The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

Blank Page/Starting with Nothing

Art starts with a space to fill. And while that space can be anxiety-inducing, having habits that get you into it can help. Creativity is easier when you have given it a place - routines, habits, planned environment, and the preparation to take advantage of it. Practice to develop your skills; you can take advantage of everything if you’re ready to use it. work begins with the blank space to create

It's scary – habits help you deal with starting.

Creativity augmented by routine and habit.

There are no natural geniuses.

Creative requires preparation

There’s a process, that can be learned, and made habit.

Exercise/practice to develop creative skill.

Everything is inspiration if you're ready

Rituals/Ritual into Art

Rituals let you hurdle over the static friction of getting started. They’re automatic, decisive patterns, so you can find yourself in the work without having to decide to start into it. No questioning whether or not to do so - you already are there; and the ritual is complete once the decision point is passed. (If you have to decide to do it, it’s not a ritual). Naturally, rituals are active, they aren’t just a thought. Rituals can involve preparatory activities - breaking the “blank space”, facing fears, focusing on goals, removing distractions, cleaning, etc - but they have to end into the activity automatically.

The ritual to get started - not what you do but when you have officially started.

Rituals - automatic but decisive patterns

eliminate the need to decide to start.

Rituals on autopilot – no decision t decide against, done once decision point's passed

Not a thought exercise, involves taking action

Rituals provide confidence and self-reliance.

Rituals of starting, of facing fears, of focusing on goals, on removing distractions.

Subjectiveness/Recognize your Subjectivity

Style aside, you can’t create others’ art, and only you can create your art. What’s good for you, what do you prefer, how do you identify “quality” for you? How do you prefer to work, what interaction level do you want with your art?

Internal creative code or style or personality

How do you prefer to view/interact with your work- what distance?

What do you value in what you do and what you like?

What are your values, rolemodels, how do you react?

You experience the world through your own eyes – what you notice is always subjective

Metaphor

Art has to be relevant to work; hence memory/visualization skills are important. Art is metaphor, it says this is that, and draws on many kinds of mind-reality connections: recall, kinesthesia, emotional visualizing, taste and smell associations, organizational thinking, cultural-social knowledge, improvisation and spontaneity.

Memory – not just recall.

Art is metaphor: connecting experience now with experience before

Muscle memory – feeling your way through an action over and over

Virtual memory – generating emotions from past or future visualization in the present.

Sensual memory – tastes and smells associate strongly to emotional situations

Institutional memory – picking up ideas from putting yourself in the situation of others in the business

Ancient memory – cultural or genetic elements encoded below the level of personality, to identify aspects of being

(improvisation/spontaneity may go here too)

Boxed projects/Define your projects

Create an identifier for your project - a container. Whether box, trello, binder, whatever. Setting aside a place for the project makes it a thing. Then throw in your inspirations and ideas, photos and links and doodles. Also a goal or two. Reminders of things you want to include.

Put your 'stuff' for a project in a container of some sort.

The first step in starting a project is to define it as its own thing. IE, the box.

Capture your ideas and inspirations. Research stuff. Sketches.

Project goal(s) (what you hope to accomplish with the project)

Research. Notebooks. Tokens of things that will go into the project.

Scratching/Ideation

Get ideas by scraping around for an idea. It’ll seem lost at first. Inspiration is everywhere - but try to look for little ideas. Explore the world outside your mind - arts, other works, read, listen to conversations, look at nature. But go for the top shelf high-quality stuff (by your own sense of quality) - mediocre inspiration makes for mediocre art. Good vs Bad ideas are whether they open you up or close you off. Combine small ideas to make a good idea usually, finding new potential in the combination. A little idea is a hook or catch from a concept. The tiniest kernel of an idea. A big idea is just an idea where you have an unrelated motive for doing it, and will fall flat on its face without little ideas. You can’t just think of ideas, you need to implement them by recording them somehow - sketching, doodling, etc. Feel how they work. Keeping an idea in your head will just make it keep recurring. Little ideas are building blocks, you need lots of them - and big ideas need them to fill them up. Generate ideas, record them, look at them, transform them. This is a habit/skill that needs to be honed, so do it all the time. And always look in new places, repetition will bore you and turn you off. And this is the takeoff stage for your idea, so let yourself go all in - there’s no judging at the stage anyways so turn the energy on full bore.

The first steps – groping scrabbling seemingly-futile

Idea – turns the verb into a noun (paint to painting, sculpt to sculpture)

Scratching – exploring outside your mind for ideas

It looks desparate and lost.

Where to get ideas? Anywhere, inspiration is everywhere. But how?

Good idea turns you on, bad idea shuts you off. Blocking vs exploring, static meaning vs evolving meaning.

Good idea: combine two or more little ideas.

Big idea: just an idea with an ulterior motive. Don't look for these. More of a goal than really an idea. Cannot survive without little ideas to fill them

Little ideas: the tiniest kernel of an idea

Scratching is also improvising – implementing the ideas to feel how they work. You only generate ideas when you act, not in your head. (an idea in your head will keep recurring)

Key is not blocking, not switching to editing mode. No filter.

