Getting Started on My Creative Dream

July 8, 2004 by Debra Russell

So you’ve always dreamed of writing the Great American Novel or recording your first CD or writing That Brilliant Oscar-Winning Screenplay or some other creative project (or several of them). But somehow, you just don’t seem to get to it. Or you started it a long time ago, but never finished it and never seem to get back to it. How do you get down to work on it?

Get Started Creating and Do It Badly!

I think one of the biggest things that stops artists from getting started is the fear of doing it badly.  So I say, do it badly!!! Write that first scene, that first paragraph, paint that first watercolor and do it badly. Just do it! Write it, paint it, photograph it without regard for quality, perfection or even mediocrity! It’s true, if you never get started, you will never fail. But if you never get started you will never succeed either.

And if you never get started and do it badly, you will never develop the skills necessary to do it well. This is the key. As adults, we forget that part of the learning process is making mistakes, doing it badly.

How many times does a baby fall on her butt before taking her very first step?  And sometimes those landings are pretty painful. But most babies don’t stop trying, over and over, “going boom”, over and over and then one day, almost as if by magic, they stand unaided. And then, oh, my gosh, they take a step, then another and what do you know? They fall down again! Right? But even that doesn’t stop them. They get right back up (usually after a giggle) and try again.

But we, as artists, believe that we must create perfection the first time out! We must write the perfect dialogue, compose the perfect chord progression, describe the perfect setting for our characters to live in, perfectly from the start. I say, just start. Do it badly. Do it badly day after day, learning as you go. Write a scene. Then write another and another. Don’t re-read the same scene and try to make it perfect, just keep writing more. Leave it alone for several days, even weeks, before trying to edit it. Remember, writing and editing are very different processes. But most importantly – keep doing it! Protect yourself from the critics (both internal and external) that will try to make it perfect. You could even try, purposefully to do it horribly wrong! Just get started!