Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
PABLO PICASSO
I find that creative types come in two flavors. The first flavor is the inspirational flavor. These are the types that wait for a flash of genius to strike them before they put on their work duds and get down to the labor of creating. The other flavor is the perspirational. These are the types who don't wait for inspiration but simply get to work usually on some sort of daily schedule. Flashes of genius come to them as they are busy in the process of creation. Which way is better? That is difficult to say.
Edison was definitely from the perspirational camp. That guy flat out worked and slept very little. Edison along with his helpers turned out a hell of a lot of inventions out of his shop. On the other hand, Nikola Tesla was a relatively lazy fucker compared to Edison, but the guy was a total fucking genius. But the results speak for themselves. Edison accumulated 1093 patents to Tesla's 112. Edison got a lot of shit done.
Pablo Picasso was another creative type with a tremendous work ethic. Over the course of his long life, Picasso created 50,000 works of art in various mediums. The guy was a creative machine. He never stopped making art. There was virtually no day that passed that Pablo wasn't making something. Another artist with a similar work ethic was Vincent Van Gogh. Though Van Gogh did not live as long as Picasso, he got up every day and went to work on his creations. Those two guys show that perspiration is not antithetical to inspiration. In fact, the work ethic applied to creative endeavors seems to inspire even greater productivity.
Writers have a similar experience. Ian Fleming was a gguy with a similar work ethic getting up each day to bang out his James Bond novels. Then, there was Anthony Trollope who kept a daily writing schedule and composed 45 novels during his life. Trollope never rested on his laurels starting the next novel often on the same day that he had completed his last novel. Trollope was a writing machine.
The popular idea is that having a creative work ethic or creating on a schedule is antithetical to inspiration. The belief is that inspiration comes to you almost as some quasi-mystical religious revelation or something. My personal belief is that this viewpoint is bullshit. One of the best things I have ever done as a writer is to keep a blog and essentially pledge to doing one post per day. I would like to say I have never missed a day, but this would be bullshit. I have a very busy life working a job, maintaining my household, reading, etc. But the practice of blogging daily has stirred more creative output from me than sitting in a room daydreaming about possible future projects.
I have learned a few things about the creative process by keeping a work schedule. Most of the time, inspiration comes just as Picasso says it does, but it happens during the process of work. I have learned not to plan or worry too much. I find that if you just begin the process that it is enough to get the juices flowing. Most of my best stuff comes out of nowhere as the words hit the screen. The other thing I have learned is that all fears can be banished with the delete key. If what you make turns out to be garbage, you can toss it and begin again. Finally, I never run out of ideas. I have yet to exhaust my writing To Do list.
The case for waiting inspiration is that it saves you from wasting time and energy on projects that suck. You save your effort for your absolute best ideas. The problem with that is that time is always ticking, so the only thing you are saving is effort. When you do nothing, the result is nothing. When you do something, you might make some garbage, but you also find some gold along the way. In the game of waiting versus doing, I am going to opt for doing. It feels better and less wasteful to me.
Perspiration is my path. I find inspiration along the way. I recommend doing creative work every single day. Just put your hard hat on and go to work. And don't worry about what will happen. Amazing things come to those who are always doing.
0 comments:
Post a Comment