Ian Dawson's Blog - Posts Tagged "creative-process"
The Myth of the “Aspiring” Artist
I like to watch interviews with writers, actors, and other people in the arts. I find them fascinating and very educational. One of the things I find interesting is when they have a Q&A with the audience after their initial interview or talk. At the end, there’s usually an audience member who says, “I’m an aspiring writer” or “I’m an aspiring actor/actress.” This has always been a curiosity to me.
The word “aspire” or “aspiring,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means “desiring and working to achieve a particular goal: having aspirations to attain a specified profession, position, etc.” I would like to change the thinking about labeling oneself as an “aspiring artist” and show you that the act of creating is not, in fact, what you are aspiring to achieve.
Are You Doing It?
If you are writing, acting, painting, sculpting, writing music, or pursuing any other endeavor, you have moved out of the aspirational category and are now actively doing that particular activity. If you’re aspiring to write, why? What’s preventing you from taking those steps toward writing a story, a poem, a play, or a song?
Nothing.
When we put the word “aspiring” in front of the creative activity we wish to do, there’s the perception that it lends importance to what we want to do. I don’t believe it does. If you can do it, don’t dream about doing it, do it. If you are doing it, you no longer aspire to do the activity because you are actually doing it.
Working Toward an Artistic Goal
If you have mapped out plans to write a novel or a play, are working on an album, or are working on writing and shooting a short film, these are goals within the creative realm you inhabit. But, again, you are working toward these goals, not just thinking or hoping for them to happen on their own.
What You Really Might Want…
The truth is that we don’t aspire to be a writer, an actor/actress, a painter, or a musician. Our aspiration lies beyond that. It lies in our aspirations for success, money, and the ability to quit our day jobs and create full time. This is what we want. This is what we aspire toward.
But this should be secondary in your overarching aspirational plan. Why?
Putting in the time, work, effort, energy, sweat, tears, frustration, excitement, and other emotions that come with creating makes you better at the art you are doing. Your drive to create should be your focus when you’re starting out.
Art should be your motivation, not money or fame.
Success is a byproduct of all the time you’ve spent honing your craft on your own, at home, for free. It’s these thousands of hours of hard work that can eventually get you to where you aspire to be.
But you have to do the work.
Final Thoughts
Aspiring toward something positive involving your art is excellent, but it should be something you can’t quickly achieve in the present. You can write right now. You can paint right now. You can be creative right now. It’s the steps after the hard work of creation are done that we aspire to: the published novel, the produced play, the award-winning poem.
Everyone dreams of some level of success. But the first step to getting there is to stop dreaming about it and start doing it.
You can do it!
See you next week!
Definition source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspiring
The word “aspire” or “aspiring,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means “desiring and working to achieve a particular goal: having aspirations to attain a specified profession, position, etc.” I would like to change the thinking about labeling oneself as an “aspiring artist” and show you that the act of creating is not, in fact, what you are aspiring to achieve.
Are You Doing It?
If you are writing, acting, painting, sculpting, writing music, or pursuing any other endeavor, you have moved out of the aspirational category and are now actively doing that particular activity. If you’re aspiring to write, why? What’s preventing you from taking those steps toward writing a story, a poem, a play, or a song?
Nothing.
When we put the word “aspiring” in front of the creative activity we wish to do, there’s the perception that it lends importance to what we want to do. I don’t believe it does. If you can do it, don’t dream about doing it, do it. If you are doing it, you no longer aspire to do the activity because you are actually doing it.
Working Toward an Artistic Goal
If you have mapped out plans to write a novel or a play, are working on an album, or are working on writing and shooting a short film, these are goals within the creative realm you inhabit. But, again, you are working toward these goals, not just thinking or hoping for them to happen on their own.
What You Really Might Want…
The truth is that we don’t aspire to be a writer, an actor/actress, a painter, or a musician. Our aspiration lies beyond that. It lies in our aspirations for success, money, and the ability to quit our day jobs and create full time. This is what we want. This is what we aspire toward.
But this should be secondary in your overarching aspirational plan. Why?
Putting in the time, work, effort, energy, sweat, tears, frustration, excitement, and other emotions that come with creating makes you better at the art you are doing. Your drive to create should be your focus when you’re starting out.
Art should be your motivation, not money or fame.
Success is a byproduct of all the time you’ve spent honing your craft on your own, at home, for free. It’s these thousands of hours of hard work that can eventually get you to where you aspire to be.
But you have to do the work.
Final Thoughts
Aspiring toward something positive involving your art is excellent, but it should be something you can’t quickly achieve in the present. You can write right now. You can paint right now. You can be creative right now. It’s the steps after the hard work of creation are done that we aspire to: the published novel, the produced play, the award-winning poem.
Everyone dreams of some level of success. But the first step to getting there is to stop dreaming about it and start doing it.
You can do it!
See you next week!
