Why You Should Produce a Lot

Get Excited and Make Things

Across all forms of art there are those that produce in obnoxious and sometimes obsessive amounts. The Beatles, Tupac and Lil Wayne are just a few artists off the top of my mind that I pulled from this list of compulsive creators. There is a lot they can teach us about churning out work.

Not everything you produce will be a hit

This should be a fundamental understanding. Not everything you do will be popular or go viral. It doesn’t matter how popular you are online or offline, there are people somewhere who genuinely enjoy your work. And that number doesn’t matter.

We work things out when we create

Last week I was talking with my old Editor-In-Chief from the CU Independent, and I was telling her about my interest in getting back into blogging. She told me just to do it; the concerns that I had about what I was writing about would work themselves out with time.

As you produce, you work through things: emotions, fears, et cetera. Musicians are one of the best examples of this, pouring their souls into your favorite lyrics while working through those same emotions.

Practice

Every time you do something, you get better at it. The more novice you are, the greater and more noticeable your leaps are in proficiency. 

Keep making things. Talent is the desire to practice. And, most importantly, go have some fun.

10 Things on the Top of My Mind

I’ve heard that if you’re stuck creatively, that making a list of things on your mind is a great way to move past them to what you actually want to do. I gave this a try for the first time:

1) I want to learn a little bit of Ruby - Maybe my desire to learn to code is perpetuated by startup job listings, the fact that I have so many ideas or the simple desire to build things with my hands - I’m not sure. It’s not the best use of my time, right now. I recognize this. But I want to learn a bit of Ruby to be able to make things I’m proud of. Coding for me is something that I need to be more persistant about. I want to push myself and what I can do.

2) Location vs. Job - I’ve been thinking about this the last few days, does one pick a location and find a job or does one find a job wherever one exists for them? Obviously there is no right answer but I’m in the camp of “figure out where you want to be and then go find meaningful work there.” Whether it’s starting your own company or joining one that you love, think long and hard about where you want to live.

3) Slowing down and being present is tough - So often I find myself thinking about what’s next. “If I get to this place in my life, things will get better,” we often say to ourselves. I did for a while. It’s incredibly hard to just take today for today without thinking of next week or next month or December. I’ve come to realize that this is a practice and that I will fail. So will you. Keep going

4) I want to blog more - I want to share more with you.

5) I’m excited to show you my next project - Been working on this for a few months now with a few friends. Hoping to show you very soon.

6) I’m dying for a snowball.

7) Trying to break my sugar habit - This is incredibly hard to do. I tried one day without sugar and got pretty snippy by the end of the day. Gradual is probably best here.

8) Chase Your Questions - Is hovering in my mind. I announced the blog and haven’t started on it. Maybe I’ll add Ruby to my questions that need answering.

9) “Be Good Enough to be Dangerous” - My good friend Matt Haltom said this to me the other night when we were talking about my learning design and UI/UX right now. I love this phrase. I hope you do too.

10) I want to practice cursive - Yes, I realize that few people my age write in cursive anymore. There’s something about cursive that I really like. I’m going to give it a try more often in my notebooks when I’m jotting down ideas.

Feel free to leave in the comments anything on the top of your mind.

How We Create

I love the study of creation: How one figures out what they want to do, the medium they want to do it in, and then they attempt to translate what’s in their head onto a more permanent canvas than their neural network. 

When musicians talk about their processes, writing albums specifically, they’ll usually say that the first few albums have direct influences. If you talk to a musician about their early works, you may hear, “I was listening to a lot of (insert artist here) when I was writing this album.”  

In that moment of creation, I believe that the artist knows what they want to say, but they don’t necessarily know the sounds that go along with it. They use other artists that they admire as frames of reference and, in turn, the finished product ends up resembling those whom the artist admires. 

Listen a little later to the artist’s body of work and you’ll notice a change in sounds. Usually around album three or four, when the artist has gained enough confidence and positive feedback to create to that point, the sound that comes out is more them than their heroes. 

Fundamentally, this is the creation process. We hold on to those we admire until we feel secure enough to bare our skin and our heart, as well, not just our soul.