The Creative Act: A Way of Being

by Rick Rubin

The heart of experiment is mystery. We cannot predict where a seed will lead or if it will take root. Remain open to the new and unknown. Begin with a question mark and embark on a journey of discovery.

Excitement tends to be the best barometer for selecting which seeds to focus on. When something interesting starts to come together, it arouses delight. It’s an energizing feeling of wanting more.

To truly weigh choices, it’s necessary to bring them into the physical world. Have them acted out, played out, or built into a model. Descriptions do not do ideas justice. We want to set up an environment where the decision making occurs free of the misguiding force of persuasion. Persuasion leads to mediocrity. To be evaluated, ideas have to be seen, heard, tasted, or touched.

While the Craft phase can be difficult, that is not always the case. There are some artists whose focus is more on formalizing an idea than executing it. And in the case of some projects, outsourcing the Craft phase is what’s called for.

By remaining too long in this phase, many pitfalls may arise. One is disconnection.

Art is a reflection of the artist’s inner and outer world during the period of creation. Extending the period complicates the artist’s ability to capture a state of being. The result can be a loss of connection and enthusiasm for the work over time.

When we become overly attached to a premature version of the work, we do a disservice to the project’s potential.

Another impediment some come across is that their vision for the work exceeds their ability to manifest it. They can hear the drumline, but the rhythm is more complex than their ability to play. They can picture the dance, but their body can’t perform the moves gracefully enough. It might seem as though the next step is an impossible leap.

Do not let the scale of your imagination get in the way of executing a more practical version of your project. We may come to realize that this version is better than the initial, seemingly impossible vision.

When you’re on a roll in the Craft phase, work toward a full first draft. Maintain the momentum. If you reach a section of the work that gives you trouble, instead of letting this blockage stop you, work around it. Although your instinct may be to create sequentially, bypass the section where you’re stuck, complete the other parts, then come back to it.

The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world.

Artists allow us to see what we are unable to see, but somehow already know.

The personal is what makes art matter. Our point of view, not our drawing skills or musical virtuosity or ability to tell a story.

Set aside such concerns about whether your work will be comprehended. These thoughts can only cause interference, for both the art and audience. Most people aren’t interested in being told what to think or feel.

Great art is created through freedom of self-expression and received with freedom of individual interpretation. Great art opens a conversation rather than closing it. And often this conversation is started by accident.

There are forever changes to be made. There is no right version. Every work of art is simply an iteration.

Choosing to live in scarcity leads to stagnation.

If you are living in the belief that success will cure your pain, when the treatment comes and doesn’t work, it can lead to hopelessness.

This is why it’s grounding to protect your personal understanding of success.

The ecstatic is our compass, pointing to our true north. It arises genuinely in the process of creation. You’re working and struggling, and suddenly you notice a shift. A revelation. A small tweak is made, a new angle is revealed, and it takes your breath away.

Be aware of strong responses. If you’re immediately turned off by an experience, it’s worth examining why. Powerful reactions often indicate deeper wells of meaning.

Art is about the maker. Its aim: to be an expression of who we are.

Think of self-competition as a quest for evolution. The object is not to beat our other work. It’s to move things forward and create a sense of progression. Growth over superiority.

Legendary figures in art and history are sometimes held up as deities. It is counterproductive to measure ourselves against them because they never existed as such. They are beings with typical human vulnerabilities and flaws just like us.

As artists, our mission is not to fit in or conform to popular thinking. Our purpose is to value and develop our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

One way is through letting go of control. Release all expectations about what the work will be. Approach the process with humility and the unexpected will visit more often.

When something doesn’t go according to plan, we have a choice to either resist it or incorporate it.

Even in the midst of a project, you still look for new ideas each day. At any moment, you’re prepared to stop what you’re doing to make a note or a drawing, or capture a fleeting thought. It becomes second nature. And we’re always in it, every hour of the day.

The work of art serves its purpose independent of the creator’s interest in social responsibility. Wanting to change people’s minds about an issue or have an effect on society may interfere with the quality and purity of the work.

Holding your work hostage to meaning is a limitation.

Works that attempt to overtly preach a message often don’t connect as hoped, while a piece not intended to address a societal ill may become an anthem for a revolutionary cause. Art is far more powerful than our plans for it.

There are sides of ourselves that aren’t welcome in polite society, thoughts and feelings too dark to share. When we recognize them expressed in art, we feel less alone. More real, more human. This is the therapeutic power of making and consuming art.

The world is only as free as it allows its artists to be.

A way to practice keeping a clean slate is to avoid looking at the work too often. If you finish a section or come to a sticking point, consider putting the project away and not engaging with it for a period of time. Let it sit for a minute, a week, or longer, while you go get lost.

If the work is thrilling one day and isn’t for a long while after, you may have experienced a false indicator. When the moments of joy seem like a distant memory and the work feels like an obligation to a past idea, this could mean you’ve either gone too far or that particular seed wasn’t actually ready to germinate yet.

If the energy is depleted, either back up a few steps to tap back into the charge or find a new seed generating excitement. One of the skills an artist develops is the ability to recognize when either they or the work have nothing left to give each other.

As artists, we strive to preserve this playfulness throughout the gravity of the enterprise. We embrace both the seriousness of the commitment and the playfulness of being completely free in the making.

Whatever you choose, it’s helpful to have fellow travelers around you. They don’t have to be like you, just like-minded in some way. Creativity is contagious. When we spend time with other artistic people, we absorb and exchange a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world. This group can be called a Sangha.

Being part of an artistic community can be one of the great joys of life.

In a prism, a single beam of light enters and is broken into an array of colors. The self, too, is a prism. Neutral events enter, and are transformed into a spectrum of feelings, thoughts, and sensations. All this information is processed distinctively by each aspect of self, refracting life’s light in its own way, and emitting different shades of art.

If asked to participate in a fellow creator’s project, proceed delicately. In its rough form, an early iteration of a work may hold an extraordinary magic. Above all this is to be protected. When working alongside others, keep the oath front of mind.

If you already like the work in its current form, there’s nothing to be lost by trying to better it until everyone loves it. You are not compromising. You are working together to surpass the current iteration.

Avoid confusing the editor’s cold detachment with the inner critic. The critic doubts the work, undermines it, zooms in and picks it apart. The editor steps back, views the work holistically, and supports its full potential.

Being an artist means to be continually asking, “How can it be better?” whatever it is. It may be your art, and it may be your life.

Each of us has our own way of seeing this world. And this can lead to feelings of isolation. Art has an ability to connect us beyond the limitations of language. Through this, we get to face our inner world outward, remove the boundaries of separation, and participate in the great remembering of what we came into this life knowing: There is no separation. We are one.

Billions of data points are available at any given moment and we collect only a small number. With this glimpse through a keyhole, we assemble an interpretation and add another story to our collection. With each story we tell ourselves, we negate possibility. Reality is diminished. Rooms of the self are walled off. Truth collapses to fit a fictional organizing principle we’ve adopted. As artists, we’re called to let go of these stories, again and again, and blindly put our faith in the curious energy drawing us down the path.