Every Wednesday, I share a short newsletter that lists the ideas I’ve been particularly struck by that week.
They can be big or small, philosophical or practical.
The following post is a quick round-up of the best creative insights I've come across:
ROBERT FRIPP
Practice reveals personality.
The inimitable Robert Fripp:
"Without a practice, without a discipline, life is pretty much a series of contingent events; moving from one situation to another, jumping from one mess to another, or simply sleeping through it all. With a practice, we develop a structure of acting in the world; within which we construct an interior architecture, moving to realise what we are, uniquely born to achieve,"
BETH PICKINS / AUSTIN KLEON
You're an artist if you suffer when you don't make things.
I really enjoyed this conversation / creative therapy session between Beth Pickins (author of 'Make Your Art No Matter What') and Austin Kleon (author of 'Steal Like an Artist').
In it, they mention how to tell an artist (someone compelled and driven to create) from someone who is just a hobbyist:
"You're an artist if you suffer when you don't make things. I used to hear people say 'if you can't do anything else, that's when you know you're an artist' that always threw me off, that language, because I thought 'well I can do anything else [...] I could be a lawyer, a doctor, whatever' but [real artist's feel] that sense that your life is diminished if you aren't practicing..."
TIM FERRISS
Good things come from wasting time.
Tim Ferriss on the Erika Taught Me podcast:
"The more people feel they're racing or rushing, the less content they are... when you take a little bit of time and your willing to waste some days and weeks, you can make a lot of progress,"
I'll admit, I'm quite anxious about never actually getting to the 'work that matters'. Of getting to the end of my life and regretfully muttering:
“If only I hadn't wasted so much time...”
As a result, I tend to spend most of my time in planning-mode, falling prey to a tendency to over-think, over-analyse, generally spend my energy getting 'set up'; re-arranging things in advance of doing the actual work.
The irony (of course) is that the 'work that matters' for me is creative work ...and creative work requires wasting time.
It isn't like other vocations. It tends to happen when you've been down blind alleys, when you find yourself bored, uncomfortable or fed up. For a creative person- paradoxically- what often looks like 'wasting time' is how you get to the 'work that matters'.
An endless search for optimization will lead you to miss that.
In fact, the truth at the end of life might be that I regretfully mutter:
“If only I had wasted more...”
OLIVER BURKEMAN
A modest practice is a productive one.
Apparently, the most productive writers were those who made writing only a modest part of their schedule, rather than letting it dominate their lives.
Here's Oliver Burkeman in a line from his fantastic newsletter The Imperfectionist:
"The reasearch of the psychologist Robert Boice (quoted in Four Thousand Weeks) who found that the most productive writers were those who made writing only a modest part of their schedules, rather than letting it dominate,"
An earlier section...
"First, just by making the activity a smaller part of your day, you'll find yourself looking forward to it more. It shifts from being something you have to do, for hour after hour, to something you get to do"
It reminds me of Daily Rituals by Mason Currey particularly Anthony Trollope who would write exactly 3000 words every morning, and if the new book was finished, he'd write the first words of the next.
SEAN DURKIN
Make, make and keep making.
Sean Durkin's latest film 'The Iron Claw' has some epic moments, and fantastic performances throughout.
I liked this interview, where he says:
"What I always try and recommend is just making. Make, make and keep making, no matter what. Because there's so much emphasis on the end result [...] but really it's about the making. You grow as an artist by making, and you find your voice by making,"
NICK CAVE
Be a little vampire.
Nick Cave's Red Hand Files is a great read. For a simple blog where he replies to fan questions, its often an unexpected source of solace and deep thought on grief and the human need for art.
This post was recently featured on the Letters of Note Instagram, and is well worth reading.
It's his response to a 13 year old fan concerned about wasting his potential. My favourite part is the ending:
"Absorb [...] the world’s full richness and goodness and fun and genius, so that when someone tells you it’s not worth fighting for, you will stick up for it, protect it, run to its defence, because it is your world they’re talking about..."
MARY OLIVER
The most regretful people on earth.
Unrealised creative work haunts me in a way, and haunts every edition of this email too. This Mary Oliver quote really says it:
“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”
Maria Popova writes extensively on Mary Oliver and her practice at The Marginalian here.
