How to Be Creative

From the Drafts list of unfinished posts comes a look at Hugh MacLeod’s contemplations on creativity. Hugh is the guy behind GapingVoid.com, which I wrote about earlier this fall. He provides a lot of commentary on each of his 31 flavors of how to be creative, but I’ve cut them all up into groups that reflect my take on what is good advice (and what probably isn’t).

The Good

3. Put the hours in.
4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
5. You are responsible for your own experience.
6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.
15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
16. The world is changing.
17. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.
19. Sing in your own voice.
25. You have to find your own schtick.
26. Write from the heart.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

Creativity is a personal thing, even if others might serve as inspiration and your creativity realizes itself in the form of group collaboration. It increases as a function of self-awareness and willingness to use a variety of tools. There is no magic formula, though. Even if there were, the fact that the world is constantly changing would render such a formula useless. You bring your own experiences to a problem, and are better off honoring that voice than others.

Creativity takes time, most of which is giving yourself the skills and environment in which to work. Be patient, but active. Have faith in your process and keep moving, sideways if not forward, to get things out of your head and into the world. Any feedback you get is information, not legislation.

The Bad

1. Ignore everybody.
7. Keep your day job.
8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
23. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.
24. Don�t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
31. Remain frugal.

The surface conception of creativity is one that invokes images of complete freedom and artistry, but creativity is really about problems and solutions. There is a practicality about design that can provide a creative constraint. There are inspirations that can come from being part of a conservative company. Also, too much advice above is about isolation. One doesn’t have to avoid a crowd to resist mob mentality.

The Ugly

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to change the world.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
14. Dying young is overrated.
21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

These are not very inspiring for me. They read more like fortune cookies at a thirty-something sushi bar. Read Hugh’s notes for more detail on what he meant.