The Challenges of the Creative Process
(And a few things I’ve learned along the way)
Creating is hard.
This isn’t news to most people, regardless of how much or how little of themselves they put out into the world. What makes it particularly difficult for me isn’t necessarily the creative process itself, but the mental and emotional aspects that go into it.
For the longest time, my first thought revolved around how my work would be received — whether it was my writing, videography, a speech, or something else in the many other areas I’ve explored.
Here are a couple of things that have helped me on my journey so far:
Embracing Different Perspectives and Looking a Little Deeper
When I was in the first year of my college career, I took Professor Dibble’s Intro Comm class. On the very first day, he lit a candle, snuffed out the flame and ate it. I had never been more startled in a class. But he went on to explain to us that the candle was a cucumber — one that he had carefully sculpted and dressed a fuse onto, so he could show us the importance of looking closely, even further than what may initially meet the eye. As the semester went on, he gave me some advice that I have tried to carry into all of my writing:
“One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your writing is to have only your eyes go through it.”
This concept helped me a few weeks ago, when I was working on a project during quarantine. I had finished an initial draft and sent it out to a few of my friends who do a lot of reading. My friend, Mimi, reached out to me and gave me mostly positive feedback, bar the impression she got from a part of the introduction. I initially reacted to her feedback with a healthy level of skepticism, but after taking a step back and circling around a few times, I understood where she was coming from. Her observation made me see the need for some further exposition, some that I believe helped ground the reader in a much more immersive experience. I re-wrote the section she spoke to me about and it ended up being my favorite part of what I was working on.
(I’ve learned that it is also fine to disregard some parts of feedback — so long as it is being approached with an open mind)
Understanding that Not Everyone Will Get It, Nor Will it Connect to Everyone — and That’s Okay
There’s an article I wrote for a newspaper that my friend, Grace, absolutely loves. What I love about it isn’t necessarily that it was so well received, but how it was received — I had strangers reaching out to me, telling me how much my words resonated with them, how much they saw themselves in what I was saying, how much they could relate to the experiences, the way it mustered up memories from days of their youth. That, till today, is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a young writer.
On the other hand, there was a clever quip I had written into the same project I sent out to my friend, Mimi, and about four other people. Only my friend, Samuel, caught it and raved about how much he liked it. It flew over the heads of the other four, and I was very salty about it. I have also been in situations where some of my work was not received as well as I had hoped it to be. But these taught me a valuable lesson, illustrated in the metaphor of the songbird:
It doesn’t stop singing if someone enjoys its song, or if someone else hates its sound. The bird simply keeps doing what it does best — it sings.
The analogy being that your work will not connect to everyone and that’s not a slight on you, nor is it one on them. But it shouldn’t stop you from doing your thing. The goal for me should always be to express myself and my thoughts in the best possible way that I can.
Dealing With a Lack of Support
I believe this is one that isn’t limited to just creators. It crosses borders into many other aspects of life.
A few months ago, I brooded over how some of my close friends weren’t as supportive of the things I did as I had hoped them to be (at least in terms of digesting my work). It made my lows lower and it clouded my highs at the same time. I eventually spoke to them on how I felt and they agreed with my thoughts at the time: they would do better.
But in the time since then, I have come to hold the belief that I was wrong in my actions. And I’ll explain why:
I think about some of my favorite creators in different disciplines. Two things are constant with my respect and appreciation of their work: no one had to tell me to like them and I felt a genuine connection to what they did and how they did it. In the same way, as a young creator, I have come to hold the belief that I should want nothing but the same — the support and real connections my work has from and with people, especially the strangers I do not know personally. At the same time, there may be people who are not big fans of what I do. And that’s okay, too. I suppose this is something I’m still learning, still meticulously engraving onto my forearm:
To not actively seek out the love or the “hate.” But to always appreciate the love if it finds its way to me.
Here’s a bonus, one that I believe applies to many other aspects of life and ties all of the above together. I’ve learned to be patient and appreciate the growth no matter how gradual it seems to be. I think we live in an age where we have come to anticipate or hope for quick paces and immediate results. The truth however, is that life doesn’t always work that way, and that’s okay, so long as you remain patient, but never complacent.
Trust the process. The Marathon Continues.
What have you learned on your creative journey thus far?
