In the course of a busy few weeks, both creatively and in other aspects of my life, I’ve been thinking hard about how to make the most of my time. How do I create the best conditions, for me, to enable and nurture my creativity at a time when I really need it?
Set out below is a non-exhaustive, non-definitive set of points. Of course, I’m thinking in terms of my life as an artist, but I think these could well apply elsewhere too:
Being part of a team of creative people is just about the best thing you can do to enable your own creativity. And by creative I think I mean, more broadly, a collaborate spirit, a generous approach to sharing and building ideas and projects, and a willingness to laugh and to fail as part of the process.
And yet, to counter that, I also see very clearly that I need solitude and time out to reflect and think. I think this is critical too. There are times when you want to "do" and experiment, and other times when you want to reflect, to sit with ideas and let them bubble away on their own. Good things come from that quiet.
Following on from that, you can't really "do" creativity. It's like trying to force yourself to go to sleep. You have to allow space for creativity to arise, in my experience, in its own time and its own way. That frequently means finding a balance with all the other things in life. So, often, for me the trick is to notice, record (see below), and then return to those ideas when the time is right.
Writing and recording is paramount to my work as an artist, and I am sure that it always will be. Not just so I can remember ideas and/or return to them when I’m ready to move forward, but also as a key part of actively thinking through and around ideas. As an artist this most typically comes about through drafting and sketchbooks, of course, but also blogging, or conversations with trusted friends. As some cleverer soul than me wrote, "writing is a way of thinking and discovering things".
At the moment I'm even writing poetry as a way of reflecting and developing ideas. I only do this once in a blue moon and yet I am finding it very valuable. Be open to new ways of thinking and doing and experimenting.
Ideas come at weird times and I try to be open to that. Some of my most exciting thoughts have come from dreams or 3am "sitting up in bed" moments. My wife finds this both exasperating and fascinating. One morning she found that I had scribbled "chicken trampoline" on a piece of paper in the dead of night. I still love that drawing.
Artists talk a lot about "pushing their practice" which is really just another way of saying "don't accept your first thoughts as your best thoughts". Sometimes they are; and often, they aren't. Being creative sometimes feels like knowing when to push an idea and when to stop, and being comfortable with both modes of working.
There are no wrong ideas. Just ideas that haven't yet reached full expression. Some ideas never get that far, and that is OK.
The number of ideas that you realised in the past, and which you will continue to look back on with 100% satisfaction in the future, is very small. That is OK too.
And of course, there will always be those times when you feel stuck, and short of ideas. I recently read an excellent book by Robert Shore called "Beg, Borrow And Steal: Artists Against Originality". It's a cracking read. The pressure to be original can be an impediment to starting, let alone finishing anything creative. I thoroughly recommend it as a possible way to help you get out of those periods of “stuckness”.
Do let me know if you recognise any of these; or if there are others that are important for your creativity!