On creating and the creative act.

Creating.

You have a blank page staring you in the face and you need to conquer it.

You want to get up, go get a drink, watch TV, do anything other than create.

I’m here to tell you. Write. You think you have writer’s block. You think you’re “not feeling it.” You aren’t getting a “handle on your story.” I don’t care.

Write.

I’m someone who LOVES telling stories. I love the thrill of writing. I’ve written 13 full length screenplays, and I try to knock one out every 10 weeks. But still, I have to force myself to write because just about every 10 minutes I want to quit except in the rarest moments of inspiration.

But if you wait for those moments of inspiration, you will never finish a screenplay, or a song, or a novel, or a sculpture. It takes discipline. It also takes:

A willingness to fail.
The permission to write something you hate.
The stubbornness to continually tell yourself that you don’t care what you’re thinking or feeling, but you have to write right now.
Lots of thoughts.
A good amount of time.
A decision.

Notice none of those things are particularly mystical or “muse” driven.

Now believe me, I think that the creative process does involve those “intangibles,” but if you rely on that you will fail. Control and create an atmosphere for yourself where those aforementioned essential ingredients are in abundance, and the mystical creative spirit WILL walk into the room eventually. (You may not even realize that God walked into the room at the moment, or even until later, but that’s why you can’t rely on that happening!)

It’s a lot like dating, or maintaining a good marriage. If, 5 years into a relationship, you only did nice things for the other person “when you felt like it,” you’d probably be on your way towards ending the relationship. But does that mean that you’ll never get “the feelings” again? No. If you decide to be nice, pay attention, act considerate, make time, etc, then the feeling will follow.

So all that to say, just start writing, or creating. Make a date and do it. Write crap, and don’t care. Because – this is really true – actually writing, even if it’s crap, is infinitely better than not writing at all. And eventually you will write something that is really truly a treasure. And then that will happen more and more.

Watch this clip from the fine film Amadeus.

And now put it right out of your mind – at least in terms of your expectations for what being creative is all about.

I think we can often feel like Solieri – feeling like everyone else is writing pure genius as a first draft without any corrections or changes needed. And – even worse, thinking that if we don’t have that experience than we really aren’t cut out for this and have no business even attempting it.

But the truth of the matter is, the creative process is more often a matter of building up and whittling away. Writing something and changing it. Making mistakes and learning.

Remember the Raiders of the Lost Ark example from last week. I don’t think they could have arrived at that final opening scene we got to see if that third draft hadn’t been written. The steps along the way are just as vital to the process as the finished product. We aren’t always going to be Mozarts who can write something amazingly beautiful and perfect the first time. (And I truly doubt even Mozart was Mozart all the time.) Put that expectation out of your mind and just keep plugging.

Maybe sometimes it’ll be Mozart, but most of the time it’ll be Solieri. But the thing is, if Solieri hadn’t let himself be consumed by jealousy and just minded his own business and written his music he could have accomplished a lot more than he ever did.

So that’s what you should do.

Truly, I think that 90% of the time the creative process is more like this:

You’re knocked down. You accomplish something. You’re knocked down. Then eventually you accomplish something… bigger. And it’s sweeter that way, because you’ve earned it and suffered for it. Like a good protagonist in a good film.