The One Thing to Stay Creative

As John Hammond said (while his dinosaurs were eating people), “Creation is an act of sheer will.” While I don’t typically glean advice from a guy who wears all white and a dumb hat, this quote mulls its way through my head pretty frequently. Though, that amber-topped walking stick is pretty sweet.

Most creative things don’t just happen. Most works of genius didn’t just spring from the heavenly font of inspiration like Athena from the head of Zeus. Most creative works were the culmination of a lot of sweat and tears (if you’re bleeding while writing, you’re probably doing it wrong).

The trick to producing?

Well, disappointingly, the trick to creative producing is, uh, producing.

Wait! Don’t leave!

Jerry Seinfeld has said that he writes one joke a day. Just one joke. Stephen King professes to write 5,000 words a day. And he may not even use them! Virgil, the Roman poet, would write a full page (or tablet, whatever), then get rid of half of it.

The point isn’t to aim for perfection each time you produce something. Just keep producing at whatever pace you can - and stay consistent. The output may not be great, but every once in a while, you may strike gold. You think every joke Seinfeld writes is funny? Or every 5,000 words King writes will win him a Nobel Prize? Absolutely not.

Don’t wait for the bestselling idea to pop into your head. Stop waiting for perfection or for inspiration to get you through. Because the truth of the matter is, if you’re waiting for perfection or inspiration, you’ll almost never write.

So what’s the One Thing to stay creative?

For me, when I’m in the writing mode, I try to tell myself to write just 200 words a day.

That’s it. Just 200 words.

A small enough number not to intimidate me or keep me from writing, long enough to be a paragraph or two. That ain’t nothing. Also, I find that when I can crank out 200 words, I usually end up writing more than that anyway. 300, 400, even longer.

The key is finding your own One Thing.

If you’re able to suppress your inner editor, maybe you can write more than me per day. Maybe less. Who cares? Regardless, you’re making progress!

Forming this habit is critical to staying creative. Fit it into your schedule somehow - you can’t tell me you can’t fit writing 200 words into your day. That’s maybe a half hour of work, if you’re not concerned with quality. (Editing comes later).

The best part about focusing on small habits is you can apply it to whatever you want. Want to exercise more? Just start with five minutes a day. Anyone can make time for that. And heck, make it easy to start. Once you get used to that, make it ten, and/or bump up the intensity. Want to lose weight? Eat 100 fewer calories per day, then build from there. Want to draw more? Draw a doodle a day. The point is to keep exercising that habit long enough for it to stick, and finding your One Thing will create a foundation you can build on.

But, but, Chris, I hear you saying, if this is so easy, why haven’t you finished your third book yet? First of all, how dare you? And second of all - you’re right! We all fall off track. And that’s okay too. Whatever you produced while you maintained the habit is still more than you would have produced before.

The key is to never stop trying and never stop improving your craft, whatever it is.

Screw divine inspiration - make your own.

What’s your One Thing that helps you stay creative?