Creativity

The Result Isn’t The Thing

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

In a recent discussion with Serdar – which seems to drive no small amount of my posts apparently – we were discussing writing and results. Both of us being writers, we’ve both put out a lot of, well, product in the form of books, blog posts, zines, and so on. We’ve also encountered many people who somehow can’t get product out, endlessly not finishing things.

(Also I hate calling my writing product. I also hate calling it content. But I digress, possibly enough to have a followup blog post.)

My terminology hangups assigned,I kept thinking about how people wanted to finish product (ugh) but never got to it. Never got a book done, couldn’t get a blog post out, and so on. They would talk about finishing but never get it done. Yet product was on their mind.

This got me thinking about how the focus on product is a problem, because product isn’t writing. Product is the result of writing. It’s the result of a process.

To write you have to write. Put pen to paper, finger to keyboard, and do it.

Except you also have to plot. You have to write things down, make plans, possibly throw them all away. You have to come up with what to say be it a mystery or the narrative you tell in a business advice book on textiles.

(Trust me, any good nonfiction book has narratives, it’s how humans think).

But to get to all that plotting you also need ideas. Brainstorming. Thinking things up. Trying things out. Breaking down in frustration and eating pastries when they don’t work (apple fritter is my preference here).

Then once you do all of the above and get something written you have to get beta readers, edit, run it through legal. If you’re self-published there’s formatting, covers, setting up, marketing.

Then, only then, do you have a product (again, ugh), because of a process. The actual book, the actual blog post, or wherever, is a small part of writing and publishing. Also by the time you’re done you’re probably on to something else, possibly to avoid thinking about the book you just put out.

But the product is just what a process produces, and unless you’re into the process you won’t get out the product. Endless speculation on the final product keeps you from getting it done. I say this having written any number of things, some stunningly mediocre, but at least they were done and real. And yes, I moved on because I love the process of writing.

I think the endless enchantment of the end result deceives us. We feel it can’t be reached, we feel it must be a certain thing, or we can see it but not get there. But it misses that you just keep going keep trying, keep putting one metaphorical foot in front of the other, and write. Yes it may not be what you expected – it probably never is – but it’s done and out.

I also think this is why the fascination with AI is so powerful for some people. They imagine product dropped in their lap or made for them, ready for a bit of editing and then delivery. But the thing is that’s not the process, the real lives experience, the building of skill, the you saying something. It’s not about being a writer.

And if you want to be a writer, you embrace the process (sometimes gingerly) and write until you’re done. Or done enough. Or just disgusted so you toss it out into the world. But it’s done.

Steven Savage

See the Door Before You Open It

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Serdar and I were recently discussing how certain opportunities open doors for people. I noted that sometimes its not opening the door, it’s seeing it in the first place. We can’t open the door until we see it.

(We also want to see the door before opening it in case it’s a bad idea. But anyway, I don’t want to over-follow this metaphor).

This idea of “seeing the door” led me to think about a few examples from my own creative and professional life I wanted to share to illustrate the point.

Creatively, as some of my regular readers know, I do surrealist collage art under a pen name (art name?). I got into this via small press zines, originally just to add some decoration, but quickly got very into the collagist style. Now I’m using museum images, researching art history, and creating some truly strange and wild stuff – and learning about graphics and imaging tools and making new friends.

I’d never have thought of doing this except for, well, a series of events. Now I can see how I enjoy unusual art and such. I have done graphics before, but did I expect to pick up playing Max Ersnt in my 50s? No. However it all makes sense, filling my sense of curiosity, of creativity, and a desire to connect via creativity.

I didn’t see the door until I tried something different.

Career-wise, let’s talk laboratories. As folks know I work in medical research and education as a Project Manager. I got assigned to work on a project to set up some environmental monitoring for a lab, and after some research, found there was other work to be done as well. Suddenly I’m down the rabbit hole on environmental sensors, chemical testing, and equipment so heavy it needs special tables to use – and I’m having an incredible time.

Plus sometimes I wear a Geiger counter at work or get my shoes checked for hazmat.

I’d have never thought that, say, things like liquid nitrogen or worrying about sensor condensation were a thing for me. Yet, I found the world of lab setups exciting and stimulating, a whole new world that called on my organization skills, social skills, and science skills. What started as a chance assignment and my own hard-headed dedication to researching project needs has started to define my career.

I didn’t see the door until I tried something different.

The ability to see the door is just as important as being able to open it. Maybe moreso since we can’t open it until we see it (and if we can’t open it we can learn how to or break it down). To see the door to something more you have to try new things, experience new things, and get educated.

This is why education matters, why new experience matters, why knowing there are unseen doors matters.

I’m in or approaching middle age, depending on who you ask – but I keep going, the above things make me feel alive. I have friends who are the same, always finding new doors, always alive. I have older friends and family who keep finding new things and they have that spark.

Keep finding doors. Keep setting up situations so you can find new doors.

Steven Savage

We Stopped Caring. We Can Again.

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Am I going to talk about AI? Sort of, yes! But mostly I’m going to talk about caring and people, inspired by Dan Sinker’s blog post “The Who Cares Era” – just go read it.

We live in an era that doesn’t seem like people care. Market-tested perfectly created media is there, completely designed to interest us no matter what its content is. Extended cinematic universes calculated carefully enough enthusiasm has become drudgery. Politics are publicity stunts, religion is a lifestyle brand, nothing is what it is.

Finally we’ve got AI, and you can use AI to generate content for someone else – who might then use AI go get a summary of what you didn’t create.

So many people don’t seem to care. We’ve got all sorts of content, writing, media, but so much of it isn’t made by people who care or even consumed by those who care. AI is a pain in my backside, but its the result of where we were slowly heading.

(And as I note, I don’t consider AI new or always bad, but by now you know that, so let me keep ranting).

What I think we’re missing is that good art, or writing, or media is by someone and for someone. There’s an intimately involved creator who gives a damn and someone who wants that media. Real, meaningful creativity and communication is about people on both ends.

Every now and then people rediscover Ed Wood, a man with many flaws, erratic talents, and an unstoppable desire to make things. There is a reason he had and has fans, because he was doing something – if not well – and that connects with people. I say this as a person who has watched his films without the Rifftrax treatment.

I get zines and the sheer personal feel of them is amazing. I love getting to know people, and the personal nature of zines lets me connect with people who want connection. I have a shelf that includes strange collage art, speculations on podcasts, street photography, and more. There’s people on both ends.

On a very personal level, I had a friend who got inspired to change jobs in part due to my book Fan To Pro. That’s what I’m talking about: a person really wants to say something, another wants to listen, and in some cases a dialogue ensures.

AI in the way it’s often deployed messes it up, creating both generated content without a person and summing up data so people don’t have to connect. But that’s been an issue of mass media for awhile, with calculated marketing, mass efforts, calculated creations, and plenty of imitators. We’ve industrialized our arts too much, and AI just slots in there really well.

If you feel that dissatisfaction, that there is something missing in culture and arts and just talking to people, you get it. We’ve industrialized, and misuse of AI takes it farther.

It’s time to care, to care enough to create – and care enough to pay attention.

Steven Savage