Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts
Overcoming Seven Deadly Sins:
Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts
“In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.”
I work a full time day job and have my own part time businesses in music, writing, and software and game development. So I’ve had to learn how to create quality work in reasonable amounts of time. I get the sense that for me, and probably the overwhelming majority of people in the creative arts, the real challenges relate to emotional stance and focus, not the work involved in doing the art itself.
There are seven deadly sins that affect many artists to one degree or another. In order of how deadly I think they are (which is probably somewhat biased toward my own struggles):
1) Perfectionism
2) Emotional Challenges
3) Lack of Focus
4) The Grind
5) Caring What the World Thinks
6) Trying to be Popular
7) Departing from Joy
Perfectionism is the worst of the group because it is so uniquely deadly to the creative impulse itself as well as the production of anything worthwhile. I had to learn what was “good enough” and go with that. Perfection in the real world is nonsense. Even if it existed in human circles, no one would agree that it was perfect anyway. So give it up and move on. Life is too short to let this deadly sin get you.
Emotional challenges relates more to “self-talk” than anything else. It’s the crappy negative things we say to ourselves in our internal mental voices that often sound strangely parental. This pattern is deadly because it can drag you down in a multitude of ways. It also has a unique ability to home in on what is most hurtful to you and major on that. Listen to what you say to yourself, stop saying the negative things – they almost never have any value – and substitute positive things that are true.
Lack of focus covers two main areas, poor priority setting and using the incorrect breadth of focus. Poor priority setting is pretty obvious – if you don’t make the creative arts a priority, something else will always get in the way. An example of incorrect breadth of focus is worrying about next week when you should be focusing on the art work “in the now.” Most of your time should be spent “in the now,” it is the only truly creative state of being we have (and there’s a whole world of interesting stuff right there, but maybe that is another blog post!)
“The Grind” is the inevitable non-fun and draining chores that come along with any business. You can’t completely get rid of this component, but try to balance it out with the really valuable activities. How will you know? There is joy when you hit the right balance. In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.
Caring what the world thinks is always a mistake. Anyone with any discernment and sensitivity knows that the world (the great mass of people out there) doesn’t really know a lot about anything. We see evidence of that every day. It may sound elitist or conceited, but it is common sense. Why waste emotional energy caring? Worse yet, why pander to that fickle and ignorant audience? They will flock like sandpipers toward the next buzz of the moment, leaving you behind.
Trying to be popular is shifting your focus from the inward (the internal muse, your source of power and the very wellspring of creativity itself) to the outward (the vast throng of fickle sandpipers that know nothing and rarely do anything worthwhile). There’s nothing wrong with being aware of when you hit a chord (no pun intended) that appeals to more people than usual – I enjoy that – but it is not something worth chasing after.
The last deadly sin is the saddest, when you depart from joy – that intensely personal interaction with the inner muse – and, figuratively, wake up months later wondering what on earth you have been doing with your life. We are not immortal. Grab ahold of today. It’s really all we have.
In conclusion, there is no doubt in my mind that what I am doing right now is the most worthwhile thing I have ever done (though there may be heights yet to scale). It is also by far the hardest, when I take the overall effort into view. Yet perhaps the strangest thing of all, though, is realizing how extraordinarily easy creativity really is when you learn to get out of the way in the now and “just start.” The inner muse is a wellspring of power, a gift from on high, numinous, and full of grace. She sings always in the silence, in the deep places of the heart.
For examples of what I do, see my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree
And three books so far:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Avalon: Ravenna Rising
See post 2 in this series: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts
“In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.”
I work a full time day job and have my own part time businesses in music, writing, and software and game development. So I’ve had to learn how to create quality work in reasonable amounts of time. I get the sense that for me, and probably the overwhelming majority of people in the creative arts, the real challenges relate to emotional stance and focus, not the work involved in doing the art itself.
There are seven deadly sins that affect many artists to one degree or another. In order of how deadly I think they are (which is probably somewhat biased toward my own struggles):
1) Perfectionism
2) Emotional Challenges
3) Lack of Focus
4) The Grind
5) Caring What the World Thinks
6) Trying to be Popular
7) Departing from Joy
Perfectionism is the worst of the group because it is so uniquely deadly to the creative impulse itself as well as the production of anything worthwhile. I had to learn what was “good enough” and go with that. Perfection in the real world is nonsense. Even if it existed in human circles, no one would agree that it was perfect anyway. So give it up and move on. Life is too short to let this deadly sin get you.
Emotional challenges relates more to “self-talk” than anything else. It’s the crappy negative things we say to ourselves in our internal mental voices that often sound strangely parental. This pattern is deadly because it can drag you down in a multitude of ways. It also has a unique ability to home in on what is most hurtful to you and major on that. Listen to what you say to yourself, stop saying the negative things – they almost never have any value – and substitute positive things that are true.
Lack of focus covers two main areas, poor priority setting and using the incorrect breadth of focus. Poor priority setting is pretty obvious – if you don’t make the creative arts a priority, something else will always get in the way. An example of incorrect breadth of focus is worrying about next week when you should be focusing on the art work “in the now.” Most of your time should be spent “in the now,” it is the only truly creative state of being we have (and there’s a whole world of interesting stuff right there, but maybe that is another blog post!)
“The Grind” is the inevitable non-fun and draining chores that come along with any business. You can’t completely get rid of this component, but try to balance it out with the really valuable activities. How will you know? There is joy when you hit the right balance. In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.
Caring what the world thinks is always a mistake. Anyone with any discernment and sensitivity knows that the world (the great mass of people out there) doesn’t really know a lot about anything. We see evidence of that every day. It may sound elitist or conceited, but it is common sense. Why waste emotional energy caring? Worse yet, why pander to that fickle and ignorant audience? They will flock like sandpipers toward the next buzz of the moment, leaving you behind.
Trying to be popular is shifting your focus from the inward (the internal muse, your source of power and the very wellspring of creativity itself) to the outward (the vast throng of fickle sandpipers that know nothing and rarely do anything worthwhile). There’s nothing wrong with being aware of when you hit a chord (no pun intended) that appeals to more people than usual – I enjoy that – but it is not something worth chasing after.
The last deadly sin is the saddest, when you depart from joy – that intensely personal interaction with the inner muse – and, figuratively, wake up months later wondering what on earth you have been doing with your life. We are not immortal. Grab ahold of today. It’s really all we have.
In conclusion, there is no doubt in my mind that what I am doing right now is the most worthwhile thing I have ever done (though there may be heights yet to scale). It is also by far the hardest, when I take the overall effort into view. Yet perhaps the strangest thing of all, though, is realizing how extraordinarily easy creativity really is when you learn to get out of the way in the now and “just start.” The inner muse is a wellspring of power, a gift from on high, numinous, and full of grace. She sings always in the silence, in the deep places of the heart.
For examples of what I do, see my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree
And three books so far:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Avalon: Ravenna Rising
See post 2 in this series: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
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