Definition source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspiring
Five Ways to Set Writing Goals for 2025
We’re in the final days of 2024, and if you haven’t thought about your writing or creative goals for 2025, now would be a good time. It’s essential to establish a few goals as we enter the new year so you can plan how to achieve them before the end of the upcoming year.
Let’s talk about it!
#1 - Set Achievable Goals
This seems logical, but it’s easy to get carried away and overreach with your goals at the start of the year. Much like the classic New Year’s Resolution, if you aim too high, you could grow frustrated and stop working toward your chosen goal if it’s too large.
If you’ve never written a novel before and want that to be your primary goal this coming year, that’s great. That’s an achievable goal. Then, once you know the steps and how to achieve writing one novel, you can add more goals the following year. The key is not to overwhelm yourself or self-sabotage before the goal starts.
#2 - What’s Your Schedule?
Along with setting achievable goals, it’s important to look at your schedule to see how much time you have to work toward your writing goals.
Be honest with yourself: How much time do you actually have to get things done?
Assess your schedule and see where you can fit writing time during the week. Plenty of hours are available to all of us, most of which are spent on our phones, binge-watching shows, or wasting time in other ways. Using these wasted hours and turning them into productive time to create can help you move toward your goals.
Can you swap out watching an hour of TV for working on your writing? Yes, you can.
If you have the drive to do it, you’ll find the time to make it happen.
#3 - Break It All Down
Planning out smaller tasks and aspects of the project that add up to a larger goal can help you stay focused and reduce stress. All projects have dozens of components that must be completed before the finished product is achieved.
When you sit down to plan, think about the varied tasks you can work on daily or weekly to help you move forward with the project and complete it by the end of the year. Having a big goal is excellent; smaller goals over time are the best way to reach it.
#4 - Set Milestones
Give yourself deadlines to reach specific project milestones. By breaking the work into manageable chunks, you can see where you’ll be in the project three, six, or nine months in advance.
Could you complete your novel's outline in three months, a first draft by the six-month mark, and a polished draft within nine months? Absolutely. These are achievable goals, but you need to plan out how you will reach these milestones.
It’s also important to reward yourself when each milestone is completed. Even if it’s something small, it’s nice to incentivize yourself to get things done.
#5 - Enjoy the Process
It’s easy to look at all the completed novels and screenplays and get intimidated, but remember that all these writers started where you are right now.
Completing a writing project is a great feeling, but you must train yourself to enjoy the writing and creative process to keep that momentum going to get you to the finished work. This will ensure you are motivated to attack your projects and goals each day and that your milestones and writing objectives are completed.
Happy Goal-setting, and I’ll see you next time!
Let’s talk about it!
#1 - Set Achievable Goals
This seems logical, but it’s easy to get carried away and overreach with your goals at the start of the year. Much like the classic New Year’s Resolution, if you aim too high, you could grow frustrated and stop working toward your chosen goal if it’s too large.
If you’ve never written a novel before and want that to be your primary goal this coming year, that’s great. That’s an achievable goal. Then, once you know the steps and how to achieve writing one novel, you can add more goals the following year. The key is not to overwhelm yourself or self-sabotage before the goal starts.
#2 - What’s Your Schedule?
Along with setting achievable goals, it’s important to look at your schedule to see how much time you have to work toward your writing goals.
Be honest with yourself: How much time do you actually have to get things done?
Assess your schedule and see where you can fit writing time during the week. Plenty of hours are available to all of us, most of which are spent on our phones, binge-watching shows, or wasting time in other ways. Using these wasted hours and turning them into productive time to create can help you move toward your goals.
Can you swap out watching an hour of TV for working on your writing? Yes, you can.
If you have the drive to do it, you’ll find the time to make it happen.
#3 - Break It All Down
Planning out smaller tasks and aspects of the project that add up to a larger goal can help you stay focused and reduce stress. All projects have dozens of components that must be completed before the finished product is achieved.
When you sit down to plan, think about the varied tasks you can work on daily or weekly to help you move forward with the project and complete it by the end of the year. Having a big goal is excellent; smaller goals over time are the best way to reach it.
#4 - Set Milestones
Give yourself deadlines to reach specific project milestones. By breaking the work into manageable chunks, you can see where you’ll be in the project three, six, or nine months in advance.
Could you complete your novel's outline in three months, a first draft by the six-month mark, and a polished draft within nine months? Absolutely. These are achievable goals, but you need to plan out how you will reach these milestones.
It’s also important to reward yourself when each milestone is completed. Even if it’s something small, it’s nice to incentivize yourself to get things done.
#5 - Enjoy the Process
It’s easy to look at all the completed novels and screenplays and get intimidated, but remember that all these writers started where you are right now.
Completing a writing project is a great feeling, but you must train yourself to enjoy the writing and creative process to keep that momentum going to get you to the finished work. This will ensure you are motivated to attack your projects and goals each day and that your milestones and writing objectives are completed.
Happy Goal-setting, and I’ll see you next time!