Four stages to ideas: generate, retain, inspect, transform

Read. Everyday conversation. The Arts. Mentors and Heroes. Nature.

Can't stop with just one idea. These are building blocks, you need a whole chain.

Be in shape – make it a habit because it only happens efficiently when you're doing it all the time.

Get high quality inspiration; don't look for inspiration from source you know will be mediocre.

Scratching is about new experience, don't go over old haunts

Go all in- this is takeoff, so floor it.

Spontaneity/Luck / Plan for Luck

Planning is preparation not execution, and execution involves enough random elements that plans will always need to be adapted. It’s like 2d “combined method”. Luck is the ability to take advantage of random chance - therefore planning and luck go together. Luck is a skill - taking advantage of random chance. Things that you can expect to be unpredictable: other people. The situation and available resources. Specific materials. The ideal scope/media. Obligation will stop you - it’s a terrible motivator. Having no limits or requirements will also paralyze and destroy your work.

No plan survives the encounter. Planning is preparation, not execution.

Often the best ideas will spark away from the plan; so don't resist them to stick to the plan.

(plan out your keys then run straight ahead through them)

Luck is a skill. Preparation and luck are attached- luck is what happens when you're prepared to take advantage of the random.

Relying on other people can break a plan – work with them but don't rely on them per se.

Perfectionism will create paralysis, and the perfect situation won't help either.

Limits create opportunities to improvise.

Consider reframing the scope – some projects work best in certain formats.

Obligation breaks motivation – it's not commitment, and a terrible motivator for work.

Insisting on a specific set of materials breaks when those materials break.

Unlimited resources will destroy your work.

Spine

The line of action of any creative work. It’s the strong idea - the path from where you start to where you’re going. Spine is your basis for the work, story is the content/details of the work, and theme is the goal. That said, spine can double as those if it’s appropriate. Spine may not be visible in the final work. Spine can also be arbitrary if your base and destination don’t require a relevant spine. You can identify the spine several ways - bouncing the idea of a friend who will push you on the core idea; a habit of visualizing explaining it to a kid; periodically returning to your original intents. A strongly structural theme or story can also be the spine. Spine can come from music. Spine helps create the scaffold your work grows from - which helps you figure out what to do at any point, and when the project is done.

Spine begins with your first strong idea – even tho it's not the idea you get from scratching.

Spine is the statement you make to yourself outlining your intentions for the work – core story, theme, structure, basis, etc.

It's the “line of action”, underlying theme, motive for coming into existence.

Spine, story, theme all different aspects. Story is what happens, theme is what it's saying, and spine is the structure that makes it come together.

Inspiration is not spine – it's the ground plane the line of action leaps from.

Spine is not necessarily visible in the end result unless it's spelled out.

Colleague can help you find it – editor “What are you trying to say?”

Ritual - “explain it to me as if I'm 10 yrs old”

Recall original intentions

Spine can also function as theme or story if necessary.

Spine from music.

Spine gives your project a beginning and end – what to do, and when it's done.

Skill

All this aside, you have to be good at the technical requirements of your craft, even the incidental one. Remember luck is a skill. So are the art field skills. So is problem solving, DIY, personality (charisma, humility, seduction, confidence). Even practice is a skill - learning to do it with a purpose, focusing on what you’re lacking. Beginners’ Mind is a significant skill to avoid cynicism and pessimistic wisdom. Well developed skill gives you confidence in your ability to translate your ideas, to allow you to focus your energy into your work - to multiply your effect. Virtuoso and genius and expert creatives all have honed their skills first. Technical exercises won’t kill creativity - though a demonstration of technical skill isn’t creativity. It can seem that way though because often the initial creative problems you’re solving relate to skill - and you then have to learn to scratch for other ideas besides the development of skill.

The better you know the nuts and bolts of your craft, the more fully you can express your talents.

The best creatives are so because they have mastered the skills of their domain.

Skill gives ability to more clearly translate mental images to reality, gives confidence, which lets you take risks.

Technical exercises will never stifle creativity, but technical talent is not creativity.

Some skills come from adversity – how do I solve this problem without a cheat?

Skill to DIY.

Personality is a skill. Charisma, humility, seduction, confidence

Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect; even practice is a skill.

Practice with a purpose – develop skill where you're lacking, not where you're good at it.

Inexperience is also a skill – staying balanced precariously to avoid cynicism that says not to try.

“Style” - habitual ways of creating that don't challenge.

Skill allows you to channel your intensity for greater effect. Skill and passion require one another.

