Rec
⭐
like writing a song then rewriting it and changing almost everything about it. i think this is a great way to curb overthinking and get out of a creative block.
jeff tweedy has a quote in the wilco documentary about destroying and reconstructing his songs where he says, “there’s no reason at all not to destroy it. we made it so it’s ours to destroy, and that’s liberating and exciting in a really creative way”
everything you make doesn’t need to be precious or set in stone. it has helped me a lot recently to allow my art to be like clay that can be reshaped into anything it wants to be.
jeff tweedy has a quote in the wilco documentary about destroying and reconstructing his songs where he says, “there’s no reason at all not to destroy it. we made it so it’s ours to destroy, and that’s liberating and exciting in a really creative way”
everything you make doesn’t need to be precious or set in stone. it has helped me a lot recently to allow my art to be like clay that can be reshaped into anything it wants to be.
Jan 29, 2024
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Rec
➿Pull a joni mitchell and engage in arts that differ from your primary to inform it at a later time.
If you lean more toward visual arts try poetry, song writing, music making, acting/performances for the self, crochet, clay, claymation, videography, sound collection, whistling, discovering new sounds you can make etc.
Often when i want to create but i feel tired or uninspired i try to use still life or my surroundings— BUT If thats boring i ask myself a question and let my train of thought ramble -> connecting that rambling to my pen on paper
Honestly setting your inner critic to rest and creating things that are imperfect is actually incredible!
More often than not letting first drafts be final for a moment allows you to discover what you crave to create.
Rec
🤹If you are making art for yourself, you are playing, not working.
I like to really lean into this and do something completely unstructured either as a warm up or as a break while I’m working on a project. I like to do what I call “shit canvases” where I use up old supplies and garbage and what not. I layer things onto the canvas, building up some parts as I go, covering parts I don’t care about as much, maybe even ripping things off of it. I also so something on a smaller scale in my journal. Maybe I’ll start with a scribbled rant, or writing a few phrases down, and then I start to cover it with more words, or stickers, or I paint a little thing, or a sticky note, then more paint, then take the sticky note off. I have no end goal in mind, I’m just playing and seeing how things work together.
Make yourself let loose
6d ago
Rec
🏃setting a timer for ~20 minutes and just writing without stopping until the timer goes off is *really* good - because at the end of it you have a draft you can revise, which i think is easier and feels a lot more like making progress than emotionally preparing to write something you might not like.
dan harmon has this quote that i think was really helpful to getting me to see the value of just getting the reps in (without all the self-loathing):
*“My best advice about writer’s block is: the reason you’re having a hard time writing is because of a conflict between the GOAL of writing well and the FEAR of writing badly. By default, our instinct is to conquer the fear, but our feelings are much, much, less within our control than the goals we set, and since it’s the conflict BETWEEN the two forces blocking you, if you simply change your goal from “writing well” to “writing badly,” you will be a veritable fucking fountain of material…Prove it. It will go faster. And then, after you write something incredibly shitty in about six hours, it’s no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it.”*
dan harmon has this quote that i think was really helpful to getting me to see the value of just getting the reps in (without all the self-loathing):
*“My best advice about writer’s block is: the reason you’re having a hard time writing is because of a conflict between the GOAL of writing well and the FEAR of writing badly. By default, our instinct is to conquer the fear, but our feelings are much, much, less within our control than the goals we set, and since it’s the conflict BETWEEN the two forces blocking you, if you simply change your goal from “writing well” to “writing badly,” you will be a veritable fucking fountain of material…Prove it. It will go faster. And then, after you write something incredibly shitty in about six hours, it’s no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it.”*
