Archives: creating

Ducking What Matters

Last week’s post about whether mattering really matters or not stirred up a really interesting debate, both on here and also on my friend Chris Jones’ blog after he posted his thoughts in response.

One of my Twitter buddies also lead me down a really interesting thought pattern with his comment. He said

An audience of one is better than none

I totally agree with his point – at least in relation to filmmaking – but I also suggested that I sometimes count myself as an audience of one for my work.

As I’ve reflected over the weekend, it’s occurred to me that using myself is something of a cop out.

I’ve no problem with creating things in a vacuum and keeping them hidden from view – I like having space to experiment with filmmaking, writing, photography or any other artform I choose to challenge myself with – but it’s a lazy way out to say I’ve nade it for an audience of just myself.

One’s own self doesn’t not an audience make, and if I truly wanted to show things to an audience, I need to open myself up to that through wider dissemination of my work and not keeping it all safely tucked away.

I challenge myself to create more and share more with those around me, whether they be small, personal, family audiences, or a wider community of people in both my real and virtual lives.

Or, by contrast, to be happy creating in a vacuum just for me, but without trying to convince myself that it is anything but fear that’s holding me back from sharing it more widely.

How do you share your art? And how have you enabled yourself to open up to the big, scary world of feedback and criticism?

What Does It Mean To Create?

Yesterday I pledged myself to taking part in the Domino Project, Ralph Waldo Emerson-inspired #Trust30 project to create something new everyday.

As I headed to bed this evening, it occurred to me that I hadn’t written anything on the blog today. Sure, I busied myself with updating and catching up on The Indie Film Hub, which had also been hit by my minor health detour last week, but did that qualify under #Trust30 rules?

What is “creation” – how do we define it? How do I define it is probably the more pertinent question; the one thing we can safely say about all art and creativity is that it’s entirely subjective.

For me, this blog represents creation; the Hub represents curation, a very different thing. Even though I create new content to post every day, what I’m actually doing is curating the content I believe to be of value to other filmmakers and people who work in film. The content itself – the lessons, the examples, the information – is all created by the hugely talented people whose blogs, websites and newsletters I read every day.

So what is creation? For me, creation is about intent. Creation is about originating something that serves a purpose. It doesn’t have to be a higher purpose. It doesn’t even have to be a purpose that matters to anyone else. When I first started blogging, I wrote entirely for myself, to motivate me and to explore my life and my feelings. That’s a purpose. That’s creation.

By that definition, I suppose the Hub does represent that. So why doesn’t it feel that way?

What’s your definition of creation? Is it word-count, impact, intention? Or is it more ethereal, more intangible?

Get Productive By Getting Away and Disconnecting

In today’s world, it’s harder and harder to find anywhere that doesn’t have Wi-Fi access. Much to my surprise1, one of those places is the campus coffee shop of City University2, which has a connection so slow as to be pretty much useless.

Unfortunately for the new website I’m planning and prepping, it just wasn’t as viable a work option as I’d hoped. Instead, with no real ‘net access to speak of, I managed to write a rough draft of the first two thirds of my new eBook3.

I’ve been planning and meaning to write the book for the last couple of months, but something always gets in the way, whether it’s my own procrastination, a feeling of too little time or a simple perception of “writer’s block”.

Today, by getting away from my usual distractions and by having almost literally nothing else to do, I settled down, I focused and I ploughed through way more, way faster than I ever thought I would.

The next time you have something you really want to do but can’t seem to find the time, see what happens when you move yourself away from your usual workspace and take yourself to a place where you can’t be distracted by the usual things. Be it a park, a library or anywhere that doesn’t offer fast-as-lighting internet access, find the place that fits and see just how much you plough through.

I see many more days of internet-off writing ahead of me. Let me know what you think if you’ve tried it, or if you have your own tricks for getting super-productive.

  1. and, it turns out, my luck []
  2. where I accompanied my fiancée to calm her nerves before her exam today []
  3. which I have also now announced to the world, giving myself accountability and therefore less ability to avoid it, but more on that in a future post []