Ruts and Grooves

Ruts

When your thinking is at odds with your work. You’re capable of working but everyone’s miserable with it. Creative block isn’t a rut - you solve that by just doing anything. A rut can come from a bad idea - drop it like it’s hot. Bad timing - the idea is good, but the world’s not ready for it or the world’s already over it. Bad luck - circumstantial issues have made the project miserable. Stubbornness - sticking to methods that used to work can hide that they don’t work anymore. Mother of all ruts: Depression/pessimism. The fix is to allow irrational anger to externalize it, then look for the expectation to drop or shift. Sometimes ruts aren’t related to the work - you’re just in a bad place and don’t feel like working on it. You need to acknowledge the rut, admit that something’s broken, then do something about it. Larger funks will require new ideas - set a quota to get you out of censor/critique mode. Challenge your assumptions to reverse and jockey your way out of the rut - figure out what concept’s not working, examine its basis, challenge those assumptions and act on the challenges to activate new ideas. Rut solving is also a skill to practice - if you’re watching something you’re not enjoying, try figuring out how you’d fix it.

A rut is failure to gain traction in your work.

Rut is not creative block (which just is a fear-based reaction that just needs you to do anything)

Signs of rut: the work irritates everyone even you and you just want it to stop.

Rut caused by bad idea – why did I start this?

Rut caused by bad timing – project is not compatible with the current situation

Rut caused by bad luck – circumstantial failure over and over

Rut – consequence of sticking to predictable methods that aren't applicable to here and now.

See you're in the rut, admit something's broken, get out of it/repair.

Mother of all ruts: depression/pessimism. [She doesn't have a solution but I do – allow irrational then look for the expectation.]

Ruts can be caused by circumstance, not the work.

In a bigger rut, what you need is a new idea – set a high quota to force you to turn off the censor and go

Challenge your existing ideas and see if the assumptions they're based on hold up.

1) Identify the concept that isn't working. 2) Record your assumptions 3) Challenge the assumptions 4) Act on the challenge

Reverse your way out of the rut – try reversing the assumptions

When a work doesn't grab you, imagine reinventing it as if you're solving their rut.

Grooves

Flow states, that can last anytime from hours to years. Straightforward creative work to do that’s enjoyable. Cultivate mindfulness skill to be able to spot a groove without breaking it, if you want. Grooves usually happen after a breakthrough- because everything has aligned with the direction you’re breaking through, so there are no other obstacles to progress. And in a groove, you get the real reward of creation, because it’s fun.

The best place in the world

You know what you're doing and you feel like doing it.

You have perfect traction and a clear path.

Flow state, in the zone. Awareness of it can break it unless you build that skill too.

Usually preceded by a breakthrough idea, and can last for hours, days, weeks, months

Sometimes megagrooves that last years.

(My suspicion is that the breakthrough cause is because working in that rut got everything else lined up)

Grooves can come from the right people, timing, circumstance, subject, etc.

Grooves make creating fun

An “A” in Failure/Fail Faster

Fail faster doesn’t mean to do shoddy work - that’s just incompetence. To fail properly, you must be trying to succeed. If at all possible, identify and correct your failures in private, because that’s less painful than public failure. But even in public, rebound and keep moving; often you can do your best work after a failure. Common ways to fail: failure of skill. You can’t do it yet - so get cracking and learn those skills! Failure of concept - your idea doesn’t work. Recognize it, and abandon at least that implementation of the idea if not the whole idea. Fix it before proceeding. Failrue of judgement - you’re the subjective architect of what you’re making, so stick to your vision vs others’. Failure of nerve - don’t worry, creation is always a little foolish or embarrassing, it’ll turn out to be a good thing. Failure through repetition - creativity isn’t doing the same thing that’s been done, it’s doing new things. Just because it was innovative the first time doesn’t mean it’ll be so the second time. Failure from denial - denial is only useful to combat fears; not to correct flaws.

Failure is incredibly useful, particularly in private.

It allows you to remove the ideas that don't work.

You cannot fail through laziness – being sloppy is not failure. Failure only happens with sincere attempts at success.

Fail privately to try to avoid public failure.

When dealing with failure, rebound and keep moving, particularly for public failure.

Best work after biggest failures – you've learned and there's nowhere to go but up

Forget the pain of failure but remember what you learned from it.

Acknowledge the injury and get ready to continue.

Failure of skill: You can't pull off what you want to yet. Get to work and develop them.

Failure of concept – your idea doesn't work. Recognize it and abandon ship or replace the idea if it's early enough.

Failure of judgement – You left in what should have been cut or cut something necessary. Remember only you are going to be judged, not your advisors; stick to your guns.

Failure of nerve – just don't worry, looking foolish is good for you.

Failure through repetition – rehashing isn't creative. Doing the same thing over again isn't creating something new.

Failure from denial – Deny fears, not flaws.

The Long Run/Mastery

You won’t run out of creativity, the great masters just kept getting better their whole lives. It helps to create a restricted space- whether in “retreat” or “very busy” mode to create in, to avoid distractions. You’re working towards mastery - but feels like optimism, like a vaguely groovy feeling; you know how to do this and what to do. Because with a mastery of creativity, you can start with nothing and wind up with something and have fun doing it.

There is no inevitable petering out of talent – you can keep going with it and getting better as long as you like.

Creating in the bubble – set aside a time and space to work free of distraction.

Isolation from nonwork can come from being busy too.

Work towards mastery.

Mastery is elusive, but feels like optimism- you know how to do this.

It allows you to start with nothing, and end up with something.