creativity

Horrible Enough, Done Enough, Enough to Learn

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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)

We’ve all had a writing or other creative project we want to abandon. Now in some cases, it’s a good idea, but I wish to suggest you may want to finish that awful thing. There’s a value in finishing work because then you can learn from it.

When you finish something, as flawed as it may be, it is a complete product. That gives you enough information to evaluate what you did right, did wrong, and can do better. Yes, it may be terrible, but it’s a terrible that you can search for lessons.

So when you look at that crime against your art, ask how you can get it finished enough to learn from. Think of it as a Minimal Viable Product, just one where the word “Viable” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Minimal Tolerable Product, perhaps.

Now you may find, once you complete this, it’s not as bad as you thought, then that’s great! Maybe it’s good enough to use, perhaps after a heavy edit. But what if it’s not? Well, then it’s filled with lessons to learn.

It’s hard to evaluate something unless you’ve gotten it to a complete-ish state. A completed work – flawed as it is – is at least consistent and coherent enough to tear apart. Within it, you see your mistakes, your choices, and perhaps your virtues in ways unfinished work won’t show. Sure it’s ghastly, but there’s got to be something to salvage.

In fact, by completing that creative atrocity, you might be able to break it down for parts. It can be redrawn, rewritten, or recoded. But once again, you might have to complete it to get it to that state.

So don’t throw out that crime against imagination quite yet. Ask if it’s worth completing, if only to be a warning to yourself. You might be surprised what you get out of it.

Steven Savage

Craft and Cash

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I’m all for people doing what they like as a job.  It’s usually not what they think, and it is a job, but it’s nice to see.  I even write about do-what-you like, and every now and then, I note that it’s not for everyone.

This is one of those times thanks to Serdar and a discussion on how education for creatives assumes the goal is “make money at it” way too often.  I realized there’s a parallel – books and training that assumes your interest is absolute perfection of your craft, even if your thought is just “I want a job.”

We need to ask what fits our audience.

Being good at your creative path is about craft.  It’s knowing the right words, it’s learning how to do shading, it’s getting that stitch in a costume just right.  Your chosen creative path may be about being good at getting to a result that fits your creative goals.

The money may not matter.  Or, perhaps, it shouldn’t, and you’d be happier if you just did your craft.

Being good at making money at your creative path is about more than craft.  It’s marketing and advertising, job hunting and writing to market.  In some cases, the craft of “doing it as well as possible” is secondary to barely a concern.

Making money at something may not require the highest craft, and it may even be a barrier.  I can point you at many a greasy spoon that may not provide haute cuisine, but they’re delicious.

Think about crappy novels you’ve mocked, TV shows that made you wonder, “how did this go five seasons?” and so on.  How come these things sold?  How come they’re not good yet they make bank?  Couldn’t anyone churn out that bad light novel?

The answer is no because craft and making money at it aren’t the same thing.  Sure, they intersect, but not in ways that may immediately make sense.  A well-written novel may languish, but a simple potboiler with simple language can be a bestseller as the author’s craft was write what will sell before writing “well.”

This is where I’d like to see classes, advice books, etc. make distinctions – if only to be clearer who their market is.  Sometimes you want to be good at your craft, sometimes you want to make money, and sometimes you want to explore that borderland.  Those giving advice will be better at it if they consider the many motivations that lead people to their door.

This is where I’m glad for my Way With Worlds series.  There’s no focus on monetization or careers, just on asking world-building questions.  People are free to pick and choose what advice they need, and I’m not interested in “what worlds sell.”  Maybe that’s why they feel so liberating to write – they’re all about craft after I’ve done many career books.

Any of us sharing creative advice need to ask where our works stand on the craft and monetization scale.  The creative world would be a better place for it.

Steven Savage

Let Someone Else Take a Look

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

There’s a twilight zone of ideas, somewhere between “am doing now” and “random things I probably won’t do.”  You know those books, art pieces, or cosplays that you kinda want to do but not right now?  I’m sure you do, and they’re frustrating as you want to do some but can’t do all.

I’d suggest that’s because someone else needs to look at them.  That someone else is you.

Let me explain.

I keep such ideas in what I call “The Incubator.”  It’s a ranked list of things I know I’d like to do and want to do, but I’m not going to take action on immediately.  I look at it now and then, usually when I add new ideas to it.  Know what I find?

Some ideas really are good.  Others . . . I’ve lost interest in, or see they’re not worth it.  So the Incubator gets updated, and life goes on.  There’s a lot of clarity looking at my ideas months or even a year later because who I am is different.

Every time I glance at the Incubator, I’m bringing new wisdom, insights, and concerns.  I see the ideas of “Past Steve” in a different, hopefully, more informed light.  I trust “New Steve’s” opinion more than the last me.

So next time you’ve got a whole lot of possible projects?  Write them down, and take a look later.  It will be a different person taking a look at them.  That future you will bring more clarity, even if that clarity is “that was a bad idea, what was I thinking?”

Give yourself some time to become the someone else you need to evaluate your supposedly bright ideas.  They may shine even brighter in the future.

Steven Savage