It’s not trash, it's a prototype

Letter Zero14

Dear friend,

I throw up a little in my mouth every time I see the crumpled paper cliche. You know, the scene where a writer gives up on his art in frustration, wads it up, and chucks it in the trash? Nonsense.

Hollywood needs us to believe that the path of the artist is a tortured battle because they need to transform artists into heroes to sell movies. My objective is the opposite. I want everyone to realize how ordinary it is to create your art. You don’t have to be a hero, or even call yourself an artist, to be producing high quality work. 

Because if we enshrine the creative process as a superpower it makes it too easy to shrug off our responsibilities. Our mortal fingerprints are on our work, regardless of whether our job title puts us in a creative silo. 

So what does the non-Hollywood version of the creative process look like? My art professor described it to me like this:

"Do something. Do something to it. Repeat until finished."

That’s it. Note that this description contains no lofty platitudes. There are no special skills required, no talent mandates, no excuses.

It’s work. Work you care about.

And that formula works for the carpenter, the poet, and the programmer equally. Also, note that there is no point where you can get stuck, give up, and abandon your work by tossing it in the can. There is only an endless loop of effort, production, and revision. There is no trash, only prototypes that point you towards better and better work.

That’s the kind of thing you can’t learn from TV, your best hope is that a friend will describe it in a letter. I’ll write again next Sunday. Stay creative.

Your friend,
Adrian