An open letter to the creative minds in doubt.

Still images from Ira Glass's 'The Gap' Source: Vimeo.

Originally published @ Interp magazine

Dear Creative Being,

I’m sure, like me, you have unfinished projects that you have set the the wayside. Whether it be that blog you said you’d work on everyday, your photo project, the promise you made to yourself to set aside 30 minutes each day for music practice or just working on that short story. Either way, they are forgotten works and result in having a cluttered desktop of some sort.

I am a the worst offender for this. I commit this creative crime on a weekly basis. I’ll wake up at 2am, unable to sleep, with a brilliant idea! I’ll spend the next hour, still under my doona, furiously typing at my computer. Finally, both my laptop and I will go to sleep and in the morning, when reading the work from the night before, I’ll screw up my face and send it flying to the trash can. This is possibly the worst thing to do! And if you’re also a serial offender, I suggest you read on.

Every idea you have has the potential to lead you to something bigger. Sure, not everything is destined for greatness, but how can you know if you don’t give it a chance? I’m sure you wouldn’t plant a seed in you garden and then return the next day, to find no flower and fall into a blubbering mess, dig the whole thing up and then call it quits. You need to let your ideas grow. Give them water and time.

Something that prompted me to write this piece, was a video called ‘The Gap’. This American Life host Ira Glass, created this two minute video to help explain to ‘creative beginners’ that it’s okay to be a bit shit for a while. He talks about the gap between having good taste and having the ability to replicate your taste in your chosen creative field. I’ll often watch this video before I sit down to write, because it is so inspiring.

Of course we’re not going to be great from the very beginning! Why was I thinking otherwise? I was often so disheartened by the fact that my writing wasn’t living up to my expectations. Even now, writing this, I’m aware that people might read it and judge me for my poor word choice or a misplaced comma. But really, that doesn’t matter, because I’m working towards the bigger picture. If I want to be a writer, then people have to read my work and judge it. That’s just the reality of the job.

Something that stood out for me in Ira’s speech, was when he said “The most important thing you can do, is to do a lot of work.” So now I do. I put myself on a deadline, send my work out there for people to read and slowly I am noticing little improvements. It’s basically just taking the classic cliched advice of never give up and practice makes perfect and extending this notion a little further to make us realise that we really do have the ability to be better. Sure, some people are just naturally talented. You know the ones I’m talking about. Those kids that didn’t study for the HSC, but instead chose to party every weekend or hang out at the beach and still managed to score an ATAR in the nineties. Seriously. That’s ridiculous.

I don’t imagine that most great writers can just sit at their computer, bang out a few thousand words and then have it published and on shelves the following week. It’s not often that an artist will take their first step back from their canvas and scream,“It’s perfect, fabulous. I. WOULD.CHANGE.NOTHING.” We are humans, we are critical of others and especially of ourselves. It is important to do so, but also give yourself credit when you do a kick-arse job!

What we need to do, is have a little faith in ourselves. The reason why we idolise our favourite writers, artists and musicians is because we share a similar sense of taste with them. Just because they did it first, doesn’t mean we aren’t also capable of doing so. Hopefully after watching it, you’ll be inspired to pick up your creative weapon of choice and just do a lot of work. Start creating a body of work. Even if you look back and laugh at it in the years to come, that just means that future you is really damn talented.

#Lifestyle