There Is No Recipe Book
As a creative, you have to write your own.
As the lockdowns begun just over a year ago, I thought I would have loads of spare time and that I would be able to get all things I wanted to done. I thought because I had double the amount of free time that I would be twice as productive.
It’s taken me over a year to realise that’s just not the way it works.
I realised today that I’m already 4 weeks into my summer holiday and that I am not creating as much as I thought I would. When I thought about why, I realised that it’s because I’m honestly not sure about how to approach this next step I’m taking- and it’s not something you can just Google. I realised I wanted a recipe, a map or just something to tell me what to do…but before I went down that rabbit hole, I gave it another thought.
Here are the problems with looking for a map:
- It will always be someone else’s map, not yours. It has their stamp and style embedded in it
- Following them means you’re a follower and not creator (although the exception is when you’re imitating or following in order to learn to help you progress). In following, you’re also not stretching yourself to figure and think it out for yourself
- They’ve already done it (in that way)
- When we’re looking for a recipe or map its because we want assurity that it will work. Creativity and certainty don’t go together
Don’t get me wrong, I really really REALLY wanted a map or at least a nudge in the right direction today. But when I realised that my end product (when I eventually finish it) will include all of these moments of not knowing and fustration and figuring it out, I realised that this part is just as much a part of the creation process: even when I feel like I’m not making much progress.
I remember one time wondering around a family-run ceramic shop and wondering why the hell someone would pay that much for a decorative plate. It was only when I heard a guy say that ‘the price includes all the plates that never made it out of the kiln’, that I realised the difference between art and a plate. And this was art.
