourself wrong. Show yourself that the things you want to do can be done. If you do that enough, you’ll stuff your own personal naysayer back down where he or she belongs!
I will offer this one bit of warning, however. You don’t want to dwell on the negative things that people say about your creative goals. That’s a great way to rev up the old negative brain and that will not serve you at all. I’ve talked about the negative brain before on in this blog, but if you’re joint us late, once the negative brain is ramped up, it’s hard to shut down, so don’t let the naysayers get you going in that respect. Only use their naysaying as fuel to propel you further towards accomplishing your goals.
Prove the naysayers wrong.
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How do you deal with naysayers? Is there a better way than plotting to prove them wrong? If so, let me know in the comments below. Have a great week!
Creative Mondays #031 – Do it now.
One Sunday night, I was preparing the Creative Mondays post to go out the following morning and as I did I was thinking about the week ahead. I would be traveling back east to work a short puppet job and, as such, I would be getting home late at night next Sunday. I said to myself, “Self, you should probably set up the post to go out next week as well, then you won’t have to do it during the week when your Travel Panic* sets in.”
My body immediately rejected this offer. I was exhausted. Prepping the Creative Monday’s post was the last thing to do on a long to-do list for the day. I had driven an hour out to Oxnard, recorded several wrestling promos, driven an hour back to my office where I prepped some things for the job I was going on. Then I went on a long run, grabbed some dinner, came home and wrote my daily 600 words and wrote out checks for the bills and then, because I hadn’t slept well the night before, I was done.
My brain said, “What’s it going to take? 5 minutes? You can do it.”
My body refused.
But, it really got me thinking about putting things off, especially creative pursuits. We cannot put things off. We have to strike while the iron’s hot. Make hay while the sun shines! And all other manner of sayings like that. When it comes to creative work…DO IT NOW.
Real life is a major pain in the butt and loves to throw things in our way. If we keep putting off being creative, we may wind up never being creative.
It’s hard and sometimes you have to push your self to do it. Give yourself a kick in the ass because that story isn’t going to write itself if you keep putting it off. That painting will never be painted, that dance never learned. You’ve got to win the fight. These days we are hardwired to sit and watch TV of plunk around on our phones or computers. There are so many distractions and so many reasons why we shouldn’t create right now. We have to kill those reasons and create. If we don’t, our art won’t live.
As much as I shouldn’t say it, because I’m trying to build a great creative blog here, if you had time to read this entry, you had time to at least START some piece of creative work or continue work on something already created.
So, I want you to stop reading. Well, after this next paragraph. Stop reading. Think about what, creatively, you could be doing right now. Something easy. Something simple, yet something that will get you just that much further down the patch towards your creative goals. Once you have it in your head, I want you to get up and do it.
Don’t wait. Do it now.
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How do you motivate yourself to ‘do it now’? What tricks of the trade make you get your butt up and creating? Share it with us in the comments below! Have a great week!
*Travel Panic is something that sets in before I’m about to go on trip that I, myself, have booked the travel for. Several days before I’m supposed to leave, my body puts itself in a constant state of “everything is going to go wrong.” I believe it’s because, even though I double and triple check everything, I know that something is going to go wrong with the travel. Nothing major ever has, but still the Travel Panic rears its ugly head. Funnily enough, If someone else has booked the travel, say on a Puppet Up! Uncensored tour, I never have Travel Panic. Just a peak into the messed up bundle of nerves that is my brain.