I found this on my computer this morning. A coworker asked a bunch of us to write some advice for a friend of hers who was graduating and going into the creative/advertising business. This is what I wrote to her, but stumbling across it this morning, it was actually affirming to read it to myself.
You are already a creative person.
You already have the ability to create. The skill that you are going to learn to hone is the ability to recognize which ideas are your best ideas earlier in the creative process.
You are already a creative person.
I knew I was getting better at my job when I realized I wasn’t chasing dead end ideas any more. I didn’t have to sit and develop out every aspect of a script or ad before I realized it wasn’t going to work. That is when I learned that the creative process is actually that – a process.
You are already a creative person.
I don’t think I ever got exponentially better at having ideas. The ideas would always come. When I grew the most is when I could look objectively at my own work and not get emotionally attached to something I created. When I wasn’t afraid to throw something away just because I had spent time on it. Your best tool may become your eraser and that’s not a bad thing.
You are already a creative person.
Think of yourself as a dull pencil. Yeah…you can write and you can draw with a dull pencil, but over time, if you sharpen that pencil more and more, your lines will get crisper, your drawings will become clearer. Your creations will have more detail and ultimately connect on a deeper level. The good news is…
You are already a creative person.
You just have to start sharpening.
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You are already a creative person.
You already have the ability to create. The skill that you are going to learn to hone is the ability to recognize which ideas are your best ideas earlier in the creative process.
You are already a creative person.
I knew I was getting better at my job when I realized I wasn’t chasing dead end ideas any more. I didn’t have to sit and develop out every aspect of a script or ad before I realized it wasn’t going to work. That is when I learned that the creative process is actually that – a process.
You are already a creative person.
I don’t think I ever got exponentially better at having ideas. The ideas would always come. When I grew the most is when I could look objectively at my own work and not get emotionally attached to something I created. When I wasn’t afraid to throw something away just because I had spent time on it. Your best tool may become your eraser and that’s not a bad thing.
You are already a creative person.
Think of yourself as a dull pencil. Yeah…you can write and you can draw with a dull pencil, but over time, if you sharpen that pencil more and more, your lines will get crisper, your drawings will become clearer. Your creations will have more detail and ultimately connect on a deeper level. The good news is…
You are already a creative person.
You just have to start sharpening.
