I must admit that it is difficult to be creative before 5:30 in the morning. If I’m being completely honest it probably has less to do with the time and more to do with the lack of coffee that I’ve ingested thus far. But I once read that writing is all about consistency. The goal every day is to write two pages. Sometimes only fifty words will be worth saving and other times you’ll end up writing twenty perfect pages. This feels like a fifty word morning.
I believe that an artist is anyone who wakes up in the middle of the night with a hunger to create something. A thought that wears on your subconscious so much that you are forced to awaken. Prying your eyelids open and kicking you out of bed. Anyone who can’t fall asleep at night because they have a million ideas racing through their head crashing into their slumber receptacles. Leaving you dwindling somewhere between dreams and reality.
My creative process is best defined as a shit load of jumbled nonsense occasionally organized and sharpened into something legible with a point. I jot down random thoughts, words, or topics on the notepad in my phone. If I have time, I write as much as I can that very moment, until I’m completely rambling. Then hours, days, weeks, or months later I come back with a fresh mind and start to create something sensible from the madness. A phoenix rising from the ashes of nonsense, when I’m writing well at least.
It isn’t always quality, everything isn’t a breakthrough. Quite often I write something out, read it, revise it, reread, and then throw it right back into the burning dumpster fire from whence it came. You need to understand that honing your craft undeniably means that there are parts which are dull. And sometimes what sharpening entails is banging your head against your creations over and over again until something gives.
A little known secret about my writing… my fiancé edits almost everything. I require outside perspective so I don’t get so far up my own ass that I can no longer realize when something I wrote is awful. Obviously I wouldn’t place my faith in just anyone. She understands my writing styles and we have complete trust in each other so her criticism doesn’t destroy my world.
B.J Novak once said “you’re never smarter than the audience, it’s for the audience.” If you’re frustrated because people don’t understand what you’re doing then change it-or change who-you’re gearing it toward. I don’t write for people that read at a third grade reading level. Know your audience, even if that audience is only the three people you’re willing to share with.
If you take nothing else from reading this remember one thing, keep going. There’s a reason you believe in what you create. It only takes one beautiful creation to keep you inspired. In my case I just wade through the sea of shit until I find a tiny island I can build on. Keep going, keep creating, keep wading.
Verbose Musings 